Each year the general superior writes a message to the congregation in preparation for the Feast of the Sacred Heart. This year, Fr. José Ornelas Carvalho focused on the administration of goods; the letter was released on June 5. The Feast of the Sacred Heart is on July 1.
Rome, June 5, 2011
Solidarity and Freedom in the Administration of Goods
Letter for the Feast of the Sacred Heart – 2011
Introduction
In his care and providence God gives us the means necessary for living and carrying out our mission. To receive these goods gratefully and to use them in keeping with his plan is important for us. To be able to live our vow of poverty in joyful fraternity and in solidarity with the very needy, we are required to reflect continuously and to check on ourselves at the personal and community level. This year we continue the examination we began with last year’s letter on the pathway of the heart and allow ourselves to be guided by the orientations of the Congregation on this topic which are most particularly found in our Rule of Life, in the Norms for the Administration of Goods (NAB), in the documents from our last General Chapter, and in the General Conference of Recife on Economics and the Kingdom of God (2000).[1]
The economy is a basic dimension of the life of every person. It is impossible to be unaware of the fact or to deal with it casually as if it were somehow independent of our fundamental options as believers AND as consecrated persons. Economic activities are integral to the plan of God who handed over the earth to men and women to work and look after (Gen. 2:15) and thus become collaborators in his creative work. By the effort needed to obtain bread by the sweat of one’s brow (Gen. 3:19) we discover the correct explanation of a proper economic order on which the human happiness, justice, and peace of persons largely depend, and so for families, communities, and society as a whole. In Jesus’ prayer, this is the first concrete petition on behalf of human existence made to our heavenly Father, i.e., the gift of our daily bread (Matt. 6:11).
The relationship between us and material goods plays a very important part in our life as consecrated persons. Whoever seeks to follow Christ needs to have an attitude of freedom which becomes the foundation of a new relationship among the members of a community united in his name. In union with him, we have learned to live as sons of God by sharing what we have received from our heavenly Father with our brothers and sisters. The vow of poverty does not relieve us from the joy and the effort of earning daily bread for ourselves and for our brothers and sisters and to work for the welfare of humanity in generous solidarity. The vow directs us to use and watch over material goods in a new way, after the summons and example of Jesus, who being rich, made himself poor for us, so that we might be enriched by his poverty (2 Cor. 8:9).
1. Freely have you received. . . Attentive to the cry of the poor
1.1. Participants in the hopes and drama of our times
The divine economy is very different from the human economy we meet in our daily experience of business and management of our planet’s resources. Awareness of this distinction allows us to see economic activity from a perspective of awareness and interest, yet free to pass a critical and judicious eye that is guided by the gospel spirit and God’s creative plan.
World economic crises are increasingly more frequent and we are feeling its dramatic effects; they evidence catastrophic results for billions of people when detached from principles of ethics and solidarity as Pope Benedict XVI pointed out in his recent encyclicals[2]. Lacking transcendent and ethical principles, man is able and disposed to fall victim to avarice, greed and the egotism that destroy the foundations of life together. We stand before a strange paradox: a society capable of remarkable scientific and technological achievements yet, at the same time, creates tremendous arrays of unhappy and disenfranchised people. Additionally, it compromises its very future with thoughtless exploitation of the planet’s resources. Economic activity is turned into a wacky machine whenever it is distanced from its goal of service to the Creator’s plan and solidarity with all mankind. Whenever it connects solely with its immense internal energy it has no purpose other than feeding its own unrestrained race toward profit, exploitation, and domination.
By committing ourselves to live the option of gospel poverty, we are especially called to be in solidarity with those who have been excluded from the goods God created for all. Listening to the cry and the protest of the poor turns us toward a re-examination of our way of life and to engage in the effort of the entire world to eradicate poverty. We are being asked to grant everyone conditions for a dignified life and to acchieve a sense of balanced respect toward creation that will permit life for future generations.
We are convinced that this goal cannot be achieved solely by technological and economic tactics but that it begins with a change of heart that establishes new relations among persons. We feel the need to purify our attitudes through freeing up the heart, through a moderate lifestyle, through sharing what we have in solidarity with the poor. We want to eliminate injustice from our society and live a style of life that can prophetically serve the Kingdom of God.
1.2. Faithful to our Charismatic Roots
Following the steps of our Foundation we discover that we have a structural dimension of our vocation in the Church when we consider the social consequences of economic activity. Drawn to and modeling himself on the Heart of Christ, expression of the immense love of God for man, Fr. Dehon developed a deep communion with the Lord that was united to a devoted social sensitivity. In Fr. Dehon, these two aspects were intrinsically united. He had, as a result, to endure criticisms and accusations from many – including some from within the Congregation – who were accustomed to think of social activity as a betrayal of the mystical and contemplative dimensions that traditionally were used to characterize Sacred Heart spirituality. For Fr. Dehon, “it is necessary that the worship of the Heart of Jesus begin with the mystical life of a soul so that it can then flow out and penetrate the social life of peoples”.[3] The love of the Heart of Christ, when pondered and lived, naturally flows into a force that renews the person not only in his relationships but also as energy for social transformation: “the love of Christ ought to expand outward into energy able to renovate society”.[4]
This deep and fruitful bond between spirituality and social commitment was a constant factor in the life and mission of Fr. Dehon. We find him doing works that are directly connected with the neediest and most victimized by abusive economic systems found at the outset of the Industrial Age. We have clear indication of his participation in movements aimed at transforming political and economic mindsets and structures that underlie these problems. St. John College and the work of youth formation, the numerous periodicals and social writings, his preaching of the social encyclicals and involvement in the socio-political congresses and movements of his day all clearly testify to the social and political consequences the Founder drew from his deep contemplation of the love of the Heart of Christ. According to the unifying logic of the pathway of the heart, it is not possible to separate the sacred from the profane, the spiritual from the material. Our faith in God and the transformation worked in us by his Spirit are called to penetrate all aspects of our personal and social life. The economy of man cannot be maintained apart from the economy of God.
Enlightened by this influx of love, symbolized by the Heart of Christ, we are called to think through our relations with material things both within our communities as well within as our Congregation. Our personal needs, our financial plans, and our sharing of wealth should seriously take into consideration the world situation in which we find ourselves and be oriented according to God’s plan. We need to put them at the service of building fraternity, justice, and the dignity God wants for every man and woman found on the face of this earth.
2. Do not gather up riches. . .The heart of a poor person
2.1. Open to the Treasure of the Father’s Love
The economic life of our day, with both its possibilities and troubles, serves as a primary field for confrontation and examination by our faith and commitment as persons and communities. Jesus himself made such examination of this reality essential to the life of human beings. He understood the fatigue of carpenters, of seed-sowers, and housewives; he understood the drama of losing a precious coin or a sheep and then finding them; he understood the hope and exultation of the harvest and the neurotic and vain thirst for accumulating wealth; he understood the value of an honest administrator and the corruption of administrations given to bribe seeking; he understood the true value of the penny donated by the widow and venal blasphemy of those who used holy things to enrich themselves; he understood the gift of bread and fish from a young boy and the insensitivity of the rich man to a beggar at his door; he understood the concern to find food for the crowd that followed him about and the need for trust in the provident goodness of the Father who feeds the birds of the air . . . At all this, Jesus casts a glance both critical and free which is a fruit of his intimate communion with the Father and Lord of the universe and his plan for a new order of relationships among men on this earth.
Jesus never talks specifically about economics yet he always sees the goods of this world in their relationship with persons and the Father’s plan. In fact, this is the first change in a point of view that is recommended to us: economic activity is not an end in itself. It should lead to its original purpose of service to people according to the Creator’s plan. Accounts of the multiplication of bread make this double reference clear from Jesus’ activity. He takes bread, blesses God lifting his eyes to heaven, and then distributes it to the people to eat (Cf. Matt. 14:19). Lifting eyes to heaven and blessing express the joyful recognition that bread is God’s gift put into our hands. Still more, it represents our grateful awareness of the love of the Father and Creator who provides food for every creature. Proceeding from this eye on the provident goodness of God, distribution becomes natural and consistent with the origin and purpose of bread. The one who shares is not seen as the master of bread but rather as one who serves God by seeing that each one receives the goods God created for the welfare of all. These activities of Jesus embrace the beginnings of the social revolution of the Gospel. Use of the same formula in the accounts of the Eucharist serve to teach that fraternal sharing is the fundamental element in a global outlook on life. It can thus be conceived as a joyful trust in the goodness and power of God and as a generous gift to others, to multiply bread and life.
In light of all this, one can understand the proclamation of the beatitude of the poor in spirit which sets the tone and, in a certain sense, contains the entire discourse of the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5:1ff). With it, Jesus does not at all demonstrate any kind of skeptical vision over the goods created by God. Nor does he advocate some kind of resignation by the poor or any kind of revenge on the rich. Instead he calls those happy who deliberately (proceeding from their spirit/heart) understand and accept into their lives the power and love of the heavenly Father. He is the source not only of all the necessary goods of this earth but of every kind of good essential to any full life and happiness among his sons and daughters.
A gospel outlook on the economic world at a personal level, a family, community, or social level, cannot be made without reference to the completeness and transcendence of God’s design for each person and for all mankind. The alternative to the plan for the blessedness of the poor, the sons and daughters of God, is well known. Without the presence of the true Lord of the universe, other lords intervene, but they lack the might, the wisdom, and the goodness of his power. Feeling the weight of their own limitations, they seek to control and master the goods of this world, vainly seeking to possess a power they cannot possess. In their own image, they propose a beatitude of possession, pleasure, and dominion. In their hands, the goods and wealth of the world not only never bring happiness to the hearts of people who look for it but frequently become the object of conflict and violence. They are used as means of corruption, pretension, and coercion, thereby moving away from their basic purpose of promoting an honorable life for people and ending up destroying the ecological equilibrium that allows for life on our planet.
We find within ourselves the instinct to possess and dominate as well as the seed of a childlike experience of God. Like all living things, we too feel the natural impulse to survive and continue the species. As rational beings, equipped with immense scientific and technical possibilities we are evermore conscious of our formidable powers for development and destruction. We are aware of the enormous responsibility to use them to avoid catastrophes and to insure our common future. It is into this humanity that the blessedness of the poor is inserted, as children of God in the Spirit. By opening the prospects of human destiny to the omnipotence and eternal love of God, human existence and the means that make it possible come to be seen in a different light and with different value.
The experience of this childlike dependence is not connatural to our human experience; instead it is a gift of the Spirit. Hence, we need a way to teach the heart in the light of the Heart of Christ. Those who follow this way are able to use the goods of this earth from God joyfully and gratefully without ever becoming their slaves; to consider themselves administrators of the Creator so that everyone can benefit by his gifts; never to become lost among the crumbs of felicity found along the way but, along with their brothers and sisters, to use every means at their disposition to reach the home their Father has prepared for them in his love.
Jesus himself lived this freeing, human, and joyful rapport with the goods of creation and proposed the same to those who hold fast to his gospel according to their condition of life. Within the church, consecrated life seeks to respond to this invitation as a prophetic sign of the new world of the Spirit. The church lives it as a basis for new relations of solidarity and sharing among persons, as a participation in the creating and provident plan of God and in witness to the primacy of his Kingdom which brings with it every other gift. It seeks to live and witness freedom, joy, and fraternal solidarity over the goods of this world, the same that Jesus himself proposed by his word and example.
2.2. Called to the freedom and joy of a heartfelt solidarity.
The beatitude of the poor/children of God is the source of a great freedom and existential joy. Persons who choose to follow Christ is called to receive it as a gift and develop it according to their condition in life, whether in a family as for example in a religious community or in whatever service to other people. This joyful freedom grows in the measure in which one is able to shed dependence upon things and power in a renunciation that goes so far even as one’s own life. Presenting himself to those who sought to follow him as one who did not even have a “place to lay his head” (Luke 9:58) Jesus became the model and the way toward this emancipation of the sons and daughters of God. Such renunciation does not lead to an existential vacuum or void, the annihilation of the person or a snuffing out of the creative energy of desire. Instead it creates the space in which to live one’s life with new passion in the shadow of the hand of the Father. It leads to a new plan which absorbs all energy and resources: the Kingdom of God.
In consecrated life, we are called to live this invitation to joy and freedom in a special way. We are not speaking about a thoughtless and reckless attitude of someone who has a roof, bed and table, an easy and tranquil life assured but closed to the needs of others. Such existence would lead only to a lazy and sterile boredom, a denial of the gospel imperative. The fruits of evangelical poverty are produced instead from the soil of a simple life in keeping with the ambiance where one lives; in the personal and communitarian deliverance from whatever is not necessary for one’s life and mission; in the renunciation to privilege that accrue from goods and power; in a distancing from plans, careers, instruments, places and persons so that one can go where the needs of the Kingdom call us. This necessary detachment allows us to free up means, time, and energy to be consecrated to listening to God, to humanizing relations with all around us, to an active collaboration in the construction of a new world according to the gospel plan.
To illustrate this way we can refer to two typical figures that are well known. From a negative perspective, the rich young man of the gospel (Mark 10:17ff) is the image of a serious person who dreamed and desired a better life. But he went away sad because he was not able to separate himself from his many riches. From a positive perspective, the radical choice of Francis of Assisi always speaks to the Church. Being forced to choose between his family inheritance and Christ’s call to poverty, he divested himself in public and gave his clothing to his father saying: now I can say truthfully, “Our Father who art in heaven”!
2.3. Industrious Administrators of God’s Gifts
According to the logic of the beatitudes, freedom before the goods of earth is at the service of sharing just as the spirit of sonship leads to fraternity. Thus, the way of gospel poverty does not lead to misery but produces abundance, communion, peace, and real development. Usually, the struggle to control goods leads to tension, violence, and destruction. These unleash the instinct for personal or group possession and end up creating new classes of wealthy and excluded. The gospel revolution, instead, seeks to multiply bread by changing hearts and leading to generous sharing and transformation of structures that exclude and the creation of communities in solidarity.
In light of all this, one can understand that the option for evangelical poverty in consecrated life does not dispense anyone from the duty to contribute according to one’s abilities to the needs of the community and of those with need. God expects each one to develop and make fruitful what he has received, as a good administrator, by not thinking about things as exclusively his own. He presents himself as the Master who rejoices in the creativity and initiative of his servants. He cannot accept those who out of fear, egotism, or laziness hide way and make sterile the gifts they received to make something out of (Cf. Luke, 19:12ff). In this way, more than the sufficiency of goods, what counts is the attitude of life. The solution to the hunger of the multitude begins with a small but generous and total gift of a young boy (John 6:9) and the tiny coin of a poor widow – all she had to live on –; these are worth more than the gifts for show on the part of the many rich (Mark 12:41ff).
These gospel images illustrate the generous and fraternal freedom toward the goods of the earth rather well. They characterize a life totally consecrated to God for service to others in all aspects of life. Our elderly brothers are called to live out their own gift even when their energies no longer are capable of full participation in all aspects of community life. They are not a weight we have to carry but a living expressing of that full dedication to the Kingdom that leads to consummation for love of Christ and the brothers. This is the greatest treasure we can offer. They continue to contribute to the life and mission of the men by their fidelity, prayer, and very often they make their pensions or services available so that bread, joy, justice, and peace are not lacking to the community or the world.
3. They held everything in common. . . Sharing of Goods in Community
3.1. Ready to pass from I to We and from Mine to Ours
Inspired by the life of the Lord Jesus, the Congregation follows the model of the first Christian communities in their sharing of goods. The Acts of the Apostles testify that they had one mind and heart which was found even in their sharing of goods in common. They were accustomed not to have poor among them and to work toward a relation of community and solidarity that made the gospel preached by the apostles believable (Acts 4:32ff).
Putting everything at the disposition of the community arose from the awareness that all they had came from God through their own labor or the generosity of other brothers and sisters. This foundational attitude led to a new sense of communion in which each one entrusted himself to the hands of others while seeking to care for them too. In this way, material goods, as well as time, talent, and plans are not only mine but ours. Now such a relationship can be understood where there is a spirit of trust and belief in common values. It arises when one sees oneself as member of a discipleship following the Lord Jesus. Without such freedom and independence from material goods and sharing them in common, it does not make sense to speak of religious life and fraternal community.
For this reason, one can understand the seriousness of deceit in the management of material goods in the community which the Acts make explicit in the story of Ananias and Sapphira (Cf Acts 5:1ff). Here it is not a matter of fraud and economic exploitation or harm done to others, but a betrayal of trust; a lack of honesty and basic truthfulness; an attempt to eradicate true communion; a radical denial of the gospel option expressed in religious profession.
The basic principles of sharing material goods among us are very simple. They are based on freedom, joy, and solidarity which proceed from a heart that is grateful to God for his gifts open to the brothers for building a new way of relating, and inspired by the following of Christ.
For each one of us, it is concretely expressed by:
- Maintaining a simple and temperate lifestyle which is a sign of freedom, generosity and solidarity after the example of Christ;
- Turning over to community use all that we possess, earn, or is given to us in truth, transparency, and fraternity;
- Depending on the community for all that we need to live on and work for, keeping in mind the location we live in and the work we do;
- Actively collaborating in obtaining and managing the goods that belong to all according to our condition and duties.
The common burse is not, therefore, an option for some entities or for the more generous among us, but one of the essential pillars of the Religious Life of our Institute. In it we turn over not only part of what we possess or received, but absolutely everything honestly and transparently. From the same common burse we receive what we require according to each one’s needs and the demands of the ministry, all the while observing a simple and free lifestyle. This includes plans adopted by the community, even if they are financed by others, so that the community aspect is always present in our way of planning and carrying out our mission.
The common burse is practiced at various levels in the life of our Congregation.
- First and foremost, it is practiced at the level of each local community. That is the place where effective sharing of material goods among the members and participating in decision-making take place under the direction of the superior and the management of the treasurer.
- It should be found in the various communities belonging to each entity in order to achieve true communion and the common apostolic project. With respect to local management within the limits of established norms, the material goods of each community should be looked upon as common and under the direction of the major superior so that some communities are not too well off while others are lacking what they need.
- Solidarity in such sharing should be evident then to the entire Congregation as an expression of the communion that goes beyond nationalities and cultures, and as a participation in the common world-wide mission and as an expression of sensitivity toward the most needy on this earth.
The Norms for the Administration of Goods (NAB) are designed to specify these principles and provide everyone of us and our communities with the orientation needed to follow the path of wealth sharing, while tracking the increasingly greater complexity of the economic life of our times. Knowledge and observance of these norms is everyone’s duty. They establish important principles for justice, solidarity, and communion among us. They are intended to avoid discrepancies and injury and to make that charity that underlies all these processes more effective and visible.
3.2. Co-responsibility in the Pursuit and Management of Material Goods
According to the plan of creation, Christ’s gift, and our own consecration, the matter of material goods and economic activity is never a personally private affair, but always has a relational dimension that involves other people. Thus, even the management of goods put into common use is never a personal matter but ought to involve the entire community; this is true for obtaining them, as well as in discerning and deciding on how they are to be managed.
Such co-responsibility is expressed in various ways:
- By a conscious effort of each one to find the resources necessary and responsibly to care for and use the means made available for each one’s use;
- By giving the community accurate accounts of one’s revenues and expenses;
- By participating with the entire community in the financial discernment and planning process according to one’s involvement and duties;
- Through the roles of local and entity counselor as well as membership on finance commissions which require being heard before any financial decisions are made.
As regards the matter of discernment in financial matters, each religious should be aware, not only of the financial situation of his community or entity or of how much can be spent according to available resources, he needs to always have before him the simple lifestyle which is part and parcel of our gospel choice so that we can be true to the mission of the entire Congregation. The cry of the poor, far and near, needs to be heard.
3.3. Careful Administrators of Community Goods
In our Congregation, management of materialities are given to Treasurers under the direction of the Superiors. Treasurers are not, thereby, owners of the same but simply administer what belongs to the entire community or entity. As such, they must always be heard through their legitimate channels in relationship to ordinary living as well as extraordinary decisions. The complimentary roles and functions of the superior and treasurer need to be respected along with the voice of the entire community; this is necessary to achieve fraternal harmony, solidarity and fidelity.
The treasurer takes care of managing the economic life of the community, entity, or Congregation according to our norms and mission. He keeps accounts accurately and with transparency and prepares budgets in the same way. He has direct responsibility for resources. He must keep in mind that for direction and decision-making, he depends on the superior who himself must consult or obtain approval from his council. The image of the careful and attentive brother is evident in the service of the treasurer who administers the goods given by God, the provident Father of all, so that no one has to do without. His service is not secondary to but is an essential element in the life and mission of every community. In addition to seeing to what is necessary to the life of the confreres, he should assist them in living the spirit of moderation, sharing, and solidarity which must characterize our rapport with the economic world.
In our day, financial matters seem to require ever greater competence and specific preparation. We are making great efforts to train people for this service. The course for treasurers scheduled for 2012 is one such example. We are aware, however, of the need to intensify this process of specialization among our brothers at the entity level and at the Congregational level. At the same time, we feel to need to have recourse to professionals in this field, especially in the administration of institutions which are dependent on us or which correspond to laws specific to each country.
The training challenge, which is one of the great priorities we have assumed for the Congregation, has special significance in the field of finances and should be taken very seriously by each of our entities. This involves the acquisition of specific technical abilities, as well as humane, social, and spiritual qualities. This training effort can assist us in understanding the problems of our times and help us live the freedom, solidarity, and communion that issue from our vow of poverty at the individual level and at the community level.
Conclusion
As we come closer to the feast of the Heart of Jesus, in a special way we wish to learn from Him the love he had in solidarity with mankind leading him to offer his entire life for men as a sign of the Father’s love: Rich as he was, he made himself poor for your sake, in order to make you rich by his poverty (2 Cor. 8:9).
It is from him that we learn the free and simple lifestyle, the fruit of his trust in the generosity and goodness of his heavenly Father and which lead to communion and brotherhood among us.
Transformed by his Spirit, we put all our gifts from God together on behalf of the life and mission of our brothers and to open our hearts to the most needy.
In our following his footsteps, we place ourselves in solidarity with those who seek to repair for injustice and exploitation of the weakest, to multiply bread for the hungry, and to promote the harmonious development that preserves the marvelous work of the Creator God for future generations.
We wish you a very happy Feast of the Heart of Jesus
Fr. José Ornelas Carvalho
SCJ Superior General
And his Council
Index
Introduction 1
1. Freely have you received. . . Attentive to the cry of the poor 2
1.1. Participants in the hopes and drama of our times 2
1.2. Faithful to our Charismatic Roots 2
2. Do not gather up riches. . .The heart of a poor person 3
2.1. Open to the Treasure of the Father’s Love 3
2.2. Called to the freedom and joy of a heartfelt solidarity. 5
2.3. Industrious Administrators of God’s Gifts 6
3. They held everything in common. . . Sharing of Goods in Community 6
3.1. Ready to pass from I to We and from Mine to Ours 6
3.2. Co-responsibility in the Pursuit and Management of Material Goods 8
3.3. Careful Administrators of Community Goods 8
Conclusion 9
We wish you a very happy Feast of the Heart of Jesus 9
Index 10
[1] Besides those documents listed above and published in various languages, one can also add the March 4, 1981letter of Fr. Antonio Panteghini.
[2] See Especially, God is Love, nn. 26-29 and Charity in Truth, nn. 34ff.
[3] “Il faut que le culte du Sacré-Coeur commence dans la vie mystique des âmes, descende et pénètre dans la vie social des peoples” (Oeuvres socials, vol. 1, pg. 3).
[4] “La charité du Christ devait se répandre avec une puissance nouvelle, capable de renouveler la société” (La démocratie et le Sacré-Coeur, in Oeuvres socials, vol. 1, pg. 30).
