The Congregation of the Mission is proof of various activities of the Holy Spirit that are manifested in the apostolic creativity of Saint Vincent de Paul. Without a doubt, the Father of Charity, with the strength of his arms and the sweat of his brow (CCD:XI:32), took up the Lord’s command: Go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature (Mark 16:15). Clothed anew in the Spirit of Christ, who enlightened his mind and excited his heart (CCDD:VI:166), Vincent continued the work of the Son of God in France and throughout the world. This was accomplished by the Congregation that he established in the 17th century for the purpose of evangelizing the poor.
The proclamation of the good news is a powerful missionary call that was expressed by Vincent when he stated: Let us give ourselves to God to go throughout the world to proclaim his holy gospel (CCD:XI:365). If this does not occur, the identity of the Congregation is clouded, its gifts are atrophied and the consecration of its members to service on behalf of the poor is weakened. To go throughout the world supposes a missionary awareness that is open to the signs of the time and a constant rereading of the new forms of poverty (for example, the human and moral degradation of refugees). Our apostolic challenges are great. Nevertheless, the presence of the Holy Spirit, who has promised to strengthen us, becomes ever more visible in times of danger (even if we have to pick up serpents with our hands or drink some deadly thing (Mark 16:18).
The apostolic impulse of Saint Vincent was born spiritually from listening to the Word of God and from his pastoral insertion into the dark night of the poor. The Holy Spirit was active in 1617 when Vincent preached his sermon in Folleville and in the many charitable initiatives that were developed in that city as a result of the popular mission that was preached there. Under the impulse of the Spirit, the charism shines forth not only through the ministry of the Congregation and the Company of the Daughters of Charity, but also through the many branches of the worldwide Vincentian Family that today express that charism as a global network of charity in service on behalf of those persons who are poor.
From the most remote places where we have not yet become present, Vincent continues to speak to us: Pay attention, dear missionaries. The Congregation has reason to exist only when it engages in the process of evangelization. Be careful so that the charism does not become a type of “dead sea”. Indeed, the charism is just the opposite; it is an ever-flowing deep and crystalline river. If the identity of the charism is charity and if the mission of the Congregation is evangelization on behalf of the poor, then do not stand around idle but go out and proclaim the Good News to all people, to the ends of the world. Do not forget that Vincent has told us that infidelity to the charism robs the Congregation of its purpose and it will soon disappear.
Just as the Son of God viewed the success of the mission as arising from the proclamation of the gospel to the poor and from the fact that captives were set free (Luke 4:18), so also Vincent saw the charism confirmed when the Congregation engaged in charitable activity and when salvation was proclaimed to the poor. Yesterday, today and always, the charism of charity is the same! The human and the historical context will change, but charity will never cease. The charism is like a river that never cease to flow … it is a definitive event of the spirit who blows where it wills (John 3:8).
By: Adriano Sousa Santos, CM
Province of Fortaleza
padiretoamaz@hotmail.com
