Rome, Italy, January 1, 2018.
Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God
“United in Christ…as a distinct Religious Family”
Constitutions, 92
Dear Priests, Brothers, Seminarians, and Novices,
“In the name of Christ, we desire to be a Religious Family […]so that we can love each other as sons of the same Father, brothers of the same Son, and temples of the same Holy Spirit, forming one heart and soul.” With this beautiful declaration, our Constitutions—following the teachings of the Second Vatican Council and enlightened of the Gospel—make manifest that community life is an essential element for our consecration to God within our beloved Institute. Furthermore, throughout our entire proper law, it is clear that an intense community life is a most fundamental observance for the proper functioning of our religious life and for a valid organization of our apostolates.
Therefore, “fraternal life in community is a distinctive note of our Institute,” not because it is something new within the Church, but because that which makes it unique—qualitatively speaking—is our way of living community life, that is, as a family.
As consecrated persons and members of the Institute, we want to give primacy to the love of God, and as such, we cannot but dedicate ourselves as well to love with a particular generosity our brothers within the Institute. Sure, Christ has called each of us individually, but, he has called us to form a family, the Religious Family of the Incarnate Word. Therefore, “our following of Christ is lived out in fraternity.”
Our way does not mean being together with many other people, as if we were a study group, an assembly, or as a bunch of military recruits. We are really and truly a family, solidly founded in the Incarnate Word, “for no one can lay any other foundation than Christ, the Rock.” This means that, before all else, we are brothers reunited in the name of Christ to fulfill with utmost fidelity that which the Incarnate Word has commanded of us: that of loving one another as He has loved us. And our bond as brothers in the Incarnate Word, which is spiritual, though not for that reason any less real, transforms our community life in “a prophetic sign and a sign of the fraternity of the Church, and as such, is entirely apostolic.” For fraternal communion is in itself apostolic: in other words, it directly contributes to evangelization.
Such that just as “a family is a community of persons in love, a communion in love, so our houses should be communities of charity, to the extent that one can say that in them it is Christ that lives.”
“Community life”, Saint John Paul II said, “has its foundation not in a human friendship, but in a vocation from God, who has freely chosen you to form a new family whose end is the fullness of charity, and whose expression is the observance of the evangelical counsels”. Therefore, we say in clear concordance with the teachings of Saint John Paul II that we consecrate ourselves “totally to God as our supreme Love,” with the end of “the perfection of charity […] to which we are led by the profession of the evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity, and obedience.”
Hence, the bond that unites us within the Religious Family of the Incarnate Word comes from the same call and the common desire—notwithstanding differences of race and origin, language and culture—to be obedient to that call as, indeed, already occurs in several of our communities.
In fact, since our Religious Family has been blessed with members from over 50 nationalities and all 5 continents, we should, with gratitude to God, recognize the gift that this multiculturality is to our communities, as rooted in the charism of the Institute and in accord with the intentions of our Founder. For, diversity without division and unity without regimentation are a richness and a challenge that have helped the growth of our Institute. For, in my opinión, this has allowed us—although we still need growth in this aspect—to offer original and generous options for the different needs in the missions and it has given a greater efficacy to our apostolic activity. Simply, because, “charity […] brings all differences into harmony and imbues them all with the strength of mutual support in the apostolic effort”.
And so, at the beginning of this new year, which is always a time of evaluation and a time to make magnanimous resolutions for the year that is beginning, I would like to dedicate this circular letter to deal with another one of the non-negotiable elements of the charism of the Institute, which is precisely “an intense community life.” For, as the Chapter Fathers in the Seventh General Chapter clearly pointed out, it is within “quality community life [in addition to the spiritual life] where we find the strength to carry out objectively difficult apostolates.”
1. Elements of a genuine community life
Saint John Paul II once said to religious: “The elements of a genuine Community life are the superior, who hold the place of God, and who should exercise their authority out of a spirit of service; the rules and traditions which are laid out by each religious family; and finally the Eucharist, which is the beginning of every Christian community […] for this reason, the center of our community life must not be anything other than Jesus in the Eucharist.”
Therefore, although in a very brief way, I would like to describe these three elements according to our proper law, which is a patent manifestation of the magisterium of Pope Wojtyla, and which, in a certain way, will serve as the base for what we will say further on.
– The superior: “fraternity is not only the fruit of human efforts, but also, and above all, a gift from God; a gift which demands obedience to the Word of God, and in religious life, also to authority, which reminds us of that Word and applies it to concrete situations, according to the spirit of the Institute. In religious communities, the superior is also placed at the service of the community, for its edification and the carrying out of its spiritual and apostolic ends. Authority, in the light of the Gospel, is always a service: ‘Not so much to command, as to serve.”
– The rules and traditions: “The foundation of unity is the communion in Christ established by the distinct foundational charism.” “Fraternal life truly shows that we are united in Christ: You are all one in Christ Jesus, as a distinct Religious Family. Fraternal life must exist so as to become a mutual help in fulfilling each member’s personal vocation.” Now, this vocation implies, as we have already said, “achieving the perfection of charity. But such an end can only be achieved within the specific framework of one’s proper Institute.” Therefore, it is imperative that “all faithfully observe the will and intentions of the founder, corroborated by the competent ecclesial authority, regarding the nature, end, spirit, and character of the Institute, as well as its good traditions, all of which constitute the patrimony of the Institute.” The charism of the Institute, embodied in the Constitutions and the entire proper law, is also that which directs and marks the growth in our community life.
– The Eucharist: “the perpetuation of the sacrifice of the Cross, in which we will always find the deepest foundation of our unity as a Religious Family.” “The conviction that community is built up starting with the Liturgy, above all in the Eucharist, must not be weakened in anybody,” because it is “the irreplaceable and animating center…of every religious community.” For this reason, our proper law exhorts the priests of the Institute to “concelebrate with the greatest frequency possible”—except in the cases of pastoral commitments—and to seek out “a time in the day for community Eucharistic Adoration.”
2. Agreeing with one another
The Angelic Doctor says: “The Church is one… by the unity of charity, since all are united in loving God, and bound to one another in mutual love.”
And so, the Spiritual Father of our Religious Family once said: “Work in such a way so that, that which the Church is on the general level, might come to realization within each of your communities: know how to promote your communities the cohesion of life by which the many who are gathered there, might be rooted in charity, so as to have a ‘unity of mind and heart directed towards God.’”.
In keeping with this, our proper law develops on this topic of unity—of agreement among us—upon speaking of the unicity of the Church, to the extent of affirming that we “must be a ‘domestic church.’” There, it starts by saying: “We aspire, according to the words of Saint Paul, to agree with one another in the Lord.” By this, one must understand the complete, constant, and unchanging union, which there should be among us. Therefore, the soul of this family spirit which characterizes community life within our dear Institute is that of charity, which is the soul of the Family of God, which is the Church, and the soul of each authentic human family.
In such a way that we can say that our fraternal life is none other than a radical response to the exhortation of Saint Paul to the Philippians: Make your own the mind of Christ Jesus, sentiments which the apostle to the gentiles describes magnificently in his hymn to charity and which our Constitutions cite extensively to teach us in which way “fraternal charity should be lived” within our Institute.
Let us understand well that one heart and one soul “does not mean uniformity, monolithism, abasement, but rather profound communion in a mutual comprehension and reciprocal respect.”. We have been taught to be formed in freedom: “Absolutely nothing is gained by forming clones. Forming in ‘series’ is a disgrace, a lack of respect for the dignity of the human person and it is a lack of respect to the dignity that each religious man and woman should receive.”
“This unanimity or concordance we seek,” our proper law explains “means unity in the judgment of reason about what must be done and unity in the will so that all may want the same thing. This concordance is born of the same faith by which we know what must be done, and from charity by which we all love the same goods and share the same burdens like good soldiers of Jesus Christ.” In fact, how consoling is it to see this unanimity—testified by the people themselves—in so many of our missions, in recognizing within our members—whatever their nationality, office, age, etc, may be—the very “style of the Incarnate Word,” because they recognize that the same spirit urges us on and we act with an identical valuing of things, which is the primacy and weight of eternity over all temporal reality,” “of God over the world, grace over nature, faith over reason.” And, it is by this fidelity to God, love for the Church, for our Institute and for the vocation we have received, that we want to always remain unswerving in the charism which has united us and in all its non-negotiable elements.
Having understood unity as a feeling and acting with “a single spirit,” it is clear that, on the one hand this “supposes that each member of our Religious Family not only rejoices with the good he possesses, but also that each tends unceasingly towards a greater perfection,” and on the other hand, it “presumes that everyone casts aside everything that impedes or distorts this unanimity of agreement.”
For this reason, I think that the words which Blessed Paolo Manna directed to his missionaries are also applicable to us here: “Let us propose, then, to work united and in perfect concord in the place which obedience has assigned us. Let us not forget that our Institute represents one of the glorious squadrons of the Church. As soldiers of this seasoned army, we should march united and well ordered as a trained army ready to go to battle.. If we do not have one spirit, if each one would like to work according to his taste, if we are not ever obedient to the orders of our generals, if we become dispersed, we will be weak, and we will attain defeats rather tan victories. The vocations lost in all the Institutes due to lack of a spirit of obedience and of fraternal unity constitute a sad proof of this: Their heart is false! Now they will pay for their guilt.. Will we remain united? We will save souls, we will build up the Church, and victory will always be ours. A brother who is helped by another is as a fortified city.”
This is the case because, although community life is truly the greatest penance, it is also certain that “one-man-plus-one-man equals two thousand. One man along with another grows in courage and strength; his fear disappears, and he escapes from any trap.” And for this reason, our proper law goes on to say that “the beauty and riches of fraternal life in common are much greater than the difficulties that it entails.”
This community life which we are all called to construct—and from which none can shrink away—is a demand which is ever more valid in so far as our apostolic commitments grow and the internationality of our communities increases, all of which certainly implies a way of the cross, which supposes frequent self-denial, in a personal asceticism. For, no one can deny that “the practice of fraternal love in Community life demands great effort and sacrifice, and it requires much generosity as does the practice of the evangelical counsels.”. For, it implies a look of supernatural love towards each of our brothers, welcoming them as they are, without judging them, accepting the different ways of acting, and cultural differences, overcoming on a daily basis one’s own limits and forgiving even seventy times seven. We must always keep in mind that which the Directory of Fraternal Life in Community warns us, in a fatherly fashion, when it says that one must “disillusion oneself [and accept] that the perfect, ‘ideal community’ does not exist yet; it will exist in Heaven. Here, we build up upon human weakness. It is always possible to improve and to walk together towards the type of community which knows how to live pardon and love. Unity should be established at the price of reconciliation. The situation of imperfection in one’s community should not dishearten us.”
Life in community, then, ask of us the practice of a wide spread of human virtues, and evidently, the theological virtues; capacity for communication and for dialogue, of bringing about participation in common projects and interests, the ability of working together, keeping one’s word, having true compassion, being coherent, and in particular, having well-balanced judgment and conduct.
So as to live well an intense community life, our proper law makes two recommendations for us: love one another with mutual affection; anticipate one another in showing honor and bear one another’s burdens. On the one hand, “the mutual appreciation is an expression of reciprocal love, which is opposed to the tendency, so widespread, to severely judge and criticize one’s neighbor.”. On the other hand, “bearing one another’s burdens means taking on with great benevolence the defects, whether true or apparent, of others, even when they bother us, and to willingly accept all the sacrifices that are included in living with others whose mentality and temperament are not in total accord with our way of seeing and of judging things.”
Fraternal life in community, thus lived, brings together with it many benefits on a personal level. Among many others that we could mention, I simply point out: the reciprocal attention which helps us to overcome solitude, communication which favors each one feeling responsible in a common way, encouragement in suffering, our hope is nourished to face the future with serenity, and it becomes, definitively and without a doubt, a safeguard and source of support for fidelity to our religious vows. But we must also mention that an intense community life brings about countless good for the entire Institute: because by the quality of fraternal life lived in community that one can measure the well-being of the Institute, by which our apostolic efforts—our strength—is immeasurably multiplied, redounding in the good of souls.
All that has been mentioned so far, clearly, tells us that it “also presumes that everyone casts aside everything that impedes or distorts this unanimity of agreement. The first thing we must cast aside is pride, a pride that drives us to inordinately seek our own excellence, and to refuse to submit to others or to recognize their excellence. Pride produces discord: By insolence the heedless make strife.”
For this very reason, it is imperative that in our communities, we seek to live with dauntless effort that which is “the essence of the Kingdom that Jesus Christ came to inaugurate on earth: The Kingdom of God is…righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, which are identified with holiness.” When these are lacking, as Saint Pius X said, corruption will inevitably find its way.
Other obstacles for unity in our communities which are specifically mentioned in our proper law are:
– “the presumption of wisdom, thinking oneself to be self-sufficient, thereby refusing other’s teachings,” and who, upon avoiding correction, becomes an inadequate subject for the mission;
– murmuring—“a serious fault for the community where it is lived”—which is an offense to charity and an attempt against the justice which we earlier mentioned as an essential part of the Kingdom of Christ, and to those work towards it, our proper law calls them, “religious with a ‘bad tongue’…because they impede silence, devotion, concord, union, and the quiet of others.”
– “‘duplicity of spirit’ proper of those who mischievously seek ‘superiors’ of their own liking instead of obeying their legitimate superior, in order to be judged according to a principle that does not belong to the community. They destroy the spirit of communion when they uphold an inauthentic principle of unity, and thus begin to see everything upside-down: to have the same regard is obsequiousness; discerning together is injustice; charity is weakness; exercising authority is self-worship; trusting in Divine Providence is imprudence; justice is hardness; obedience is slavery; if anyone becomes the father, it is because he is considered equal to or more than God; eutrapelia is slackening; virginity of heart is impossible; firmness is intolerance, and flexibility is compromise; saying the truth is lying; doing good is bad. Someone with a contrary spirit becomes sad when the community is happy, and happy when the community is sad.”
– the “spirit of opposition” which forms groups that oppose everything ordered by the superior.
– the “solitary spirit” who behaves as if he is all on his own, as a self-sufficient ‘nomad’;
-and, lastly, the powerful attraction which some ecclesial movements exercise over some religious, who had established ties to these movements could be the occasion of a psychological distancing from one’s own Institute, creating an interior division: they reside in the community, but live according to the pastoral projects and the directives of these movements.
Clearly, none of this belongs to the identity and family spirit of our beloved Institute of the Incarnate Word. Because “we do not want our Religious Family to be guided by any spirit other than the Holy Spirit,” which is a spirit of charity, and which the Incarnate Word himself commanded us to keep when he said remain in my love.
Again, our union is not merely a union based on affinity, or friendliness, or human affection. Rather, following the Magisterium of the Church and our proper law, we affirm that ours is “communion of the same spirit.” Our unity has its deepest root in the Holy Spirit, which has been poured out into our hearts, and which urges us to help one another on the way towards perfection, creating and conserving among us an atmosphere of understanding and of mutual help. “We should always help the brothers of the same congregation who are in need.”
“The Holy Spirit is the one who constructs in Crist the organic cohesion” within each of us and within our communities, as well as that among all of our communities united as one family throughout the world. The Holy Spirit is the source of unity, based on charity. And it is in charity where our bond as brothers in the Incarnate Word is most deeply tightened.
Fraternal life is so important for our way of life that the Chapter Fathers in the last General Chapter highlighted the importance of a “formation for community life during the time of seminary and initial formation. Living in community, and in small communities, requires preparation, above all in a solid foundation of human virtues and supernatural charity. There is a need for instruction in the candidates regarding the different types of difficulties (those of environment, adaptation, culture) which they could face in the mission, especially in some which are particularly difficult, so that they can gather up the proper forces and means so as to face and overcome these difficulties.”
I also thought it opportune to recall that “reference to the institute’s founder and to the charism lived by him and then communicated, kept and developed throughout the life of the institute, thus appears as an essential element for the unity of the community,” as our proper law explicitly points out and as the Church commands.
3. Union brings strength
Saint John Paul II said, “The communitarian dimension should be present in your apostolic work. A religious is not called to work as an isolated person or on his own. Today, more than ever, it is necessary to live and work united, first of all within each religious family, and then, working together with other consecrated persons and members of the Church. Union brings strength.”
How true is this for us, whose charism is that all our members work for the evangelization of culture! For, “in the work of evangelizing the culture, the efforts of one individual or one generation are not sufficient’ rather, a great evangelical movement is necessary, one that will forever deepen and extend itself in this task.” In this sense, our resolution to “form ‘a school’, and not ‘solitaries,’” remains ever valid. Furthermore, we should be distinguished by our generosity in joint work, not giving so as to receive, but rather serving the Incarnate Word, even without honor or glory, without holding back any efforts, dedicating our greatest strengths to the projects of the Institute, to achieve its interests, for the good and the benefit of the Church, and ultimately, for the glory of God and the salvation of many souls: “the glory of God is man fully alive.”
Therefore, with numerous expressions of lively enthusiasm, our proper law points out the importance of fraternal life in community and it augurs a fruitful apostolic effort. So, for example, it says that “if we do not have good communities we will not be able to carry out anything of any importance” but that there, “where the communities live justice, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit, there will not be any enterprise that is too big to carry out.” That, within our communities, we must always intensely seek fraternal charity with each and every one of the members, and only then can we expect great fruitfulness. For, “the more intense that our fraternal charity is, the greater will be the credibility of the message we are announcing.” Furthermore, it praises the witness of fraternal life especially in those places and times where it is practically the only thing that can be done for community life, lived in the way it should be, necessarily attracts well disposed people and it is probable that God bless that witness with fruits, even some which are unexpected. And if this is said of an individual community, how much more fruitful will our apostolic efforts be at the level of the entire Institute which lives in total agreement.
The motive is in the fact that “this love, which unites, is the same which drives us onwards to communicate to others the experience of communion with God and with our brothers; that is, it creates apostles, urging communities onto the mission, whether contemplative, whether proclaiming the Word, or whether dedicated to the ministry of the works of charity.”
The Spiritual Father of our Religious Family said the same thing: “Do you want the key to apostolic fruitfulness? Live unity, a source of great apostolic energy.”
And so, if currently there have been countless opportunities opened to us for mission, if all of us, by the grace of God, have persevered, and more so, if the number of vocations to our Institute has increased, I hold that, although it be a gratuitous gift of Divine Providence, it is also partially due to our compact, enduring and constant union which is always absolutely necessary for carrying out good. It is truly a consolation, which I want to share with you, to witness the fervor and the strength with which the immense majority of our members embrace the ideal marked out by our Constitutions, and who make great efforts to live and to pass on the spirit of our Institute in its entirety, remaining unchanging, even when, if for brief moments, the circumstances could have threatened to break, undermine, or at least weaken this agreement of which we spoke earlier.
The unity which strengthens us as a family, and which in some way makes us ‘indestructible,’ because in the words of the Evangelist Saint John, indeed, the Son of God was revealed to destroy the works of the devil and ours is clearly purely the work of God. Where union is lacking. there are confrontations and rivalries, as Christ himself taught us: Every kingdom divided against itself will be laid waste, and no town or house divided against itself will stand. The words that an Archbishop of the Secretary of State said to us in the late 90’s come to mind, which were addressed in a particularly difficult time for our Institute: that the only thing that would save us would be to remain united in our charism as a “block of granite.” Words, which, over time have been proven true.
Unity is strength, prosperity and progress, and dualism is weakness, decadence and nothingness.… “Take away unity,” Saint Marcellin Champagnat said to his sons, “and you have nothing but ruins; separate the branch from the trunk and it no longer bears fruit; separate the brook from its source and it dries up. A building resists the wind and remains standing only because all its parts are united; take away the cement that binds them and everything immediately collapses.” Those who work towards breaking our unity can well know, that they will not accomplish it if we are faithful. Moreover, and something which is consoling, it is easy to recognize that those who have made attempts against our unity have ended up losing, in the depths of their souls, the hope of achieving it. Thanks be to God!
And so, let us give to our beloved Institute religious who are solidly founded in Christ, united as if by granite, and ‘fixed’ in the charism of the Institute, and then, we will be as a city set on a mountain, which needs no defending walls; for its own members, perfectly united, are its fortification.
This is what Saint John Chrysostom said: “love gives men a great strength. There is no castle so firm, indestructable, and unbeatable to its enemies as is the totality of men who love and remain united through the fruit of love, which is concord.”.
May our remaining “united in Christ…as a distinct Religious Family,” which is the same as saying maintaining an “intense community life,” always be the distinction of honor for all the members of the Institute of the Incarnate Word. May our way always be: more unity, more strength! More united, more abundant in “enthusiastic projects for the future!” More united, more “presently involved in passion-filled tasks!” More united, so as to be more grateful for the singular gift of our calling!
May this be our aspiration, today and always. This grace we fervently ask of the Mother of God, and our Mother, who is present in all our communities.
Saint John Paul II liked to say that “every house is above all a shrine of the mother”. May the most beautiful image of the Mother of God, under the advocation of the Virgin of Luján, present in all our houses, join us all, always, around her maternal heart, creating that spiritual bond which keeps us united and covered under her sky-blue and white mantle. “How happy is the man who dwells in the house of Mary!”
On this first day of the year 2018, at the feet of the Mother of the Word Incarnate, it is my desire to commend and entrust, in a special way, to the maternal Heart of Mary, to her omnipotent intercession, the custody of the unity of our beloved Religious Family, which is hers, because it belongs to her Son. And so today with renewed fervor we say: “May the most merciful love of your most gracious heart be the bond which maintains us solidly and firmly founded in the Rock, which is Christ.”
A big hug for all of you. Wishing you a happy and holy New Year!
In the Incarnate Word,
Fr. Gustavo Nieto, IVE
General Superior
