Newsletter of the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer
August 1, 2005

Inauguration of the Province of St. Clement
Matran, Switzerland
Homily of Most Reverend Joseph W. Tobin, C.SS.R., Superior General

I am very happy to be invited to preach at this Eucharist, which marks the inauguration of the newest unit in the Congregation, the Provincia Sancti Clementis. I trust that the next few moments will not be too painful for you, especially my French-speaking confreres. The accent and fragile grammar clearly mark the preacher as a foreigner, but perhaps these same characteristics will remind you of the interest and solidarity of the entire Congregation in this historic moment. During the first seven months of this year, I have visited Redemptorists in seventeen different countries and I can testify that the preparation of the Province of St. Clement has provoked great curiosity and not a few questions among the confreres: Why are the Flemish, Dutch, northern German and Swiss confreres taking this step? Is this new project their own decision or is the General Government imposing it on them? Will the new Province represent simply a legal fiction or does this step signify new life for the Congregation in northern Europe?

As important as those questions are, at the beginning of this new Province let us avoid the danger of starting out from ourselves, worrying about our response and our decisions. The point of departure today is the abundant love of a God, who loves us and our world passionately. Our part will come afterward in the form of passion for Him and passion for humanity as we respond to him who loved us first (1 John 3, 10). Nor should we permit our thoughts to be dominated by great anxiety over the future of this new Province; the future is open-ended and we can only imagine how things might turn out. Instead, I invite you to reflect on how the Word of God summons the members of the Province of St. Clement to continue the compassion that God has shown the world in Jesus Christ.

The history of salvation is the story God revealing his compassion for human beings. God is the one who witnesses the affliction of his people and decides to rescue them (Ex. 3, 7-8). Even the sin of his sons and daughters becomes a felix culpa, which will merit a savior beyond their wildest imaginings. For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son…that the world might be saved through Him (Jn. 3, 16-17).

Jesus, the One who was born in the countryside on the outskirts of Bethlehem and will die outside the walls of Jerusalem, pulls up stakes and pitches His tent where nobody expects: in the dispossessed, those cast down and excluded, exactly where all hope seems lost. We will always find Him on the outside, with those whom the world has hurled far from itself.

We find Jesus in such a “place” in the reading from Mark that we have just heard. Jesus deliberately takes his hard-working disciples to a “deserted place” with the intention of giving them a little rest. However, the remoteness of the spot does not discourage the throng of people that pursues them. We can assume that these people already live on the margin of their society and religion. Many of them are Galileans, a mongrel race which disgusts the more respectable Judeans. The group almost certainly includes tax collectors, prostitutes and other social outcasts. The people are poor and do not bring enough food with them (cf. Mk 6, 36).

One consequence of the marginalization of the people moves the heart of Jesus: they appear as helpless and lost as sheep without a shepherd. The image is of people who are anxious, frightened and weary because they do not know where to go and whom to follow. These people lack both a goal as well as a guide to help them direct their lives. The compassion of Jesus does not remain a theory but spurs him to action: “he began to teach them many things”.

Of course, this passage from Mark finds a strong echo in the events that led to the founding of the Redemptorist Congregation. Alphonsus Liguori and some friends fled the turmoil of ministry in Naples for some rest in a “deserted place” along the Amalfi coast. There, on the heights above Scala, our Founder met shepherds and goatherds who moved his heart. The encounter led Alphonsus to turn his back on the city and offer to the poor of the countryside the only thing that God asks for: mercy and compassion (cf. Mi 6,8).

In Saint Alphonsus, the compassionate man who approaches the abandoned ones, we see reflected the values, convictions, and preferences of Jesus Himself: what He considers important and not important. Like the Samaritan, whom Jesus proposes as an example of compassion, Saint Alphonsus will find eternal life in those who are deprived of life.

The story of our Congregation does not begin from above, from heady discussions that revolve around the principles and rules, but from below, on the desolate margins of Church and society where people are weary, confused and forgotten. Gerard Majella, Clement Hofbauer, John Neumann and thousands of our confreres have gone to “deserted places” and felt compassion for the people they discovered there. The perspective of Redemptorists is the one that is proposed by Jesus himself: that the person who needs our help is at the center, not us.

Our Constitutions use many words to describe the people who have a claim on us: those for whom the Church has failed, those who have never heard the Church’s message or do not receive it as the “Good News” … those who suffer harm because of division in the Church (Con. 3), the poor, deprived and oppressed (Con. 4). And while our rule of life also makes provision for the pastoral care of everyday Catholics, it is clear to me that the priority of the Congregation must be for compassionate service on the margin of Church and society.

So, while there are many reasons which have urged the foundation of a new province of Redemptorists in northern Europe, the greatest purpose for the Province of St. Clement must be the revelation of the compassion of God for people, especially for those who live on the margin of Church and society. We cannot realize this purpose if we allow ourselves to settle down in surroundings and structures in which our work would no longer be missionary (cf. Con. 15), that is, if we draw back from the situations of urgent pastoral need because we are too concerned with ourselves, our advancing age, few numbers or an exaggerated need for comfort.

The Province of St. Clement will not realize the mission of our Congregation if it remains distant from people in need. The situation of the Church in northern Europe invites Redemptorists to learn how to listen better and become experts in asking questions, conversing, and sharing with others that poverty that puts us all in the same boat. In a spirit of brotherly concern, we should try to understand people’s anxious questionings and try to discover in these how God is truly revealing himself and making his plan known (Con. 19).

We can never let administrative matters become the highest priority. Some new structures that the Congregation has assumed in recent years have proven disappointing because Redemptorists have been too cautious, calculating and centered on themselves. Such an attitude ignores the persistent logic of Jesus: “Don’t measure, don’t calculate, give in love. The others will be the ones who give you back your identity, just when you thought you were going to die.” The logic of Jesus invites us to give our lives for his abundant redemption.

My brothers, the life you have embraced is neither a code of ethics nor a founding story, but rather a passion, an adventure, a risk; a journey to accomplish with your eyes and ears wide open. A pilgrimage in which the only compass guiding you to your destination is that of mercy and tenderness. I am not unaware of the fragility of our Congregation or Church in the regions of this new Province. But we will be unfaithful to our vocation if, at the beginning of the Province of St. Clement, we do not ensure that this new structure leads us to the “deserted places” where even today God wishes to reveal his compassion for people. And, if we go to that place and find that compassion invites us to give the little that we have, we can expect that Jesus will multiply our few loaves and fishes and will feed a multitude.