1. The Mystery of the Trinity

To proceed in my reflection, I must necessarily refer to the mystery of the Trinity. I do not

have the theological training to treat the Trinity.  I can only adore and contemplate this mystery, which always fascinates me (dare I say “it blinds me” like a great light), not only that, it also makes me uneasy, because it makes me more and more aware of my greatness as human person, woman created in the image and likeness of God (woman consecrated to Love, Son of the beautiful Most Beautiful Woman,  and the responsibilities that follow from that.

            I will limit myself to a brief reflection on that, using the pastoral letter that Cardinal Danneels wrote to his diocese on the occasion of Easter 2000.

            His Eminence marvelously presents the Trinity as model of communion, in light of the icon of the Trinity by Rublev.

            “There are three of them around the table because this experience is the matrix of every conviviality: it creates it and facilitates it. When you observe the icon well, you become aware that the three are not facing, they are sort of aligned. They act together and at the same time, the mutual exchange of the look is pregnant with discretion and reserve. A deep respect reigns among the three. No one seems to want to be the first, nor either the last. There are no distances, but neither do they merge. They seem to tell each other, mutually: ‘For me, you can be what you are, I respect you in that which is proper to you. You can become what you are.’

            A true communion according to the Trinitarian model is neither fusion nor confusion. Genuine love reinforces the other in his/her otherness, in what is proper to him and rejoices in it. But the icon shows something else.  The three look at each other with great humility. True communion is intense listening to the other, reciprocal obedience. In the Trinity there exists an internal fecundity that implies continual openness. The icon is also open, there is still place at the table, as though someone must still arrive…Each communion is open and hospitable: there is always space for others.

            Finally, around the table where the three are seated, there is one central plate. In fact, every communion is nourished at a community joined around the table. It is true in all areas: in the family at the moment of meals; in the Church gathered for the Eucharist; in religious communities, in hotels, in society, there is always the moment for sharing of bread. Jesus did not find an image of community more perfect than that of the eschatological banquet.”

            The Trinitarian model is the icon of every life in community, of every reality that wants to be structured as community, in so far as every communion of persons is structured in the image of the Trinity; that is,  one in diversity.

            Bishop Tonino Bello wrote, addressing the Alcantarine Sisters on the occasion of their General Chapter:  “When we say “together”, we do not do it because if we are together things go better, in the sense that if we all get together we get more done. That would be a business mentality: marketing agents put their workers together;  unions say ‘stand united’; fans, sports people all settle together in the same curve of the stadium in order to yell louder.

            No, if we say “together”, it is not in order to be able to render more, but because we must be an icon of the Most Holy Trinity. We must reproduce in our life, in our communities, the life that is lived in heaven… We are a peripheral/suburban icon of the Trinity…”

            The Pope, still in NMI, while he invites us to penetrate the mystery of the Trinity, as I already pointed out, also throws us a challenge and invites us to accept it if we want to be faithful to God’s design and answer also the deep expectations of the world: “Make the Church the home and school of communion”.  And we could also paraphrase this statement saying: “Make every community of ours, every Congregation, the home and school of communion.”

            The Church is the school where the instructor, the teacher, is Jesus; where the teacher stays with his disciples and where, therefore, everything becomes a learning, a “being drawn” or taken, not only by the words of the Teacher, but even before that, by the relationship with Him. And what is this pedagogy of the Divine Teacher? That of communion.

            Related to this, I want to communicate to you what Fr. Jesús Castellano, commenting on this passage during a retreat day for the sisters of the Auxilium, said, “When a person moves from one country to another, he/she brings with himself the customs of his own culture (we think of the problem of multi-culturality in our Institutes) and the culture of Jesus is the Trinitarian culture, a culture of communion. Entering into this world, Jesus opens the home of communion and, gathering the disciples around him, conducts the school of communion. The figure of the home indicates familiarity, intimacy, reciprocity, and that of the school indicates learning, activity, exchange, receiving and giving, sharing.

            We who are here, with so many of our brothers and sisters, have the grace and honor of living in this Church, in this home, in the school of one who is so much Teacher, the Teacher, and to learn to make also our communities and Congregations this home and this school.

            Regarding this I would like to do first a brief reflection on the multi-culturality that characterizes many of our Institutes and many of our communities.

            A spirituality of communion implies the ability to appreciate a diversity as a “resource” and to welcome it as “gift” for me, besides being a gift for the brother and sister who received it. Ethical, religious, cultural and social values that constitute the heritage of other cultures, the gift of many brothers and sisters who come from afar (the first great gift that comes to us from “afar” is John Paul II!) reveal to us new and enriching ways of living contemplation, communion, fraternal life, the practice of the evangelical counsels, sharing, hospitality, relationships and respect for nature.

            We must learn to dwell, with our intelligence and with our heart, on the riches that come to us by the co-presence of different persons and realities, which make up one of the splendid gifts that God gives to our Congregations (even as we cannot close our eyes to the hard work that is entailed!) Let’s think, for example, of the consecrated persons of Latin America: they gift us with their active commitment for justice and the preferential option for the poor, which in the Churches from which they come has become a simple style of life with a consequent insertion and spirituality. Let’s think of the consecrated religious of Asia who gift us with their contemplative dimension, which they have developed especially, giving much space to many forms of prayer. And of the consecrated persons of Africa who help us rediscover the bonds of belonging in solidarity with the large human family and the joy of sharing. Let’s think of the religious of Eastern Europe who stimulate us to rediscover what is essential in consecrated life and to base it more on the interior life.

            The expression “many cultures more resources”, which we often hear repeated, cannot be only a stylish “slogan”; it is a genuine blessing, but on condition that it leads us to redefine, deepen, live our charism starting off from multi-culturality… The Reign of God has no boundaries! A Congregation, a community formed by persons of different cultures, races, ethnic groups, age, and formation, is an eloquent witness of the power of the Gospel which can transform our fragile humanity and make possible that which is very difficult humanly.

            This, then, is the task of those in authority, so that with the strength of God, unity in diversity can be realized (a concept expressed in all Constitutions) through a passionate and continual seeking for communion (the primary mission of a community!), the respect for differences (think of the six days of creation…God saw that what he had made was very good): the valuing of mutual esteem (those in leadership must have good vision – wrote Rino Cozza in a recently published article in Testimoni - : neither be shortsighted  which shows resignation in face of what happens; nor be farsighted, incapable of reading the newspaper of history, but good eyes “for discerning the plan of God”… So he invites us to call out like Bartimaeus. “Rabbuni, that I might regain my sight!” (Mk 19:51); the ability to forgive 70 times 7 times. (We must remember that there is no culture or person so poor that they have nothing to give…and there is no culture or person so rich that they cannot receive anything from others.)

            Obviously, those in leadership cannot and must not close their eyes to difficulties. On this, Jean Vanier, in the letter quoted earlier, says some very concrete and interesting things. Adapting them – since he is talking about the L’Arche Community -  I wish to apply them to our Congregations, since they tell us the different situation in which some of our brothers and sisters are living…

“When one arrives in Congregation and in community some passages have to be made and each one implies a joy and a pain.

The first has us pass from our family and from our work, or from our life as students, to the Congregation.  It is a passage at times very difficult, because earlier we had time all for ourselves, we chose our entertainment, friends, place of work; we had an adequate salary, we were only-begotten children,… Then we arrive in community…and things change from many points of view…

This passage is difficult, but there are other more difficult passages… For example, you are given a responsibility and then you find yourself with assistants that do not listen, who are self-sufficient, who have difficulty with authority and… one would rather be the assistant who attacks the superior rather than the superior who undergoes the attack…

After a couple of years the novelty and positive aspect of responsibilities go up in smoke and we see only their burden. There is no longer any time for ourselves; there is no more time for prayer, we are tired…

Then comes the very difficult passage of the loss of responsibility… We are asked to leave everything and to return to the ranks, and this can touch us very profoundly…

Another difficult moment can be that of the discovery of the faults of the community… We feel like little children who discover that mama and papa are not perfect…”

Thus writes Jean Vanier.… These situations (or others similar) are present also in our realities.  What can we do? I know someone -  it is Jean Vanier again who testifies – who on his return from Calcutta said that he would never go back because he had seen people dying in the street.  Mother Teresa said: “I saw people dying in the street.  I am staying.”

I am staying ought to be my response, our response, which makes up understand our radical poverty, which places us into the logic of God: the scandal of the cross, the maternity of a virgin, the forgiveness of sins… 70 times 7 …