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Vocation of Mankind

By Fr. Bruno Cocuzzi, O.C.D.

 

Opening Conference

(Read Matthew 24, 45-51)

(Veni Sancte Spiritus...)

 

My dear Sisters in Christ,

 

This passage, which we have just read, is part of a rather long discourse of Jesus, which runs to two full chapters in the Gospel according to St. Matthew.  Both of these chapters, 24 and 25 are placed just before the account of the last supper and the subsequent passion, death and resurrection of Jesus.  Everything in the two chapters has direct reference to the coming of the Son of Man at the end of time.  Jesus speaks of the suddenness of His coming both at the end of historical time and at the end of the life of the individual Christian.  He also speaks of some of the characteristics of those comings.  Just how important these things were in the mind of St. Matthew id indicated by their position a the very end of all that he had to tell concerning the public ministry of Jesus.  These two chapters bring Jesus’ teaching to a close.

 

We do well then, if we take these words of St. Matthew seriously, and this is exactly what we are doing by embarking upon this weeklong retreat.  During the next six days we are going to take steps to see to it that we will always be like the householder who keeps watch lest a thief come unexpectedly and break into his house.  We are going to make a sincere effort to place ourselves in the category of the 5 wise virgins who were careful enough to bring flasks of oil with them to keep their lamps from going out.  During this time we re supposed to make an assessment of the talents the Lord has given us to see just how well we have invested them (if we have invested them at all).  A retreat includes a prolonged and careful self-examination.

 

That we withdraw our attention from the many and varied preoccupations of our daily life and turn it inward upon ourselves every so often is a necessity our own experience should make clear to us.  We are all too familiar with the universal law of deterioration and decay.  We know that living organisms are subject to death either because of disease or because of the breakdown that comes with age.  Machines break down because the parts become defective and worn out with use.  And surely we have observed that even spiritual entities are subject to these same laws.  Ideals, for example, may become tarnished.  Fervor and enthusiasm may flag.  Spirits may grow weak and fail.

 

As far as machinery and appliances are concerned, we usually wait until they break down or fail to function properly before sending them to a repairman to have them checked over and repaired.  As far as the life of our body is concerned, some of us follow the same procedure.  We wait until something goes wrong and then have a good check-up.  For some people this is tragic because it often happens that some preventative medicine could have saved them from contracting a disorder for which there is no cure.  A wise person therefore does have a thorough physical periodically.

 

It is just plain foolish, therefore, not to checkup every so often on the health of the body, it is tragically foolish to omit checking up on our spiritual health.  It is possible to take the sting out of physical death by living a life in the state of grace.  But there is no way of taking the sting out of the second death (loss of our own souls) spoken of by St. John in the Apocalypse, if it should perchance befall anyone.  There is no cure for the second death, therefore.  But there does exist preventative medicine.  It is chiefly during a retreat, by those spiritual exercises that go to make up a retreat, that we apply the preventative remedies.

 

This idea of a check-up as to our state of health is helpful for us during a retreat because it brings to the foe certain fundamental facts.  It reminds us that there can be no fruitful self-examination without accurate knowledge of what a perfect organism should be like.  We couldn’t possibly know whether anything is wrong with us unless we know first what perfect health entails.  The same is true of our spiritual health.  Unless we know what spiritual health for us requires, we cannot possibly diagnose and correct our spiritual ills.

 

In dealing with the health of the body we center our attention on two things principally, and they are related.  First of all we try to have an adequate knowledge of what we need to nourish our bodily life, and then we have to know something about what medicines will cure our bodies should we get sick.  These two elements are related because medicines work best upon those organisms, which are habitually well nourished, and again, the effect of the medicine is rendered permanent, or at least long-lasting by following it up with god nourishment.  The same is true in regard to the life of our spirit.  We need to know what exercises of the Christian Faith will nourish the life of the spirit, and we have to know which exercises are medicinal.  A healthy spiritual organism can either throw off the effects of evils and not be hurt by them, or else it can survive them and be restored quickly to health by the application of the proper remedies.  During the time of a retreat we can get a refresher course, so to speak, on what constitutes good nourishment for the life of the spirit, and also what remedies to apply should spiritual misfortune, sin and its effects begin to weaken the life of the soul.

 

This illustration provides a good insight to help us both understand the value of a retreat and how to go about making a fruitful retreat.  But we will also appeal to another comparison, which together with the former helps us to appreciate better what a retreat can, and should do for us.  We can think of ourselves as being on a journey.  We can think of the state of perfection as being the goal of our journey, and of our present state of soul as some intermediate position on the road to perfection.  We have to imagine, of course, that we are going to make a hazardous journey overland, one that will take us over difficult terrain and expose us to dangers from man and beast, and from the inclemency of the weather.  As a matter of fact, we will liken our Spiritual journey to the journey of the Israelites from Egypt to the Promised Land.  We will consider many of the aspects of that journey and try to see in them something comparable to the many aspects of our progress in the life of grace.  We will try to use those events as helps whereby we can become more aware of the characteristics of our growth in the spiritual life, and some of the many hindrances and helps to be encountered along the way.  We will try to gain an adequate knowledge of the end-point of the journey and also a thorough knowledge of our starting point.  We need to know both in order to estimate our present position along the way.  We should look upon a retreat, therefore, as a special means offered to us whereby we can equip ourselves better for the great work of becoming our true selves, of establishing ourselves in the place marked out for us by God from all eternity, of realizing all of our potential and developing all our spiritual capability.

 

With what dispositions should we come to the retreat?  We should first of all come with the firm conviction that this time has been providentially set aside for our spiritual welfare, and that we will have during this time an encounter with God.  He will be more present to us in a special way in His Holy Spirit in order to enlighten us and to encourage us.  He will make available a wealth of grace and spiritual resources whereby we might achieve a complete spiritual renewal.  As we read in the Prophet Isaiah (48,8):  In a time of favor I answer you, and on the day of salvation I help you, to restore the land...etc.

 

We should come also to this retreat with the firm conviction that we stand in need of a retreat.  We know from sad experience that people can be convinced they are in perfect health and yet have growing within them an insidious cancer.  I have heard of cases where parsons in apparent good heath complain of some minor pain or indisposition and when they go to have it taken care of, discover that they have a cancer that has gone way beyond control and which takes them in a few short months.  In spiritual matters it often happens that those who feel most secure are in the greatest danger.  After all, the devil does not disturb the conscience of those who are well on their way to perdition.  He struggles most fiercely against those who are on the verge of entering determinedly upon a more deeply spiritual way of life.  Our Lord Himself, on the occasion of restoring the sight of the man born blind said to the Pharisees:  Because you say I see, your sin remains.  It is impossible to get a doctor to cure us unless we admit that we are ill and tell him the symptoms.  And it doesn’t make any difference how strong or perfect we were when we started out on our journey.  Even if our reaction and response to last year’s retreat left nothing to be desired, we must come to this retreat admitting that we need it.  We have the example of Solomon.  When he was placed upon the throne of Israel God came to him to promise him any gift he would ask for.  And the Lord was very pleased when Solomon asked for wisdom that He just loaded him with other spiritual graces and favors besides.  And yet in his old age, because he had allowed himself to love too many women, all those favors and all that Wisdom went for naught.  He ended up falling into idolatry, the one sin Lord God found utterly abominable.  This retreat, therefore, is one way we have (and a powerful one) of enabling us to obey the injunction of St. Paul to work out our salvation in fear and trembling.  It was St. Paul himself who said that he reduced his body to subjection by chastising it, lest after having preached to others, he himself become a castaway.

 

We ought, therefore to come to this retreat with the intention of renewing our dedication to God in the Religious life.  I say this because we are living in times that give us plenty of excuses for going back on our original commitment.  It is being said that the structure of religious life hinders our growth in maturity, and keeps us psychologically children.  Others say that Religious life is a haven for defectives who cannot stand on their own two feet in a competitive world, and who therefore seek the security and stability of the authoritarian structure of Religious life.  These assertions might easily be seized upon as sufficient excuses for a religious to dissociate himself or herself from the life of the vows (let alone the claim that the vows render personal fulfillment impossible) should the difficulties and trials inherent in this way of life become burdensome.  Actually, these trials should be looked upon as purifications and as opportunities for growth rather than as hindrances.  And of course, we need to defend ourselves against the temptations to use the ferment of renewal in the church as an excuse for abandoning our religious vocation.  It would be very easy for any one of us to convince ourselves that we had taken our vows in times when change and adaptation were not uppermost, if indeed at all, in the mind of the Church.  We might easily say that we professed our vows in view of an ideal that no longer holds.  It is for such reasons that many religious have already obtained dispensations from their vows.

 

If we should find the weight of the burdens of religious life in these times to be threatening to surpass the limits of our endurance, we should take advantage of this retreat to respond to the grace God offers.  His grace will enable us to bear them.  And of course, it will do no harm to look upon the seeking of dispensations from our vows as being something akin to divorce.  The Church does not allow the laity to get divorced or to remarry (I should say, Jesus doesn’t) and in that same spirit, once we have taken the Lord for the spouse of our soul in a more special way, we ought to be determined to be faithful until death.  We tell lay people to be heroic in making the best of a bad marriage, that is, unhappy, and we ought to be heroic in making the best of our religious vocation.

 

We ought to enter upon this retreat with the words of Osee the prophet clearly before our mind’s eye:  I will lead her into the desert, and I will speak to her heart.  It is not without reason that the Holy Spirit prompted him to say ‘hart’ instead of mind.  The language that God speaks is the silent language of love.  In the final analysis it is not much reasoning and much speaking that confirm us in our resolution to give ourselves completely to God as the spouses of Christ, it is the love that Jesus pours out upon us.  It is not intensive instruction and deeper understanding that enables us to respond to the will of God with renewed fervor and enthusiasm.  It is rather the experience of god’s love, a love that goes beyond all comprehension of sense and understanding.  It is not knowledge that soothes our hurts and heals our wounds.  Love will ever be the effective remedy.

 

Let us bring to this retreat a spirit of idealism and a spirit of generosity.  If we have less than a spirit of idealism we do God an injustice.  We please Him when we are convinced that He has the choicest graces in store for us, and in superabundant measure.  If we come without generosity, then we tie His hands, for He will not force entry into our hearts, to begin with, and He will not allow Himself to be outdone in generosity, either.  Our generosity should be so great that it urges us to complete surrender.  Surrender is the sure and certain way for leading Christ captive.  We have it on the authority of St. Teresa of Avila, that He surrenders Himself completely to those only who have first surrendered themselves completely to Him.

 

 

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MISSION STATEMENT: This web site was created for the purpose of completing the work of Fr. Bruno Cocuzzi, O.C.D These conferences may be reproduced for private use only. Publication of this material is forbidden without permission of the Father Provincial for the Discalced Carmelites, Holy Hill, 1525 Carmel Rd., Hubertus, WI 53033-9770.