When we look back into the history of the Marist beginnings, it is a miracle that the Society ever came into being at all, given the people, the circumstances, everything. In no. 33 of his Postulatum, Cozon throws light on this point; he says: only a Founder could have had such an idea, and we should believe that God inspired him to have this idea because he is our Founder It is because we have believed this that we have come together.1 Given the times he lived in and his dilemma of harmonising his prophetic vision of the mission of the Society with the institutionalised triumphalist nineteenth century Church, complicated by Gallicanism in the French Church, the Marist Founder could do no more! What he accomplished is quite phenomenal, especially in his last years, when he completed the Fathers, Sisters and Lay Confraternitys Constitutions and passed his ideas on to Cozon to complete the Christians Spiritual Exercises for the Lay Branch. John Thornhills comment sums it up so well:
Colins ultimate greatness probably consists in the fact that he never turned his back on his prophetic vision, convinced that it was authentic and of great importance in the life of the Church.
Colin left us with much, much more than a Society of Mary with Religious and Lay Branches; he gave us an eschatological vision of a Marian Church unlimited in space or time, that is, global cosmic in scope. Our challenge today in this post-Vatican II Church is to live and make this vision real to ourselves and Gods people in this secularised and technologicallyorientedworld. Because it is an eternal vision, the future is assured. So, if we are faithful to it, what have we to fear?
Let us conclude with another true story of how God can use Marists today in ways that coincide with McKays four principles for action, quoted at the beginning of this paper. I think it shows that the Marist laity is a manifestation of the intrinsic dynamism of the Society and co-extensive with it; it shows evangelisation to unbelievers by the just, ecumenism and a real communion in mission in the Marist family.
This is the story of Robert (not his real name), a rationalist Polish Jew, with degrees in engineering from Louvain University in Belgium. During World War II, his father died in the Warsaw ghetto and his mother and all of his family, except one sister, perished in the gas chambers of Auschwitz. He was taken prisoner by the Russians and sent to work building the big industrial cities in Siberia. After the war he migrated to Australia. His brilliant engineering skills enabled him to build up a prosperous business. Because of the hardships in Siberia, he contracted severe kidney disease and was on dialysis. We met Robert in a government hospital, where he came regularly for treatment. For six months he never spoke when we greeted him, but one day he said to one of the Marists visiting him, Will I go to hell? She replied, Why would that happen, Robert? You are a good man!
From then on we became his friends. He loved Russian literature and classical music and often said that, on the whole, the Russians had treated him reasonably, compared to the terrible sufferings of his family under the Nazis.
One day he accepted a miraculous medal of Mary from us with thanks, althoughhe told us he believed in nothing. He had two supportive friends, a Catholic lady and her Jewish husband, but when they went on an overseas trip, he was left with no-one. So the lay Marists and a Marist Sister gave him support and help; they lent him classical tapes, including St Matthew Passion by Bach, conducted by the great German musician, von Karajan. Robert was admitted to hospital again and, on Our Ladys birthday, we gave him an icon of Mary as a present and we noticed he always kept it and the medal beside him. The Marist sister went away interstate and, on the day she returned, the hospital rang to say Robert had had to cease dialysis that meant he would die. Generally it takes four to five days. He was very ill and was asking for his Marist friends. We went straight to the hospital. His Catholic friend was there with him. He asked for a blessing, saying, Jesus is the one I believe in He will bring me peace. His Catholic friend said, He wants to become a Christian. Without hesitation, the sister took the jug of water by the bedside and baptised him. He was overjoyed! In his happiness he took the icon and kissed it.
We Marists left the hospital after praying with him and wondered why we had acted so quickly. It was as if the left hand did not know what the right hand was doing! The Marist sister said we would speak to the parish priest about it at Mass the next day, as it was now 6pm. At 7pm, the hospital rang and told us that Robert was in a coma. He never regained consciousness and died early the next morning.
He was only one of millions of Roberts in this world. We fall silent before this unfathomable something Gods mysterious love working in that soul through the delicate interventions of Mary and her Marist family to bring an unbeliever to God.
So daily we Marists set out, again and again, living in the memory of what our Founder Colin was and what he and those who began with him Chavoin, Champagnat, Perroton and the Pioneers, and all the others have given us. We start with Mary and the Apostles as the Church comes into being. The exhortation to be one heart and one soul means that, in so many diverse ways, we strive to blend both profiles of Church, Marian and Petrine, in a harmonious tension as we move towards the global eschatological vision: the whole world Marist.
It is not a dream. It belongs to everyone, for it is eternal, our heritage, the mission given to us by Marys gracious choice. She, our life, our sweetness and our hope, shows us how to hope beyond all hope, and thus we and those who come after us can give hope to all generations.
Colins ultimate greatness probably consists in the fact that he never turned his back on his prophetic vision, convinced that it was authentic and of great importance in the life of the Church.
