Frater Juan Carlos Castañeda Rojas, SCJ, is doing a ministry year in Brazil; on February 1 he renewed his vows with fellow SCJ seminarians in the country. Soon after, he reflected on the path he has taken in listening to God’s call:
It really doesn’t matter what language you speak when you are responding to God’s call. I am from Medellin, Colombia and my first language is Spanish. When I professed my first vows of obedience, poverty, and chastity with the Priests of the Sacred Heart in the US Province I did it in both Spanish and English.
On February 1, I said yes to God one more time as I renewed my vows in the Sao Paulo Province of Brazil. This time I renewed them in Portuguese. In doing so, I felt a real renewal of my vocation as a Dehonian and as a missionary by speaking the formula of vows in another language.
Before the renewal, 19 fraters, including me, gathered in a retreat house for four days. It was a very powerful experience to share this reflective time with 18 people who also felt this call to serve and give their lives completely to God; it was a contagious happiness.
During this retreat we reflected upon our vows; we were led in this by Father Claudio. In our life as consecrated men living in community our main pillar is our deep, personal union with Jesus Christ. But this union is also directed to our community life. In this way, we are called to bring the presence of Jesus Christ to all people by recognizing the great treasure that we obtained when we heard and answered God’s call.
Part of our reflection was to recognize that God calls us not because we are perfect but because of our own imperfections. And yes, it is true that we are renewed by this beautiful call, but God also wants us to be authentic and to be who we truly are by keeping true to our own identity. This is how by this call we come to follow the example of obedience, poverty and chastity found in Jesus.
Our founder, Fr. Leo John Dehon, translated our vow of obedience into “Ecce Venio” which becomes our act of oblation, an essential part of our vocation as Dehonians. Our life is translated then in total offering and abandonment to God. Our vow of poverty is lived so we may reach the human heart. This vow is lived as a journey that makes us free of any attachments. And our vow of chastity is lived as we give our heart to God; our full existence, energies, and concerns are oriented to God.
From our founder we received this example of how to dedicate ourselves to our union and communion with Jesus Christ. This is how we are called to recognize that our lives have been touched by God and that we have been called to do great things and see the face of God in each person. We need to feel the burning love of God in our hearts first to be able to bring that burning love of God to the poor and those in need.
