by Father Gabriele Scotti, CRS to the Religious of the Province of the Southeast Asia. September 14, 2009
- Mary is present in the very beginning of our Congregation.
Through her intercession as the Mother of mercy Jerome experienced conversion to God and a deep Christian renewal through following the way of the Crucified, becoming poor, and serving the poor.
When the Bible starts to tell the history of creation, these words are used: ”In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth … darkness covered the abyss, while a mighty wind swept over the waters…” When the Bible starts to tell the history of re-creation, similar words are used: ”In the beginning was the Word … and the Word was God…” ”In the beginning …” Every history, where God is acting for human beings, has a beginning from his love.
If we want to tell the history of the Church, or our Congregation, or our life, we must affirm “In the beginning was the love of God”.
The Anonymous wrote: “God loved and predestined his sons from all eternity”. But his love has many ways to manifest itself.
In the case of our Congregation, the love of God was manifested through the presence of the Mother. Therefore, we may start the history of our Congregation with these words: “In the beginning was the Mother”.
Mary, Mother of mercy and liberation force.
The Blessed Virgin showed her special helpful presence when Jerome prayed and his chains were broken and he was able to enjoy freedom.
That extraordinary intervention is like a parable. We can discover its meaning in the light of the following events of Jerome’s life. Through the experience of physical freedom, Mary put in the heart of Jerome a seed of a spiritual and complete freedom, that will be obtained with a deep conversion. Mary accompanied Jerome, hand in hand, with her motherly care, among the “enemies” to his complete freedom.
“When it pleased Him(God) to move Jerome’s heart by holy inspiration, he withdrew him from worldly occupations to himself“. The Anonymous is telling of the new event, which happened around 1525. In that event of grace, the seed sown during the night of September 27, 1511, started bearing its fruit. Jerome turned his first steps towards the complete freedom of heart, because God withdrew him from worldly occupations to Himself. This radical movement from… to, this U turn is called conversion, a total change of mind, heart and life. In the beginning there is the love of God, who moves our heart by the holy inspiration, and then there is human cooperation.
- Mary, expert guide on the way to conversion.
Between God and Jerome there is the motherly care and intercession of Mary, Mother of mercy. Like in the journey to Treviso, Mary guides Jerome in the steps of conversion to God.
3.1. The first step: to listen to the word of God.
Mary is very expert in this matter of listening to the Word of God and welcoming Him in herself.
When the word of God is welcomed into the human heart, through its light man can understand the everlasting love of God, the Father, and his own situation of sin. Man realizes that ”as prodigal sons we have squandered every spiritual and material good by living badly”.
Jerome “recalled his ingratitude, remembering sins against the Lord”
But the supreme Word of God, that expresses the infinite love of the Father, is Jesus Crucified.
Mary guided Jerome to Calvary. She knew very well that journey… She stood at the foot of the Cross.
3.2. Second step: Jerome met Jesus Crucified.
“At the foot of the Crucifix Jerome wept often, prayed that Christ would be his savior, not his judge. He despised himself because of his past life”
In Our Prayer there is a petition that reflects the strong experience of the repentance of Jerome: “Let all of us humble before our heavenly Father as prodigal sons who have squandered every spiritual and material good by living badly. Therefore, let us ask for his mercy by saying: Mercy, grant us your mercy, Son of the living God. O God, help me, a sinner”.
I think that Jerome, through this impassioned and ardent invocation, wanted to share with his disciples the experience of conversion in meeting the love of the Father in Christ Crucified through the intercession of the Mother of Mercy.
In fact we read this the following words: “Then the priest says a prayer as the Lord may inspire. At the end, we shall say three “Our Father” and three “Hail Mary”, very softly, with arms stretched in the form of the cross, by recalling of the three nails by which He wanted to be crucified, so that he may grant us the grace of despising this world and ourselves”.
In that physical attitude with arms stretched in the form of the cross we may see as a symbolic image of true conversion; the man converted becomes a living image of Jesus Crucified. And those three Hail Mary prove that the Mother of mercy intercedes and helps us in our journey to the Father, through molding our heart according to the shape of Crucified Jesus’ heart.
We know the real meaning of those words: ‘the grace of despising this world and ourselves’. It is the grace of realizing the first aspect of conversion consisting in refusing what is against God: the evil that is present in humankind and in our selfishness. In other words, we must reject everything that is against the gospel.
Jerome realized this attitude of conversion not only in the beginning “when it pleased to God to move his heart… he despised himself”, but also in going on in the way of God, together with his disciples. We read in his 6th letter: “I do not know what else to say to them if not to entreat them by the wounds of Christ, that may want to amend their ways in all their outward deeds and in their inner selves have humility and charity and fervor… May they pray often before the Crucifix, asking the grace to do penance in this world as a guaranty of eternal reward.“
Through these words St. Jerome gives to his disciples not only a fervent exhortation to conversion, but also his own deep experience of conversion.
Jerome tells us of his own journey through the wounds of Christ, his effort to amend his ways in all his outward deeds, and reach humility, charity and fervor in his inner self.
Jerome spent long time in prayer before the Crucifix, asking the grace to do penance in this world as a guarantee of eternal reward. The “eremo” at Somasca is a silent and eloquent testimony of that unceasing attitude of conversion centered on Jesus crucified. That attitude belongs to his heritage. In the last moments of his life on earth, Jerome left his will by those words:” follow the way of the cross, despise the world, love one another, and care for the poor”.
It is the synthesis of the long process of conversion developed through a dynamic journey “from…to”:
– from evil to good,
– from sins to virtues,
– from ourselves to God
– from selfishness to love
– from self-centeredness to Christ-center
– from death to life.
It is a journey through many steps, a spiritual “scala santa” (that means “holy steps”) that involves a work of purification-demolition, and a work of edification. Jerome is a shining pattern.
Touched by the grace of God,
– he started praying (visited churches often, listened to sermons and attended mass).
– he chose as a guide a man rich with God’s wisdom;
– he meditated on the Gospel;
– he trained to achieve self-control;
– he strove for uprooting his vices and putting into practice the virtue of humility;
This work of purification was strengthened with the special enlightening grace of God. The same impelling grace guides him in the way of love: “inspired by grace from above he applied himself to imitate, as much as possible, his beloved master, Christ”. Christ carrying out the Cross, Christ on the Cross became “his beloved unique master”, and in a very concrete way to follow Jesus means for Jerome to imitate him, that is, to love with the same heart of Jesus humble, meek and compassionate… to the end obediently accepting even death, death on a cross.
3.3. Third step: not to be served, but to serve.
The dynamism of grace merges into his dynamic character: Jerome became an untiring worker in the vineyard of the Lord “…he grieved over nothing except when an hour passed without his doing good”.
From evil he turned to good. During the famine in 1528, filled with ardent charity Jerome sold everything for the poor… and “in the fatal epidemic decease Jerome, valiant soldier of Christ himself contracted disease, in serving the sick… though not entirely cured, he resumed his work with even more zeal”. Then he left his home and chose to live and die with the poor “as a universal father of the poor”. The positive aspect of conversion went on very fast. The imitation of Jesus became more and more perfect.
- Mary, Mother of graces, as a guide to holiness.
Mary, Mother of graces, guides Jerome and his disciples in the way of love, peace and prosperity, that is, in the way of holiness. In Our Prayer the presence of Mary and her intercession have a special task and role.
The Somascan spirituality is “trinitarian”; it overflows from the mystery of the blessed Trinity. Jerome and his disciples are guided by the power of the Father, the wisdom of his Son and the strength of the Holy Spirit. The three divine persons work in the life of the Servants of the poor in order to mold their hearts with love.
Immediately after the Holy Trinity, the Blessed Mother has a unique role in the spirituality of the Servants.
Mary works too, not in the same level of the divine persons, but for the same aim. Her maternal action is connected with that of the Holy Trinity.
Jerome felt the Blessed Virgin as an indispensable presence in the house of Christ, where the Servants dwell with the poor as a new family of faith. A mother is necessary in a family.
She intercedes that the house of the poor of Christ may be built on the solid Rock. Those who dwell in it may trust in the Lord and have true hope in him alone.
The motherly work of Mary is related to the foundations of the spiritual building of the Somascan Family. Also in this perspective we may affirm: In the beginning there was the Mother. In O.P. there is a second invocation through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin (Let us again invoke…).
Mary was the most important collaborator with the Holy Spirit in shaping the heart of Jesus. Her humility, meekness and kindness molded Jesus’ heart. She taught Jesus (by words, but especially by her deeds) the law of God, summarized with the two commandments of love.
The Servants need to have hearts molded according to Jesus’ heart. In fact, they have to be a sign of the tender and compassionate fatherhood of God;
– they have to walk in the way of God which is love, humility and devotion;
– they have to serve the poor with perfect charity, deep humility and patience out of the love of God;
– they have to live and die with the poor…
Only the work of a specialized person about love can prepare such a heart.
Therefore the Servants twice a day used to pray: Let us invoke again…
Jerome was aware that such a love is not easy to have. Our heart need a daily purification and conversion. Therefore the intercession of the Blessed Virgin helps us to “uproot our vices”, increase our virtues, and so we may obtain the holy peace“ of God. Peace is the wonderful gift of God, that is the goal of the Company of the Servants. We may see that the motherly care of Mary has an essential role in the beginning of our Somascan vocation and conversion.
She has also an essential role in order to accompany us in following Jesus carrying the Cross, serving the poor. Her presence is also essential in our communitarian life, as a mother’s presence is very important in a family.
She is a model and support of our consecrated life. In the mystery of annunciation Mary is our model in welcoming the word of God, who calls her to a wonderful mission. She believes, she trusts in God alone, through her faith and hope She was filled with love and the Lord has done great things because of her humility. She became the mother of God.
Jesus was the center of her life; she devoted herself totally to him and shared completely with his destiny. Every day she took her cross, following Jesus in poverty, chastity and obedience. Her heart was always rejoicing in God, her savior, and she experienced the true joy of the evangelical beatitudes. She followed Jesus until the Cross. On Calvary she shared the sacrifice of Jesus and her motherhood became universal.
The love of Jesus poured out into her heart reaches every human being through her motherly concern, that takes care for the needy, orphan and poor.
Mary is truly our model and support in our vocation, consecration and mission.
Fr. Gabriele Scotti crs