‘Let us sing the cry of victory …
Love is life …
Love is transformation into Jesus Christ:
Transformation into Jesus Christ is the resurrection’ (GS/23/III/82/A)
Here, in a few words, is Gailhac’s reasoning. Love, life, transformation and resurrection are synonymous. Gailhac is very confident of God’s love: ‘God is love, love is his essence’ (GS/23/III/82/A) and thus he is confident too of transformation and resurrection. The sisters will be transformed by becoming one with Christ, taking Him as their model in all things.
In 1864 Gailhac made additions to the constitutions to stress the unity of the sisters: ‘all the sisters of the Sacred Heart of Mary, Immaculate Virgin, must have but one heart and one soul’. He goes further, seeing the final reward of the disciples of Jesus thus: ‘All together in heaven in Him, with Him and by Him, they will be only one in the glory of His divinity’. (Milligan, Mary. That they may have life, p.200 ). By extension, the whole of humanity, hewn from the same stone, is part of this unity.
RSHM Constitutions no. 2 states:
“Our faith-journey as Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary is one of total commitment to follow Christ, to personal transformation in him and to transformation of the world.”
Concretely and subjectively, what might the fruit of transformation be? This passage from the Trappist monk, Thomas Merton, refers to two linked aspects – vision and the unity of humanity.
‘At the centre of our being is a point of nothingness which is untouched by sin and by illusion, a point of pure truth, a point or spark which belongs entirely to God … It is like a pure diamond, blazing with the invisible light of heaven. It is in everybody, and if we could see it we would see these billions of points of light coming together in the face and the blaze of a sun that would make all the darkness and cruelty of life vanish completely …’ ( Merton, Thomas. Extract from Conjectures of a guilty bystander in An invitation to the contemplative life. )
Père Gailhac was at one time confessor to the Poor Clares in Béziers. In 1974, Sr Marie-Joseph of this same monastery, together with others, founded a house in Kabinda, Democratic Republic of Congo. One of their novices, Sr Claire, was difficult and apparently unsuited to the religious life. However, after a period of charismatic prayer, she underwent a powerful transforming experience from which she emerged filled with love. Words of hers which have stayed with me are these: ‘The Lord is here. I see him everywhere’. (Personal communication with Sr M-Joseph and Poor Clare leaflet). I think she meant that in each person she looked upon she saw Jesus.
We may not all have had such a dramatic awakening, but we are all travelling to the same destination. I would like to invite you to do a small exercise. Think of someone who irritates you – a lot or a little. It may be an acquaintance or someone you see every day. Envisage them, their appearance, their mannerisms, way of speaking. Now, very gently, in complete benevolence towards yourself and the other person, ask yourself if perhaps you have some shortcomings. Maybe not identical, but can you see any similarities? If you can, forgive yourself and the other. Could you even laugh at it? Now, ask the Holy Spirit’s help to get a glimpse of the person behind the appearance. In your mind’s eye, look again at that person and try not to be distracted by the externals. Try to see both of you as what you are, no more and no less – children of God.
Has anything changed for you?
Heritage and Spirituality Group
Heather Summers