Discovery of Shepherd of Jericho

1 January 1992
Paris, France

One of the most memorable occasions in the lives of all of us is the day when we made our first Holy Communion. Everything on that day conspired to impress on our childish minds the awesomeness of the occasion. Indeed, it might very well have been the first time in our lives when we made a profound act of adoration and grasped in a very limited way the meaning of adoration. There followed a second and a third Holy Communion and perhaps we have had already the experience of Holy Communion ten or twenty thousand times. What of adoration in our lives today? Could it be that its importance impinges less upon us? Prayer of intercession often occupies the foreground of our minds, yet the prayer of adoration must be the foundation stone of all our prayer. Without the prayer of adoration there will be a certain shallowness and superficiality about our prayers of intercession, and that superficiality and shallowness will reflect itself in our words, in our interests, in our relationships, in the quality of our work.

Opening ourselves to the experience of profound adoration in the silence of prayer is closely linked with the practical living of that virtue which St. Vincent described as "the basis of all holiness in the Gospels and a bond of the entire spiritual life," humility. (CR II,7). To be humble one must first have had the experience of adoration in prayer that goes beyond any formula of words.

Today in the Church we hear expressed a wide variety of opinions--some informed, some less so--on a range of topics that touch both faith and morals. In religious Communities an enhanced importance is being given to the opinions of individuals, and a collaborative and coresponsible style of government has been encouraged. How does all this affect my understanding and living of humility today? Is it feeding my ego to the point that I am giving an inflated value to my own opinions so that yielding to others becomes a more rare experience in my life?

It has been said that until Christ came philosophers knew nothing of the virtue or value of humility. Could it be that in our age, which is now often described as a post-Christian age, we have lost our appreciation of that virtue which Our Lord asked us to learn from Him, and which St. Vincent considered at once so essential and yet so elusive? It is authentic and deep adoration in prayer that will be the first step on that ladder of humility which leads upward into the heart of God, and outward to the service of others.

The presence of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament can be an effective aid to deepening within ourselves an attitude of attentive adoration. A sensitivity to the presence of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament can be a school of sensitivity. In our relations with others, in our service of the Gospel and of the poor, it is not always easy to recognize the presence of Christ. We need a training in sensitivity to His presence. It is precisely through the presence of Christ in the Eucharist that we can learn to recognize and respond to Him in situations and persons where His presence is not so obvious. The streets may be, to quote St. Vincent's celebrated phrase, the cloister for the Daughter of Charity, but she will still need time in order to retire into the Upper Room where, like Mary of Bethany, she can give herself to attentive adoration of her Lord and her God. To do so is to come to "understand about the loaves."

Each one of us from personal experience can subscribe to St. Augustine's confession: "Our hearts are restless, Lord, until they rest in Thee." In our living of community life, in our service of the poor, in coping with stress, it is easy to lose our poise, and then our hearts become even more restless. That is the moment to halt and attend to that fundamental relationship with our Father in heaven which is one of adoration and of confidence. It is only when our hearts are able to rest in peaceful and self-forgetful adoration before God that we can effectively mediate to others "the goodness and loving kindness of God, our Saviour." (Tit 3:4).