ST. DOMINIC – PREACHER OF GRACE
Fr. David Michael Kammler OP
Promoter General of Dominican Laity
Introduction
Dear sisters and brothers in our Father St. Dominic,
It is a common and especially a biblical truth that all that exists needs times of re-creation for survival – including us human beings. In the experience and history of mankind regular times of revitalisation are provided during a week, a month, a year, a century; opportunities for physical, agricultural, social and spiritual refreshment. ‘Holy times’ regain the integrity of creation, the fullness of our religious life in all its dimensions with regard to ourselves but also our society and as a source of all this: our relationship to God.
The branches of our Order also need times of revitalisation, to release the fullness of our preaching, catching fire from St. Dominic’s original vision. The “jubilee novena of years”, celebrated by our Dominican Family, is an opportunity for the renewal of our Order in all its branches according to its origin. The Jubilee started already two years ago with the memory of the 800th anniversary of the foundation of the monastery at Prouilhe and will continue until the year 2016, 800 years after the official confirmation of our Order by Pope Honorius III.
These nine years could become a real opportunity for renewal of the most numerous part of our Order, the Lay Dominicans. There are not four different torches burning separately, but rather only one; one flame spread into several tongues of fire. The symbol of the burning torch is familiar to us as Dominican Family members, taken from the well-known dream of St. Dominic’s mother when she was pregnant with him. However, what does that mean in reality, in our present day, ‘pregnant’ with our visions of preaching the Grace of God?
These novena years provide an opportunity for our vocation to catch fire anew. The torch in the famous Dominican dog’s mouth obviously reminds us of the comparison with Jesus’ words when he addresses his friends: “You are the light for the world! …Your light must shine before people so that they may see goodness in your acts and give praise to your heavenly Father” (Mt 5,14.16). St. Paul, in his first letter to the Corinthians, formulated that natural sequence by exclaiming: “Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!” The light of Grace that we received should shine and not be put under a tub. “Woe to us if we do not preach the gospel” – in that small variation the exclamation of St. Paul is also the motto of our Dominican novena years, dedicated to the renewal of our vocation.
Listening attentively to Jesus’ words we discover an important but almost hidden difference between the two sentences. Jesus says: “Your light must shine ..”, but not “You must be the light of the world”, but “You are the light …! It’s a natural and obvious quality, a ‘must’ of a light to shine, not an additional effort, a second task. We Dominicans therefore need not regard our preaching as a secondary task, a burden laid on us besides our obligations to family, employment, society and church. Catching fire from St. Dominic’s torch as ‘Lumen Ecclesiae’, as ‘Light within the Church’, should be based on the question: “How to renew the flame of our vocation?” Then the second question will be the consequence: “How can the light that comes from Christ our Lord be reflected by us to shine more effectively before people today?” Living tradition today means – using the biblical parable – holding the burning flame and it does not mean administering ash!
St. Dominic – Preacher of Grace
Within the commission that was chosen to prepare the annual themes for the jubilee years we suggested the dedication of this year 2009 to the person of our founder himself and his essential mission: St. Dominic – preacher of Grace! What could that mean for our Lay communities within the Order of Preachers? Words that are used very often lose their brightness and become meaningless and empty.That is the danger of important, holy words becoming too familiar to us. On the other hand: “Grace” , Gods Grace is a central word of the Bible, to be found there nearly 200 times. It is the essential quality of God! How can we preach that essential quality of God today, so that it really can be understood? Let me try seven translations of the word ‘Grace’– according the seven main spectral colours of the one light, reflected in the rainbow:
Grace = God loves you unconditionally!
In a commercial world of selling and buying, of producing and earning material goods, love as an unconditional gift is ‘contra-productive’ and provocative. We need to produce nothing to be loved by God. Our behaviour will perhaps cause surprise and maybe suspicion when we preach to people we meet: “I don’t want anything of you, or that you should do anything for me in return for the salvation of your soul. I want to understand and accept you. I am interested in your biography, in your hopes and disappointments, in your sorrows and joys. My decision is not based on what you can do or produce for me, what you are is much more important, as is your happiness and satisfaction. I think of you as a brother or sister, loved by God from the beginning of your life. You are much more important to me than your failures and wrong-doings”. “Nothing can divide us from God’s love!”
Grace = God created you as a unique person within a community!
In a world of isolation and anonymity the value of the single person is often neglected. The individual may be altered like an object, interchangeable merchandise. Preaching God’s grace in that situation could mean assessing the value of the individual. “I have called you by your name; you are mine ….”(Is. 43,1) – that promise, spoken by God to the prophet Isaiah, and repeated by Jesus in his words “one by one he (-the good shepherd-) calls his own sheep ...”(Jo 10.3), that promise can be realized when we regard our diversity not as a threat to our unity, but as an enrichment. In our Dominican Order we need positive personalities, even if that leads to sources of conflict. The way in which we deal with differences of opinion can also become a preaching in solving conflicts in a fair and human, Christian manner. You know that our first Dominican communities were called “Sacra Predicatio”. I was attracted to the Order of Preachers forty-six years ago because I realized that these were not faceless, interchangeable persons but strong personalities living, laughing and struggling together. The Spirit of God provokes and supports the development of different charisms within the church. So let us preach God’s Grace as unique persons, united in a community like our Dominican Family within the Catholic church!
Grace = God enables you to reflect His image!
In a world where the dignity of persons so often is humiliated, preaching God’s Grace could mean: In the tradition of our brothers Francisco de Vitoria, Antón de Montesinos, Pedro de Córdoba, Bartolomé de las Casas and many other men and women of our Order up to the present day, we advocate unrestricted respect for each human being, especially those who are disrespected and excluded. Where in our society today, and where in my orbit, are the ‘Lazarus’-persons, the ‘lepers’, the ‘poor’, the ‘blind and lame’, the ‘hungry and thirsty’, including the malicious and degenerate ones? Preaching the message of the crucified and risen Christ enables us to search and discover God’s image even in the most alienated and distorted human condition. We Dominicans recognize ourselves as those searching for the ‘truth’. This should be understood not only by the way of dogmatic definition, but also by recognizing God’s true image in the face of every human being.
Grace = God liberates you from all kinds of slavery!
In a world of slavery and retaliation the message of Grace should regain the sense of liberty. A deep sigh of relief is the body’s response to this gift of God’s love. Do we mediate this good awareness of life, when we attest our faith? In the Jewish tradition the liberation from slavery by God is the main historical and spiritual event, not only in the past, but has religious and social consequences today and for the future. “Every day one has to leave Egypt” – this old saying of wisdom also reflects our Christian understanding of salvation. There is the permanent slavery of injustice and war; the slavery of exploitation and economic dependence; there is the slavery of sin. How can God’s liberation from all kinds of slavery be preached today? Preaching justice, peace and forgiveness in word and deed must be the service of our lay sisters and brothers, especially in those places where we as friars don’t have the necessary access. It is true that the ministry of sacramental reconciliation is reserved for those with priestly ordination. However, there is also the daily ministry of forgiveness, of struggle for better human social conditions, which are entrusted to all members of the one holy people of God.
Grace = God’s compassion is unlimited!
In a world full of cruelty and suffering, we preach a God who is merciful and compassionate. The Hebrew word for mercy is ‘rechem’, the same word that was used for a mother’s womb. Jesus reflected that image of God, when he told his disciples to call God in the same manner as they address the most familiar human person, a loving father (and surely also a mother!): “Abba” – Daddy/Mummy.
Good parents are the best examples of human compassion – how much more can we attribute this characteristic to God! Compassion demonstrates a convincing preaching of God’s Grace. The apostle St. Paul invited the Christian community: “Rejoice with others, when they rejoice, and be sad with those in sorrow!” (Rom 12.15). The laughing, weeping, hoping, the disappointed, suffering and dying Jesus is the best person to reflect God for his followers. Compassion was also the most remarkable characteristic of St. Dominic, Preacher of Grace.
Grace = God entrusts His creation to you!
In our world, often exploited and misused, the care of creation is not only a motto for “green” parties or a hobby for gardeners, but is a necessary religious service. Let’s remember how my compatriot, St. Albert the Great, as itinerant preacher and teacher of St.Thomas Aquinas, found God’s traces in the wonders of his creation. In our millenium biodiversity, the current technology, reveal the abundance and variety of God himself, glorified so often in the psalms. God entrusts the earth to us, to cultivate it for the well-being and use by all; the first chapter of the Bible already gives us an orientation for our responsibility towards the process of creation. When we selfishly regard ourselves as the center of our actions of desire - symbolized by the ‚tree of life’ in the middle - , we lose the paradise, for which God provided the earth. ‚Paradise lost’, but also ‚Paradise regained’! Being a Lay Dominican preacher, includes the care of all ‚desert ’ and isolated situations, so that new green shoots of life can grow. The responsibility for the integrity of creation begins with daily care in the use of energy and the environment, continues from the awareness of healthy economic processes balanced against the difficult scientific field of bio-ethics. We need not be experts in everything, but well-informed and trained Lay Dominicans - not necessarily academic ones - could become excellent preachers of Grace in that essential area for our survival.
Grace = God nourishes and exceeds your hope!
In a world of depression and distrust we share the frustrations of our contemporaries. But we, in addition, have been given the gift of God’s Grace, with hope; “.. a hope which will not let us down, because the love of God has been poured into our hearts by the holy Spirit which has been given to us” (Rom 5,5). From where is our hope fed? Not from scientific prognoses or a basically optimistic character trait. Our hope has a human face: Jesus Christ alone! He is the sole reason for our hope. Because we trust his Word, we need not feel desperation even in the most seemingly hopeless situations. A believing community is the best breeding ground on which the most susceptible plant of hope can thrive. It is a sign of grace when we can mutually strengthen each other in hope. But God’s promises are far beyond our understanding. He wants to give us immeasurably more than we can expect in our even most optimistic dreams. Preaching God’s Grace therefore will never be satisfied with the given conditions. We aren’t born as chickens, making some desperate attempts at flight within our limited cage of life. We are born as eagles, determined to raise ourselves with the wings of hope into the sky! For that, God’s Grace gives us the necessary upcurrent.
Conclusion
Dear sisters and brothers, in each of those seven ‘spectral colours’ of Grace you could find many examples in the stories of the Holy Scripture as well as in the biography of our father St. Dominic – and hopefully in our own life stories. For we are called to continue them also! “You are the light of the world!...” Are we moving in that direction? Let us use these years of jubilee to praise, to study, to preach God’s Grace now, more and more together as one family!