Walter Kasper rightly observed that the new recognition of the laity’s mission in the Church is not because of the shortage of priests and religious, nor because of the progress of democracy, illustrated for example by parish councils. These are important but external factors. Nor do they operate equally throughout theChristian world. The major shift in mentality towards laity is because of a clearer and deeper understanding of the nature of the Church and its mission. Struggling to find an answer to the question ’What should be the basic orientation of the Marist LayMovement today,’ that is of a movement which is both Marist and lay, it seemed sensible to look in the same place where the Church itself made its discoveries. That is at the nature of the Church and of its mission. This seemed to be the right procedure forColin himself habitually thought in terms of the Church. We have only to recall that famous saying which he said presided over the early days of the Society: ‘I was the support of the Church as it was being born, I will be its support again at the end of time’(ES, doc. 4-1).
The overriding orientation of a viable Marist lay movement is,I believe, to be found in that famous and teasing text where Colinsays: ’... in a certain sense, yes, we must begin a new Church.*The text holds in our history a place comparable ,to that held by anotable text in the history of Franciscan Order.” In the church ofSt Damien in Assisi a voice from the crucifix said to Francis: ’Go,Francis, and repair my house which, as you see, is falling intoruins.’1 The early Franciscans were not ignoramuses. Within a fewdecades they had produced a St Bonaventure. They knew aboutthe indefectibility of the Church which Christ had promised. Howthen could it be falling into ruins? But they had the imaginationto see past the surface difficulties to the power of the inspirationbehind them. A capacity to be inspired, the intellectual and imaginative freedom of true creativity, are qualities true initiators havealways had.
Let us look at our own text:
The Society must begin a new Church over again. I do notmean that in a literal sense, that would be blasphemy. Butstill, in a certain sense, yes, we must begin a new Church.The Society of Mary, like the Church, began with simple,poorly-educated men, but since then the Church has developed and encompassed everything. We too must gather together everyone through the Third Order - heretics alonemay not belong to it. (FS, doc. 120, § 1)
It is a very brief passage, too brief to allow Colin room for muchdevelopment. We have always known he was using prophetic language, not that of theological statement. And we have recognisedthat the language is cryptic and smacks of paradox. So many ofus would not use it key expressions when we feel our audienceis likely to misunderstand them. For them we would prefer tospeak of a new presence of Mary in the Church.
But the passage has always been important for us. Mayet gaveit prominence by apparently detaching it from a larger context. Aframed copy has hung for years in the council room of the general administration in Rome.
Let us look closely at the passage: ’THE SOCIETY MUST BEGINA NEW CHURCH OVER AGAIN.’
Colin begins with a statement about the future and at thesame time looks back to the beginning of the Church. The manwho said of his congregation: *We have no other model than theearly Church,’ always had in mind the Church of the first believers, the Church with Mary in its midst, the Church of the book ofActs. In one telling of the most characteristic of English myths,King Arthur is called ’the once and future king.’ New Church forColin meant the once and future Church.
’BEGIN ... OVER AGAIN.’ A fresh start, a new beginning wasnecessary. Already in the post-revolutionary France of 1846 Colinfelt something of that powerful impulse that would sweep throughthe Church during the Vatican council. That council recognisedthat the great crisis of modern times was the gap that had openedup between the Church and modern culture. The challenge was tofind ways of bridging that gap and, until that was done, ofshooting the gap. The council called for a new start based on thebeginnings, on the Gospel itself and the dynamism that animatedthe first Christians. They were to embark on the same aggiornamento as the Church itself by returning to the original inspirationof their founders.
Colin continues: ’I DO NOT MEAN THAT IN A LITERAL SENSE.THAT WOULD BE BLASPHEMY.’ In those days, apparently, there existed literal-minded Marists, and Colin had to protect himselfagainst misunderstanding. He knew perfectly well that Christ hadfounded His Church once and for all. He accepted without reservation that divine foundation, the centrality of Peter and his successors the popes, and the sources of grace such as the mass andthe sacraments. To reject that would, as he said, be blasphemy.Colin’s desire was that the Society yield to no one in its loyaltyto the pope. And he wanted the bishops to look on us as theirown, so devoted are we to be to the local Church. What he wascalling for was a return to that first beginning ’over again’. TheMarist vocation is to be a new and active presence of Mary.
When we look at the sequence of Colin’s thought in the passage we notice that first of all he lets the idea of a ’new Church’enter his mind. He reflects on it and makes the qualifications necessary to allay any uneasiness his mode of speaking might generate. Then he makes his important affirmation: ’IN A CERTAINSENSE, YES, WE MUST BEGIN A NEW CHURCH.’ The view of theChurch with which many of us grew up in pre-Vatican II timeswas univocal. Today we see the Church rather as mystery, as amany-splendoured reality, too deep to be reduced to any singleformulation. We are saved from reductionist thinking by the documents of Vatican II, by official post-conciliar texts, by thewritings of theologians like Karl Rahner, Walbert Buhlmann andAvery Dulles. The mystery of the Church continues to be explored by current theology and the pope has, as we shall see,made a notable contribution. More and more we realize that theChurch, like the Gospel, has the capacity to reveal its undyingfreshness to each generation. And Colin is proving to be a prophetic voice.
’THE SOCIETY OF MARY, LIKE THE CHURCH, BEGAN WITH SIMPLE, POORLY EDUCATED MEN, BUT SINCEREN THE CHURCH HASDEVELOPED AND ENCOMPASSED EVERYTHING. WE TOO MUST GATHERTOGETHER EVERYONE THROUGH THE THIRD ORDER - HERETICSALONE MAY NOT BELONG TO IT.’
Colin gives us one of the characteristics of the new Church hehas in mind. It is marked by a new evangelising initiative. Thattoo recalls the early Church and how, as the book of Acts relates,it spread. And precisely in the context of this new Church, thismissionary and evangelizing Church, Colin mentions the ThirdOrder. That is a clear indication of how he conceived it and whatdirection it should take. The Marist Lay Movement is to be seen asan evangelizing movement.
Colin's thought is not exhausted by a single text, not even bya cardinal text like the one under discussion. All his thought hasto be situated in the context of the whole Marist project he spenthis life contemplating and formulating. In that wider context whatis that 'certain Bense’ in which we must begin a new Church? Ishould like to draw your attention to a recent allocution of JohnPaul II to the cardinals and prelates of the Roman Curia.3
The pope recalled the great synthesis between mariology andecclesiology made by Vatican II. The Marian year, he said, followedthat synthesis and the inspiration of the council
So that the Church might be renewed everywhere throughthe medium of the presence of the Mother of God. As theFathers of the Church taught, she is the model (typos) ofthe Church. The council gave a luminous interpretation ofthis presence of the Virgin in the divine plan of salvation.
The incarnation lives on in the mystery of the Church and onecannot think of the incarnation without thinking of Mary themother of the incarnate Word. The virgin Mary is the archetype ofthe Church because of her divine maternity, and like Mary theChurch is both mother and virgin. In a striking phrase the popesaid the Church lives by an authentic profilo mariano, by a di¬mensione mariana. That could be translated as Marian profile,Marian image, Marian face, Marian dimension. To develop his meaning, the pope quoted Vatican Il’s synthesis of the theology of Eastand West.
I would argue that for Marists to help bring about a newChurch would be to focus on the Marian dimension, on a Churchwith a Marian face and the compassionate heart of a mother. Thatwould be to bring out from the Church’s inner resources a newfreshness, a graciousness that would help to bridge the gap be¬tween the Church and our contemporaries. To characterise thatgap summarily I have only to quote from one of the greatest ofcontemporary English novelists, V. S. Naipaul ’Many of our con¬temporaries see the Church as locked into a restrictive frameworkand the more they see it like that the more it becomes an objectthat can be rejected.’
John Paul II affirmed that the Marian profile of the Church isat least as fundamental and characteristic as the apostolic andPetrine profile. The three-fold function of Peter and the apostles,to teach, to sanctify, and to govern íb directed at forming theChurch in that ideal of holiness which has already been achievedand prefigured by Mary. In the cenacle she supported Peter andthe other apostles by praying with them and for them as theywaited for the Holy Spirit.
In a passage precious for Marists the Pope wrote:
This bond between the two profiles of the Church, theMarian and the Petrine is therefore close, deep, and complementary; the Marian profile is even first in the designs ofGod as it is in time, not to mention in profundity and pre¬eminence. And it is richer in personal and communitarianimplications for each vocation in the Church.
The Petrine dimension of the Church is the reason Colin chose asthe third goal of the Society of Mary to ’hold more loyally to theRoman Catholic faith until death and defend it with all theirstrength.’ The Marian dimension of the Church is the basis of hisdevotion to Mary.
I believe the passage signposts the way the whole Society,including the Marist laity, should go. The challenge for us asMarists is to draw out and live in our personal and communitylives the rich possibilities the pope suggested are to be found inthe Marian dimension of the Church. Colin did this for his time.We must do it for ours. Today we are called in a special way tothat exploration in partnership with the laity. I was very struckduring the general chapter by a contribution of one of the Dutchdelegates, Jan Hulshof, I fancy. He said that if we had asked Colinwhat we should do in the midst of the difficulties with which wewere wrestling he would have replied: ’It is your Church. It’syour time.’ We inherit a great tradition, but we need always toremind ourselves that the Colinian inheritance is not somethingstatic. It is something dynamic. Colin is not a man of yesterday.He is a man of tomorrow.
It was a memorable moment in Marist history when CardinalCastracane said laughingly to Colin: ’But the whole world will beMarist, then?’ And Colin replied: ’Oh yes, Eminence, you yourselfcould be, and the Pope himself; he will be our head’ (FS, doc. 189,§2). Yesterday’s dreams are today’s realities. After reminding theRoman Curia of the services they do for the pope in his Petrinecapacity, John Paul II said that
what is most necessary and indispensable is to preserve andconfirm the Marian dimension of (your) service to Peter.Mary goes before each of us in the Curia, fts we serve themystery of the Word-Incarnate, just as she 'goes before thewhole Church for which we live. May she help us to discov¬er always better and to live always more authentically therichness which for us, I would go as far as to say (atareiper dire), is vital, decisive; may she help us to situateourselves consciously in this symbiosis between the Marianand that apostolic-Petrine dimension from which the Churchdaily draws orientation and support.
This approach to Mary allows us as Marists to realise in our livesMary’s promise: ’I was the support of the Church at the beginning, I will be so at the end of time.’This approach to Mary allows us as Marists to realise in our livesMary’s promise: ’I was the support of the Church at the beginning, I will be so at the end of time.’
In a special reference to the laity in their earthly pilgrimagethe pope said:
In this pilgrimage it is again Mary who has always precededher Son and daughters in their task of ’seeking the kingdom of God by treating the things of this world andordering them according to the divine plan’ in the spirit ofthe beatitudes (Lumen gentium, 31). This Marian presence inthe mission of the laity, in their pilgrimage of faith, is whatdefines lucidly the meaning of this great event.
Doesn’t this statement match beautifully what Colin wanted from his Marists, religious and lay, when he wrote in the openingnumber of his 1872 Constitutions:
Keeping before their mind’s eye this lovable Queen of angelsand of men, fired by the example of so great a leader andrenewed by her merits and prayers, they may by the helpof God’s grace spend themselves both for their own perfection and for the salvation of their neighbour...
When those seventy disciples returned from their first mission,Jesus prayed to His Father: ’I bless you, Father, Lord of heavenand earth, for hiding these things from the learned and theclever and revealing them to mere children. Yes, Father, for thatis what it pleased you to do* (Lk 10:21).
The Kingdom has to be revealed, and the revelation is gratuitous. It is hidden from those whose eyes and hearts are closed.In Christian history certain men and women were chosen to understand the mysteries of the Kingdom more deeply and enabled tocommunicate their insights to others. The founders of religiouscongregations are par excellence such people. So when we ask thefundamental question ’What should be the overriding orientation ofthe Mari8t Lay Movement today,’ we look to Jean-Claude Colin. Ihave suggested we will find it in that famous text ’In a certainsense, yes, we must begin a new Church.’ I have also suggestedthat, though the insight was authentic, in 1846 the theologicallanguage to express it was not available. Today as I have shown itis available.
Colin’s way of thinking, his vision of a new Church in theimage of Mary, will help us to discover contemporary meaning forthe Marist vocation. At this moment of our history I believe it tobe its essential meaning. We are delighted when the pope speaksof the Church being renewed everywhere through the medium ofMary. He had in mind Mary as exemplar. Following Colin we wouldgo further. Our contribution to the renewal is to strive to be aliving and breathing presence of Mary. And the Church has ap¬proved our vision by approving our constitutions. When we hearthe pope say that the Church finds day by day direction andstrength from the synthesis of the Marian and the apostolic-Petrine dimension; when we hear him pray that Mary may help usto discover how to live more authentically the richness of themystery of the Word, as Marists we listen attentively. And whenhe describes this discovery as vital and decisive for thosecharged with the heavy responsibilities of the Curia, we realisethat the deepest aspirations of the contemporary Church are precisely the aspirations the Society of Mary was founded to meet.Those aspirations concern the nature of the Church and the imageit presents to the world. It concerns Mary’s place in the historyof all our salvations, and it concerns a particular mode of evangelisation.
Our call is to be a living presence of Mary in the world of ourtime, to enable the Marian face, the Marian dimension of theChurch to emerge in a new and decisive fashion. That would haveimmense consequences for the world we serve. We have only torecall the impact made against all the odds by John XXIII. A con¬temporary theologian, Herbert Richardson, in a pioneering articleon the Petrine and Marian dimensions of the Church, said that fora brief moment the Marian Church was realised in John.5 ThatChurch had immense evangelising power. Even Nikita Kruschev inthe Kremlin, relentless persecutor of religion though he was, con¬ceded: ’I am not a Catholic, but I have a great respect for thisPope John.’
We must never underestimate the power of Mary’s presence inthe Church. Last year I heard several lectures in spirituality inthe Roman universities speaking on the contemporary Church.Usually the climax of the lecture was Mary model of the Church. Iwill share two impressions. Almost always Mary was presented, asshe usually is today, as exemplar, as the first and most perfectdisciple of Jesus, which she is. But once we focus on Mary asexemplar, we become aware of how far we fall short of her example. We realise we need her help. Today many of us are verystrong on ’fired by the example of so great a leader* as Colin putit. And from what has been said we have good reason to be. Butsometimes we are not so strong on the next, part of the Coliniantext: ’renewed by her merits and prayers.’ “We focus on Mary onearth, we are wary of talking about Mary in heaven. Yet Lumengentium, Chapter 61 says of her:
Taken up to heaven she did not lay aside this saving office,but by her manifold intercession continues to bring us thegifts of eternal salvation. By her maternal charity, she caresfor the brothers and sisters of her Son who still journey onearth surrounded by dangers and difficulties, until they areled into their blessed home.
Our prayers become really powerful when they are joined to hers.
Mary is the one of whom two stories have to be told. She isthe maiden from Nazareth, and she is the lovable Queen of angelsand of men. Older groups especially have much to contribute tothe Marist Lay Movement by their prayers.
The second impression I had in Rome was that when the lecturers came to the idea of a Marian Church the springs dried upvery quickly. I realized Colin could say what they were unable tosay, and that as Marists we are bearers of a special gift to thecontemporary Church. But we must be men and women of conviction, not latter-day Hamlets caught in the no-man’s land betweenthinking and action. The wonderful movement which Mary has entrusted to you and me like a bridge to go to sinners will neverbe built unless we have deep Marist convictions. In his autobiography Ways of Escape Graham Greene wrote of a political crisisin Kenya: ’Indecision ruled the Government before the Emergencyand it ruled the Emergency, because it is part of the modernmind. We have lost the power of clear action because we havelost the ability to believe.* What we need today are Marists withthe capacity to believe. We need Marist evangelizers like thosePaul VI called for in the final paragraph of Evangelii Nuntiandi:
May the world of our time, which is searching, sometimeswith anguish, sometimes with hope, be enabled to receivethe Good News, not from evangelizers who are dejected, im¬patient or anxious, but from ministers of the Gospel whoselives glow with fervour, who have first received the joy ofChrist, and who are willing to risk their lives so that theKingdom may be proclaimed and the Church established inthe midst of the world.
’Risking one’s life’ is much more demanding than exposing oneselfto physical danger. It is that bigger risk we share with the firstMarists, with Pascal in the mood of his wager, with believerseverywhere, the risk of spending our lives and devoting all ourenergies to living and preaching the Good News because, howeverobscurely we understand it, we believe it to be true.
’THE SOCIETY OF MARY, LIKE THE CHURCH, BEGAN WITH SIMPLE, POORLY EDUCATED MEN, BUT SINCEREN THE CHURCH HASDEVELOPED AND ENCOMPASSED EVERYTHING. WE TOO MUST GATHERTOGETHER EVERYONE THROUGH THE THIRD ORDER - HERETICSALONE MAY NOT BELONG TO IT.’
The incarnation lives on in the mystery of the Church and onecannot think of the incarnation without thinking of Mary themother of the incarnate Word. The virgin Mary is the archetype ofthe Church because of her divine maternity, and like Mary theChurch is both mother and virgin. In a striking phrase the popesaid the Church lives by an authentic profilo mariano, by a di¬mensione mariana. That could be translated as Marian profile,Marian image, Marian face, Marian dimension. To develop his meaning, the pope quoted Vatican Il’s synthesis of the theology of Eastand West.
(Audio Available)
