Beginning of the homily
1. Spiritual Maternity
This subject has appeared in many ways either because
the cross is fruitful, because prayer finds children of God, or because
spiritual children are fruits of apostolic zeal and the proclamation of the
Word. This “generation” synthesizes all the fecundity of the religious. It is
difficult to discern from whom it more essentially precedes. Or, if you will,
it proceeds from the proclamation of the Word on the condition that this woman
is filled with the love of God and souls and that she prays with tear and
sighs. Then, spiritual maternity is indeed a nucleus in which is condensed the
concept of her who proclaims the Word of God.[1]
Saint John of Avila, who has a “great talent for begetting
and raising children”[2]
has had the opportunity to explicate his doctrine about this subject in a
causal letter to his friend and disciple Fray Luis de Granada.[3]
In this ministry “Christ was the first” thus He is called
“Father-Forever” We participate “in Him and through Him” as occurs in the
priesthood. Above all, what he recommends is the vivid sentiments of the divine
paternity and his majesty to which all things belong. The saint does not want
the bonds of spiritual paternity, stronger than those of the flesh, to
appropriate what belongs to God: “the glory of God be for God.” Now, “having
the Spirit of his Son and reverence in our inner depths, confidence and pure
love of God, like a faithful son towards his father, what remains is to ask him
for the spirit of father towards his children that we wish to beget.”[4] This
concept that can be perfectly applied “mutatis mutandis” to the case of
religious; thus, she becomes a visible image of God the Father who we do not
see.
Up to this point, everything seems very poetic.
Without a doubt, this is how the novice disciple saw it, enthusiastic about the
“sweetness of begetting children.” However, the reality is something else.
2. “Dulce bellum inexpertis”
“To beget I confess does not consist in much work,
even though it is not lacking. For if this task ought to go well, the children
that we ought to beget by the word are not so much children of voice but
children of tears…The one who assumes the office of father must learn to cry.”[5]
And he continues with a descriptive definition of what
it is to “bring up” in the spiritual life, worthy of a chapter in his
bibliography:
Keeping Silence: “Will he not consider remaining
silent when necessary, so as to help his children even when they complain about
every small thing?”[6]
Not Showing Preferences: “Will he not be careful to avoid
arousing envy by loving more one than another, or of seeming to love one more
than the other?”[7]
Feeding the Soul: “He takes care to feed his children
even when it means he must take the morsel from his mouth…”[8]
Forgetting Oneself: “And even to cease being among the
angelic choirs to descend to give soup to his child? It is necessary to always
be composed so that his child will never find a less loving response.”[9]
Suppressing
the tears:“And even though sometimes the father’s heart might be tormented with
a thousand concerns, so that he needs, for his own tranquility to give free
rein to his sadness, and empty himself with tears, when his child comes he
still must play and laugh with him, as if the child was his sole focus. For,
who would be able to count all together the temptations, dryness, dangers,
deceits, scruples, and other thousands of fantasies that come from everywhere?”[10]
Being Vigilant: “How he needs to be vigilant so
that the son will not follow these! How much wisdom he needs to bring the child
back once he has fallen for these! Patience to not get tired of hearing the
same questions over and over again which he has heard and responded to a
thousand times, explaining again what he has already said before!”[11]
Prayer: “What constant and courageous
praying he must do to God, begging that his child not die! For, if he dies,
believe me, father, no pain can equal this, neither do I believe that God has
allowed another sort of martyrdom in this world as painful as that of the true
Father whose son dies.”[12]
Not
to close one’s heart when this happens.
Behold
the ideal of the religious, a mother, raising her children: nothing before God,
transformed by the grace of Christ, everything before men. They are her joy and
her pain. Tough and indulgent, a synthesis of intelligence, love and
sentiments:
-Goodness:
“Thus, whoever wishes to be a father, it is advisable for him to have an
affectionate heart, truly of flesh, to have compassion on the children which is
a great martyrdom.”[13]
-Fortitude:
“and [to have a heart] of iron to suffer the blows that the death of theirs
gives in order that they do not tear down the father or make him abandon his
office or faint or spend some days in which he can only cry.”[14]
Faced
with this image of the father, we better understand the criticism that he made
of them: they held in nothing the task of begetting spiritual children, they
fled from the labor of rearing them.”[15]
Such persons are compared to prostitutes who when they give birth to a child
give it up to another to rear them and they continue in their voluptuousness[16].
For St John of Avila, it is a negation of the priest as paternity is its
fulfillment. Analogously, the absence of maternity is the negation of the
religious, as possessing it is its fulfillment.
3.
Virginity and Fecundity
Consecrated
virginity is the cause of fecundity in the Spirit. Whosoever renounces
maternity according to the flesh “for the sake of the Kingdom of Heaven” becomes
fertile according to the Spirit. In this charism, the gift of God to his Church,
Christ is the first and the exemplar: “Christ
lives his life as a virgin, even while affirming and defending the dignity and
sanctity of married life. He thus reveals the sublime excellence and
mysterious spiritual fruitfulness of virginity[17].”
This virginity is not an absence of
love but rather an abundance of it which therefore bears much fruit: “The chastity
of celibates and virgins, as a manifestation of dedication to God with an
undivided heart[18],
is a reflection of the infinite love which links the three Divine
Persons in the mysterious depths of the life of the Trinity, the love to which
the Incarnate Word bears witness even to the point of giving his life, the love
"poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit" (Rom 5:5),
which evokes a response of total love for God and the brethren[19].”
The love,
from which springs this fecundity, is an espousal love in the image of the
Church, Spouse of Christ, who is at once virgin and fruitful: particular
importance attaches to the spousal meaning, which recalls the Church's duty to
be completely and exclusively devoted to her Spouse, from whom she receives
every good thing. This spousal dimension, which is part of all consecrated
life, has a particular meaning for women, who find therein their feminine identity
and as it were discover the special genius of their relationship with the Lord.
A moving sign of this is seen in the New Testament passage which portrays Mary
with the Apostles in the Upper Room, in prayerful expectation of the Holy
Spirit[20].
We can see here a vivid image of the Church as Bride, fully attentive to her
Bridegroom and ready to accept his gift. In Peter and the other Apostles there
emerges above all the aspect of fruitfulness, as it is expressed in ecclesial
ministry, which becomes an instrument of the Spirit for bringing new sons and
daughters to birth through the preaching of the word, the celebration of the
Sacraments and the giving of pastoral care. In Mary the aspect of spousal
receptivity is particularly clear; it is under this aspect that the Church,
through her perfect virginal life, brings divine life to fruition within
herself. The consecrated life has always been seen primarily in terms of Mary —
Virgin and Bride. This virginal love is the source of a particular fruitfulness
which fosters the birth and growth of divine life in people's hearts. Following
in the footsteps of Mary, the New Eve, consecrated persons express their
spiritual fruitfulness by becoming receptive to the Word, in order to
contribute to the growth of a new humanity by their unconditional dedication
and their living witness[21].
“The greatest glory of virgins is
undoubtedly to be the living images of the perfect integrity of the union
between the Church and her divine Spouse. For this society, founded by Christ,
it is a profound joy that virgins should be the marvelous sign of its sanctity and
fecundity[22].”
Virginity is also fruitful in so far
as it denounces the culture of death that surrounds us: “The reply of
the consecrated life [to the hedonistic culture] is above all in the joyful
living of perfect chastity, as a witness to the power of God's love
manifested in the weakness of the human condition... in Christ it is possible
to love God with all one's heart, putting him above every other love, and thus
to love every creature with the freedom of God![23]”
Consecrated virginity is fruitful in
works for the good of humanity: “at the thought of the innumerable army of
virgins…who, from the first centuries of the Church up to our own day, have
given up marriage to devote themselves more easily and fully to the salvation
of their neighbor for the love of Christ, and have thus been enabled to
undertake and carry through admirable works of religion and charity…[24]”
Consecrated virgins are privileged
members of the Church on which she places a preferential care: “In them the
glorious fecundity of our mother, the Church, finds expression and she
rejoices; the more the number of virgins increases, the greater is this
mother's joy."[25]
[1] Cf. Saint John of Avila, Complete Works, Letters, BAC, Madrid 2003,
T. 4. N.1, pt. 75,7.
[2] Ibid., pt. 90.
[3] Cf. Ibid., 5.
[4] Ibid., 55.6
[5] Saint John of Avila, Complete Works, Letters, BAC, Madrid 2003, T.
4. N.1, pt. 95-100.
[6] Ibid., pt 105-110.
[7] Ibid., pt 110.
[8] Ibid., pt 110.
[9] Ibid., pt 115.
[10] Ibid., pt 110.
[11] Saint John of Avila, Complete Works, Letters, BAC, Madrid 2003, T.
4. N.1, pt. 115-120.
[12] Ibid., pt 120.
[13] Ibid., pt. 145.
[14] Ibid.
[15] Cf. Ibid., pt 60.
[16] Cf. Ibid., pt 110, 7.
[17] John Paul II, Vita Consecrata, n. 22.
[19] John Paul II, Vita Consecrata, n. 21.
[21] John Paul II, Vita Consecrata, n. 34.
[22] Pius XII, Sacra Virginitas, n. 31.
[23] John Paul II, Vita Consecrata, n. 88.
[24] Pius XII, Sacra Virginitas, n. 26
