1 February 1986
To Each Confrere

My dear Confrere,

May the grace of Our Lord Jesus Christ be with us forever!

It was Advent when I last wrote to you, and at that time the Synod of Bishops was meeting here in Rome. Since then the final report of that meeting has been published and I would like to focus your mind on one of the ideas that the Pope and the Bishops of the Synod proposed for our reflection. The entire document merits more than one reading, for not only is it profound, but it is very delicately nuanced. The document emphasizes for us certain truths which in the course of these past few years may have suffered a certain eclipse in our minds. One such truth is the theology of the cross. Let me quote a few significant sentences from the document: "We assert the great importance and great actuality of the Pastoral Constitution `Gaudium et Spes.' At the same time we are aware that the signs of the times now are somewhat different than those existing at the time of the Council, with an increase of problems and pains....In today's difficulties it seems to us that God wants us to teach at a deeper level the value, importance and centrality of the cross of Jesus Christ."

If we in the Congregation are to teach "at a deeper level the value, importance and centrality of the cross of Jesus Christ," we ourselves must study what St. Paul calls "the language of the cross." (1 Cor 1:18). During these days of Lent we could set ourselves the task to revise the grammar of that language of the cross. The study will take us past the contemplation of the physical sufferings of Christ and deep into the mental attitude adopted by Jesus Christ throughout His experience of His trial and His sufferings and death on the cross. "Let this mind be in you," wrote St. Paul, "which was also in Christ Jesus." (Phil 2:5). Into that mind St. Paul plunged and, when he did so, he came face to face with the humility and obedience of Jesus Christ. "He emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant.... He humbled Himself, becoming obedient unto death, even to the death of the cross." (Ibid. 7:8). As Christians and as men with a vow of obedience, we have accepted the invitation of Christ to share His experience of being humble and obedient. For Jesus Christ the test of His humility was an acceptance of being called into question, and His obedience was an intense desire not to have His own way. Can it be different for us? Do the people, we may ask, to whom we preach the cross and resurrection of Christ, see us as humble and obedient men? Each one of us can make and apply to his own life this reflection of the Synod: "The Church becomes more credible if it speaks less about itself and more and more preaches Christ crucified (cf. 1 Cor 2:2) and witnesses to him by its life."

Now let me speak to you of our forthcoming General Assembly. It will commence, as you know, on the 18 June. St. Vincent has remarked: "If we persevere in our vocation, it is thanks to prayer. If we have success in our tasks, it is thanks to prayer. If we do not fall into sin, it is thanks to prayer. If we remain in charity and save our souls, all this is thanks to God and to prayer." (Coste XI, Fr. ed., p. 407).

To these words of St. Vincent we could add: "and if our General Assembly is a success, it will be thanks to prayer."

Let me make a suggestion to you. In the Ordo of the Congregation you will notice that the feast of Corpus Christi is celebrated on the 29 May and the feast of the Visitation of Our Lady on the 31 May. I ask each local community to set aside some special period of time during these three days when the community will gather before Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament and ask Him to plead with His Father, "from Whom all good things come" (Mt 7:11), to bless our Assembly with an abundance of graces. Likewise, I would ask each community to commend in some special act of devotion our Assembly to the intercession of Mary, the Mother of God and Mediatrix of graces. For, as St. Vincent remarked: "Every time the Mother of God is invoked and taken as Patroness in matters of importance, it is impossible that things will not go well, impossible, too, that they will not redound to the glory of Jesus, her Son." (Coste XIV, Fr. ed., note p. 126).

It is my conviction that the Congregation will progress more securely on the path of its renewal and adaptation to serving the needs of the Church and the poor today, when it deepens its devotion to the presence of Christ in the Eucharist and to Mary, the Mother of God and Mother of the Church.