25 March 1988
Paris, France

Mother Duzan, Father Lloret and my dear Sisters,

Some fifty years ago G.K. Chesterton wrote a play entitled, The Surprise. In the first act of the play there are no actors on the stage, just puppets. The puppets do exactly what the author of the play wants them to do. The author is not satisfied, for he realizes that, since puppets are lifeless things, they are carrying out exactly what he, the author, wants them to do. They have no wills of their own. So in the second act real people appear on the stage with instructions from the author about the play. They are asked to do what the puppets have been doing in the first act. The actors, men and women, behave in ordinary human fashion. However, they put their own interpretation on the plot of the play and in doing so, ruin the drama. Then the author can stand it no longer. He cries out suddenly from the wings: "What do you think you are doing? Stop. I am coming down." At that point the curtain falls.

The play, The Surprise, is a parable on the history of salvation. At the Incarnation God invaded the stage of human history. In His love He came down in person to visit His people and to reveal His purposes. "Descendit de caelis, et incarnatus est de Spiritu Sancto ex Maria Virgine, et homo factus est."

God's play did not end with the coming down on the stage of the Author and Creator of the universe. The final curtain will not fall until the moment when Jesus Christ at the end of time will return to hand over His kingdom on earth to His Father and when, as St. Paul assures us, God will be all in all. In the meantime the play goes on. Each of us has his or her part to play under the direction of Christ, or rather under the direction of the Spirit of Christ Who lives in our hearts.

God's play did not end with the Incarnation. There were many more acts to follow after Mary had said to the Angel: "Be it done unto me according to your word." (Lk 1:38). You and I are part of the cast. You and I are on the stage with our parts to play for a little while. We may not feel that we have major parts in the drama of life and history. That does not greatly matter. What is important is how much attention we give and how close we remain to Him Who is the author and director of the drama. He is with us on the stage, for did He not say that He would remain with us always, even to the end of the world?

We could say that men and women who take vows promise to be particularly sensitive to Christ Who is, in St. Peter's words, "the shepherd and guardian of your souls". (1 Pt 2:25). Those who take vows in the Church are particularly intent on allowing Jesus Christ to write the script of their lives. He has assured us how to play our parts, for did He not say, "I am the way" (Jn 14:6) and again, "I have given you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you?" (Jn 13:15). Jesus Christ said also, when He was on the stage of life in Palestine, that "the Son of Man has not come to be served but to serve." (Mk 10:45). His life, from His entrance onto the stage in Bethlehem to His exit off the stage on the Cross of Golgotha, was marked deeply by obedience. He lived out His life, as He so often said, in obedience to His Father in heaven, and it is St. Luke who makes the point that for many years in Nazareth He was subject, or as the nuance of the word might suggest, regulated by Mary and Joseph in Nazareth. Jesus Christ passed before the audience that saw Him in Judea and Galilee as a man detached from what money could buy and distinguished by that freedom which comes from a pure and chaste heart.

It is by leading such a life that we will draw closer to Jesus Christ and through Him find our way to our Father's house, where He wishes us to pass our eternity. Has not Jesus Christ assured us that "I will take you to Myself, that where I am you also may be." (Jn 14:3).

The play is rightly entitled, The Surprise. The Old Testament built up hope among God's people for the coming of a Messiah. What a surprise it is for us, in opening the pages of the New Testament, to discover that the Messiah is none other than God Himself. What a surprise that a virgin, whose name was Mary, was asked to bear in her womb the eternal Word of God. As the drama of His life continued, one surprise followed another: the surprise that He showed such favor to the poor, the surprise of His miracles, the unpleasant surprise of His cruel death, and the joyful surprise of His resurrection.

The surprises still continue for us who are now playing our parts in the drama of life which is directed by the Spirit, Whom Jesus Christ sent us after His resurrection. Each day brings its surprises. Some are unpleasant and, of the unpleasant surprises we meet, many of them come from the flawed nature of the actors who share the stage with us, not to mention the flaws, the imperfection and the pride which lie so deep in our own characters. Had we but eyes of faith, we would see that each day we are being surprised by joy. What shall we say about the joy of His daily coming to us in the intimacy of Holy Communion? Perhaps we are tempted to say that this is not a surprise. If so, it means that we have come to take the Author of life for granted and, taking Him for granted, we take so much else that is good in life for granted. Is not your call to serve the poor in your vocation a surprise, seeing that so many others on the stage are so imprisoned in themselves that their hearts remain untouched by the sufferings of the poor whom you are serving?

Your vocation as a Daughter of Charity is one of God's surprises. Your unselfish service of the poor is for the poor themselves a surprise. Perhaps they will not express their surprise to you. Some of them will, as we ourselves do with God, take your goodness for granted. But take heart from the fact that you are, to quote St. Paul, "the good fragrance of Christ." (2 Cor 2:15). With Christ on the stage of life you are giving glory to His Father in heaven. You are rejoicing His Church on earth and you are bringing the joy of Christ onto the stage of human history. Through the joy and peace of Christ, which you are radiating in your daily offering of yourselves to Him Who is the author and director of your lives, you are mitigating the sadness of the tragedy that you encounter in the lives of so many people.

The greatest surprise is yet to come. We hope the final surprise at the end of our lives will be one of indescribable joy. It will be a surprise for us to discover a moment after our deaths the fullness of the truth that, when we visited the sick, when we clothed the naked, when we fed the hungry, when we visited the prisoners, we were serving the person of Christ Himself, the Son of God. When, after all selfish and unworthy tendencies will have been purified in us, there will be the surprise of joining that community of Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Who throughout eternity will rejoice our hearts and minds with the unending surprise of Their life and Their love.

On this day when we are celebrating the surprise of God's entry into human history, you, my dear Sisters, here in Paris and on all the continents of the world, have renewed your vows. For that, to quote St. Louise: "May God be blessed and eternally glorified for all the graces He bestows on His creatures, especially the graces bestowed on our little Company in general and on each of its members in particular." (Spiritual Writings of Louise de Marillac, ltr. 244, p. 280).