The experience of the Risen in Charles de FOUCAULD. Retrait of Easter 2021 os Spanish fraternity. Aquilino MARTÍNEZ.

Posted on by

“If Christ is not risen, our preaching is vain, your faith is also vain” (1 Cor 15:14)

When I made the decision to be one of those who would offer a few words in this Easter retreat, of this unique Easter in the midst of a pandemic, the first thing that arose in me was a question: what did Charles de Foucauld say about Jesus? risen? Is there any statement of yours, or any comment of yours, about the resurrection of Jesus? Actually, at first he had no answer, he was blank.

But, surely, Charles de Foucauld himself had to bear in mind that forceful affirmation of Paul, with which I wanted to begin this reflection: “If Christ was not risen, our preaching is vain, your faith is also vain.”

It must be remembered, first of all, that CdF is not a theologian. And, therefore, his objective in sharing his writings, letters, comments to the gospel … is not to propose an orderly and structured exposition of the faith. His is not a catechism of the Catholic faith, or a theology book. CdF is recording in writing what he discovers and deepening in his prayer, in his abandonment, and, also, in his incarnate life, close to those who do not know Jesus, and the poorest and most suffering .

On the other hand, at some point it may give the feeling that CdF has only stayed in Nazareth, ignoring the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Jesus. But it is not exactly that. He does not cut Jesus, keeping only the first part of his life, and discarding the public life and the finishing touch of him. CdF knows very well the entire public life of Jesus, especially his death and resurrection. Certainly, the redemptive cross of Jesus and the victory of the resurrection had to be part of his prayer and contemplation on many occasions. Without a doubt, he had to include the death of Jesus in this dynamic of descent from God. And the meditation on the resurrection of Jesus was able to confirm in CdF that, indeed, “if the grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it bears much fruit.” Although it does not express it in an explicit way and, much less, academic or theological, for CdF there is a unity and coherence between the hidden life of Jesus, and his public life, which culminates in his death and resurrection, and in which we participate in through the Holy Spirit (Pentecost).

“As soon as I understood that there was a God, I understood that I could not do anything other than live only for Him.” This phrase, at the beginning of his conversion and mission, makes us understand that he has discovered the God of the living and of life. She immediately goes to orient her spirituality towards Jesus, and him in Nazareth. Although without neglecting her total trust in God, as is reflected in the prayer of her abandonment. But her main gaze is going to be directed towards Jesus, in Nazareth. That Jesus is alive, he is not an idea or an ideology, or a theology, or a mere “story” (as so much is said now). He is a lively and very present person.

For Brother Charles, one of the strong presences of that living Jesus is the Eucharist: “The Eucharist is Jesus, it is all Jesus! In the holy Eucharist, you are all whole, all living my Well-Beloved Jesus. As fully as you were in the house of the Holy Family of Nazareth … as you were in the midst of your Apostles. ” (174 Meditation on the Gospel). The expression “all living” gives us to understand that, for Brother Charles, the Eucharist prolongs the presence of the risen Jesus. At another moment he affirms, remembering and commenting on the words of Jesus at the Last Supper: “<< This is my body… this is my blood… >> Mt. 26, 26-28. This infinite grace of the Holy Eucharist, how much it must make us love such a good God, a God so close to us… How much the Holy Eucharist must make us tender, good, for all men. ” (Meditation in 1897). He also puts words on the lips of Jesus, about the Eucharist: “Contemplate me lovingly: it is the only thing necessary and it is what I love the most … If you understood the happiness that there is in being at my feet and looking at me …” (Retrait in Nazareth. November 1897). In this other reflection he is even more explicit about the permanent presence of Jesus among us: “God, to save us, has come to us, he has mixed with us in the most familiar and close contact … For the salvation of our souls, he continues to come to us, mingling with us, living with us in the closest contact, every day and every hour in the Holy Eucharist… ”(Regulations and Directory, 1909).

All these quotes on the Eucharist and Eucharistic adoration speak to us of faith of a CdF convinced of the living presence of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. Not only that, but he understands his task, his mission, his presence among Muslims and those in need, from that living presence of Jesus in the Eucharist and in Eucharistic adoration. Without the profound experience of that Eucharistic presence, life is no longer an imitation of Nazareth, as CdF understands it. And on the positive side: contemplating and soaking up well that real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist pushes you, launches you into a personal presence in the world and among people as in Nazareth, in the style of Jesus.

The other strong presence of the risen Jesus, for Brother Charles, is the poor. There are many references to the poor in the writings of Brother Charles. I select some, of which we can intuit their faith in Jesus risen and present: “There is, I believe, no word of the Gospel that has had on my deepest impression, and has transformed my life more, than that:` Everything you do to one of these little ones, you do it to me. If we think that these words are those of the uncreated truth … With what force are we led to seek and love Jesus in these ‘little ones, these sinners, these poor people, putting all our spiritual means at the service of conversion, and all our means materials for the relief of temporary miseries ”. (Letter to Louis Massignon, April 1, 1916).

CdF does not make a theological reflection on the “presence” of the risen Jesus in the poor and the little ones, but it is evident that he has no doubt about the permanence of Jesus alive in them, and that this moves him. On the one hand, he perceives, he sees the risen Jesus in the last. On the other hand, he receives the call to bring that living Jesus closer to everyone, as can be seen from this other statement of his: “To be able to lead a very contemplative life, doing everything to everyone, to give Jesus to everyone” (June 1902, conclusion of the retirement). That is, he wants to see Jesus alive in the poor, and he wants others to see that Jesus alive, through him, through his witness.

I cannot resist recalling one of the best known Gospel texts on the presence of the risen Jesus: the disciples of Emmaus (Lk. 24, 13-34). We know the whole scene very well. I am going to stick only to the final moment, when the two pilgrims invite Jesus to stay with them, and Jesus accepts:

“And he went in to stay with them. And it happened that, when he was at the table with them, he took the bread, pronounced the blessing, broke it and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, but he disappeared from her side. They said to each other, “Wasn’t our hearts burning within us when he spoke to us on the road and explained the Scriptures to us?” And immediately getting up, they returned to Jerusalem and found the Eleven gathered and those who were with them, saying: “It is true! The Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon! They, for their part, told what had happened on the way and how they had met him in the breaking of bread. (Lk. 24, 29-34)

Interestingly, it is at the end, when Jesus is no longer physically present, that he seems to be most present. And that other presence, more interior, deeper, is what gives the disciples a new impulse. First, to remember all his journey in the key of Jesus (“Didn’t our hearts burn as he spoke to us along the way and explained the scriptures to us?”). Later, to join the other disciples to tell them what happened. Pablo d’Ors says, in an approach to this scene and, specifically, to this moment, that those of Emmaus have the freedom to interpret what has happened to them. And think and confirm what has happened to them. This is faith: not an imposition but a proposition, because it respects our freedom.

In a free reading of the life of CdF, in the light of this gospel of the disciples of Emmaus, we could say that, when CdF was, apparently, “back” from everything, the living God comes out to meet him to tell him to continue standing there in the midst of disappointments and falls. That living God had already made himself present, in some way, in the strong religious experience of the Muslims. The God of the living and of life uses different moments and people to meet us and become a companion on the journey. But it is in that church, in that conversation and confession with Father Huvelín, which was followed by the reception of the Body of Christ, when brother Charles “eyes were opened” and he was able to re-read his life from faith. We cannot stop listening, once again, to his memory of that moment when he was converted, that is to say, when he discovered new eyes: “As soon as I believed that there was a God, I understood that I could do nothing but live for him. My religious vocation dates from the same time as my faith. God is so great! There is so much difference between God and everything that he is not ”. His path, from that moment on, we know him.

The living God that he sees and senses in that initial moment, will shortly guide him and incarnate him in Jesus of Nazareth, and Jesus in Nazareth. We could say that his Emmaus throws him to Nazareth. His experience of his living translates her to everyday life, to the hidden life, to the simple and normal life. And as we have remembered in the first part of this presentation, you are going to keep this Jesus alive in the Eucharist and in the poor very much in mind.

For us too, as for CdF, this Easter can be an occasion to rediscover our “Emmaus in Nazareth”. In other words, the risen Jesus continues to be present in our daily lives and in the simple lives of the people we usually meet. In the simplicity of day to day, and in the simple and poor of each day, we can sense the gentle presence of the risen one. Or we can be ourselves, in our Nazareth, a simple instrument of the risen Jesus to make himself present and bring his new life closer to others.

Possible questions for personal reflection:

1. At what moments in my priestly life, perhaps of disappointment or pastoral disappointment, have I noticed the gentle presence of the risen Jesus?

2. How do I perceive the risen Jesus in everyday life, in my usual Nazareth? How can others perceive it through me?

3. Of all that I know of the life and spirituality of CdF, what stands out to me the most in relation to the risen one?

Aquilino MARTÍNEZ, regional responsible

(Translator’s note: thank you for your understanding and compassion)

PDF: The experience of the Risen in Charles de FOUCAULD, retrait Easter 2021, Aquilino MARTÍNEZ

The Eucharist challenging the time we live. Claude RAULT

Posted on by

If there is one dimension that the Covid pandemic has disturbed, and in depth, in our Christian life, it is indeed our “Eucharistic practice”, and we are all equal in this great disturbance.

All equal ? Yes, because even as a priest, celebrating on my own is for me, as for many others, a challenge that I also sometimes experienced on returning from my Saharan tours: I celebrated alone in the small oratory of my bishopric. But, I have to say it … without ever having the feeling of being completely alone!

It is true that the “deal” has changed since the de-containments, but this measure is not general around the world.

There have been many reflections in the Church on the meaning of the Eucharistic celebration revived on this occasion. Rather than seeing this situation first as a kind of lack, or even amputation, shouldn’t we take it better as a happy challenge to our faith?

Isn’t this an opportunity to take a fresh look at a “practice” that always risks the wear and tear of habit? But I know that I am also addressing people who are often already deprived of a regular Eucharist, I cannot exclude them from a new look at the reality that is theirs. They too would have a lot to tell us.

I would also like to warn us against a practice that risks becoming habitual (unless there is no other possibility): that of Masses followed through the screen, which can individualize the Eucharist and to turn it into a “spiritual show” of which we would quickly risk becoming mere spectators. That being said, if you don’t have only this means, why not take it? The important thing is to keep our belonging to the Body of Christ and to the small cell of this Body to which we belong alive.

Charles de Foucauld in the desert: an illuminating situation

To stay in the mind of Charles de Foucauld, I refer first to him who had wanted to become a priest in order to share this treasure which he had discovered and from which he had drawn for many years.

“This divine banquet of which I became the minister, it was necessary to present it not to the brothers, to the parents, to the rich neighbors, but to the most lame, to the most blind, to the poorest, to the most abandoned lacking the most priests” (To Maxime Caron, Beni Abbès, April 8, 1905). What was to become of this priestly vocation centered on the celebration of the Eucharist in often precarious and uncertain conditions?

In Beni Abbes, he could quite easily and regularly celebrate given the presence of French Christian soldiers. During his accompanied journeys too, since he could carry what he needed with him.

To settle in Tamanrasset things would get complicated as he was going to be practically alone, in the absence of a local military garrison. He would have to wait for the passage of a possible servant to celebrate. He told his bishop of this tension when he was given the opportunity to go to the Hoggar:

“The question you ask – is it better to stay at the Hoggar without being able to celebrate Holy Mass, or to celebrate it and not go – I have often asked myself… I believe that it is better to go to Hoggar in spite of everything. , leaving it to the good Lord to give me the means to celebrate, if he wishes (which he has always done until now by the most diverse means) … (Letter to Father Guérin on July 2, 1907 ). And he continues in the same letter: “Residing alone in the land is good; there is action; even without doing much, because we become “of the country” we are so affordable and so “very small”

Finally, he opts for confidence and prefers to stay in Hoggar, even with the risk of not being able to celebrate Mass or adore the Blessed Sacrament. To live like Jesus in Nazareth is for him first, and to be embodied in this people seems to him the most important in imitation of Jesus. He was unable to celebrate Mass on Christmas 1907, for example, sorry that he could not offer the Altar Sacrifice for lack of passages. The permission arriving from Rome at the end of January 1908, it was joy! But he will not be able thereafter and for a long enough time to keep the Blessed Sacrament in his chapel, permission will come only later.

The situation we are living in is therefore not unusual and to a certain extent Brother Charles lived it, and in deep loneliness; the choice to enter into his Spiritual Family marks us very deeply even in this aspect. His experience therefore speaks to us in the heart of the destitution that we can experience, and can even become inspiring to better live this “absence”. But for this, we must return to the meaning of the presence of the “Body of Christ”, which cannot be restricted or even “confined” to the sole “real presence” of the Eucharist in the tabernacle or in the celebration. The Body of Christ has two arms, each equally “sacramental”.

His Presence is not limited to that which we adore or celebrate in the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar, it is also real in what is called “the Sacrament of the Brother”. One is inspired by the Last Supper, the other by the washing of the feet. And here we are faced with the same mystery which cannot be reduced to one or the other. Christ is really present in the Sacrament of the Eucharist. He is also really present in this gesture which He makes when washing the feet of His disciples, and which signifies the Sacrament of the Brother. They complement each other, called each other, if the Sacrament is double the reality of the Presence of Jesus is one: It cannot be divided.

Eucharist and Sacrament of the Altar.

Let us return to the institution of the Eucharist on the evening of Holy Thursday: we are at a crucial moment when Jesus is going to visibly leave this Earth to join his Father, giving his life, shedding his blood “to bring together in unity the children of God dispersed ”(Jn 11,52). He will do this with a gesture that is part of the paschal meal and that he will pass on to his Apostles, who will pass it on to future generations. I refer you to the first account of the Institution that the apostle Paul relates to us in 1 Cor 11,23-26.

Almost from the time of Jesus’ departure from the apostolic community, the latter therefore gathered regularly, “faithful to the breaking of bread” (Acts 2,42). This was to respond to his invitation: “Do this in remembrance of me” (Lk 22:19). But it is much more about the simple repetition of a liturgical ritual. It is good to go all the way, to follow Christ by giving our life in turn for the salvation of the world, as He did. We understand here the very engaging character of the Eucharist, the celebration of which is essential in the life of the Church, and this since its birth. It has surely taken on many aspects. First celebrated in hiding, in the form of a domestic liturgy, then more openly when the Church has been able to live in visibility. And these two forms remain very current according to the possibilities and the situations, the number of the ecclesial community. The Eucharistic celebration remains one of the essential pillars of the Church.

Even more when in her men and women engage in consecrated life. This is not a question of individual piety, but of the very meaning we give to our life: “It is not possible that we live our consecrated life in the world surrounded as we are by everything that can help us forget the Lord, if we do not courageously take the absolutely essential means to remain faithful. And the first of these means is the sacrifice of the Mass where the Lord visibly gives himself to us to strengthen us, to deprive us, to transform us little by little into Him ”. (From Margot Poncet. June 1958. Diaries P. 93.) We cannot relativize attendance at Mass, as if it was only required occasionally. It is at the heart of our lives. And Eucharistic adoration prolongs it and makes us deepen our belonging to the dead and risen Christ and to the community to which we belong. But it is also for our humanity that we participate in it, as “as an embassy”. The whole Eucharist is celebrated “For the glory of God and the salvation of the world”. We put on the paten the bread of our lives and poured into the cup the wine of our sorrows and our joys, that is to say all the hope and all the suffering of our world. And we receive there the living Christ, given as food. Linked to the Communion of Saints, this celebration is uninterrupted throughout the world, whether or not we can participate in it bodily.

Eucharist and Sacrament of the Brother

The other arm of Christ is as essential as the one we have just mentioned, it is the one that was revealed to us during the washing of the feet, before His Glorification (Jn 13). It should be noted that the Institution of the Eucharist is not related in John’s account. It is evoked in the “sharing of bread” of chapter 5. No doubt that the “Breaking of Bread” was frequent in the Church at this late period of the 4th Gospel and that a new light had to be shed on this other Real Presence. of Jesus, manifested through our neighbor. What does Jesus say after washing the feet of his disciples? “This is an example that I have given you so that you too may do as I have done for you” (Jn 13,15). This word echoes that pronounced during the Institution: “Do this in remembrance of me” (Lk 22:19).

During the pandemic, the charitable work of the Church remained active, and even churches opened to welcome the poor and give them this daily bread essential to their life and that of their families. They were aided in this by a good number of volunteers from backgrounds quite indifferent to the Church. We cannot say that it has nothing to do with the Eucharist! In a meditation on the “multiplication of the loaves” (Mt 14,13-21), during the Angelus of August 2, Pope Francis comments: “In this Gospel account, the reference to the Eucharist is obvious, especially when it describes the blessing, the breaking of the bread, the giving to the disciples, the distribution to the people (v. 19). It should be noted how close the link between the Eucharistic bread, food for eternal life, and the daily bread, necessary for earthly life, is. Before offering himself as the Bread of salvation, Jesus takes care of the food of those who follow him and who, in order to be with him, have forgotten to make provisions. Sometimes spirit and matter are contrasted, but in reality spiritualism, like materialism, is alien to the Bible. “

If Charles de Foucauld was strongly marked by the Eucharist, he was also marked by the presence of Jesus in the poor, the little, the abandoned. He wrote to Louis Massignon shortly before his death:

“There is no word of the Gospel that has made a deeper impression on me and transformed my life more than this: ‘Everything that you do to one of these little ones, it is to me that you do it’. If one thinks that these words are those of the uncreated Truth, those of the mouth which said ‘This is my body, this is my blood’ with what force one is brought to seek and love JESUS ​​in these little ones, these sinners, these poor people, bringing all their material resources to the relief of temporal miseries … ”(Tamanrasset, August 1, 1916)

This is what unites the Sacrament of the Altar and the Sacrament of the Brother! We cannot say that opening a church to feed the poor has nothing to do with the Eucharist! We cannot say that a Christian commitment to one’s neighbor is not in the line of celebration and participation in Mass. The two arms of Christ are linked to each other, inseparable, and in celebration and in the good done to others.

The Unity of the Body of Christ.

So it is not about making a choice and separating the two for the benefit of each other. Both are in a way indispensable for the life of the Christian community, for our own and for the life of our world.

Father René Voillaume said on this subject in a conference in 1970:

“One cannot separate the sacrifice of the Cross from fraternal charity as one cannot separate a root from the plant that springs from it; we cannot separate the adoration of Christ and the communion of his mystery which is Love incarnate, from the realization of an effective and fraternal love between men. … Charity cut from its trunk which is Christ withers and dies … “

To say that separating the sacrament of the altar and the sacrament of the brother cannot be conceivable, I finally offer for your meditation the passage of a sermon by St John Chrysostom (in the 4th century) “Do you want to honor the body of Christ? Don’t despise him when he’s naked. Do not honor him here in the church with silk fabrics while you leave him outside to suffer from the cold and the lack of clothing. For he who said: “This is my body, and who realized it by saying it, it is he who said: you saw me hungry, and you gave me no food, and also: Whenever you haven’t done it to these little ones, you haven’t done it to me. Here, the body of Christ does not need clothes, but pure souls; there, he needs a lot of solicitude ”(Homily on the Gospel of St. Mt)

It is therefore up to us, where we are, to keep this link between the Sacrament of the Altar and the Sacrament of the Brother, in the conditions in which we live. God does not ask us for the impossible, He gives it to us! Let us awaken our hearts and our creativity to live from the Presence of Jesus, and to manifest Him in these times that we are living.

+ Claude RAULT
February 2021

PDF: The Eucharist challenging the time we live. Claude RAULT. eng