107. DISCIPLES OF CHRIST

'No one can come to me unless the Father allows it.' After this, many of his disciples left him and stopped going with him. Then Jesus said to the Twelve, 'What about you, do you want to go away, too?' Simon Peter answered: 'Lord, who shall we go to? You have the message of eternal life, and we believe; we know that you are the Holy One of God.' Jesus replied, 'Have I not chosen you Twelve? Yet one of you is a devil.' He meant Judas, son of Simon Iscariot, since this was the man, one of the Twelve, who was going to betray him.

The members of the Congregation of the Mission as followers of Christ have been called by God to continue his Mission and have been admitted into said Congregation where they strive, according to their abilities, to respond to their vocation by working according the teaching, outlook, and instructions of Saint Vincent de Paul.

To be a missionary is to be a disciple of Jesus. Therefore, the missionary is a Christian with a special vocation: to live the Gospel in light of Saint Vincent's charism.

1. BEFORE ALL, A DISCIPLE OF JESUS

The missionary is above all else, a disciple of Christ. With his special gifts, he has freely opted to follow Jesus, the evangelizer of the poor. For the missionary, Jesus, the evangelizer of the poor, is the fundamental reference point, the only teacher, the ultimate model. Let us reflect on the words of Paul VI when he spoke to us about this likeness to Jesus:

It is clear that Jesus is the model par excellence, true man, the guide of our life. Jesus himself said: 'I am the way and the truth and the life,' and therefore, we have either explicitly or implicitly placed our faith in Jesus, for we bear his name: Christian. It is Jesus who has revealed himself in this marvelous dynamic fashion; it is Jesus who is referred to when it is said: 'You are our teacher; you have the words of eternal life.'

2. CALLED BY GOD TO THE CONGREGATION OF THE MISSION

Saint Vincent frequently liked to say that God, from all eternity, destined us to be members of the Congregation of the Mission. Each day, a confrere ought to renew himself in this great truth:

It is God who from all eternity has called us and destined us to be missionaries. Therefore, we should not seek or hope for rest, or contentment of mind, or blessings, anywhere else than in the Congregation of the Mission, since it is here that God wishes and desires us to be. Presuming, of course, that our vocation is sincere and not based on self interest or desire of exemption from the discomforts of life or any motive of human respect. Since God has called us to the Company, it is unlikely that he will withdraw us from it. God does not contradict himself.

3. FOLLOWING VINCENTIAN DOCTRINE, THOUGHT AND NORMS

We are not trying to form Vincentian ideals in isolation from the Gospel. Rather we are trying to live the Gospel in light of the spiritual and apostolic experience of Saint Vincent, within the institutions that he created, and which the church approved. The General Assembly of 1974 stated:

God calls the Congregation of the Mission and all of us, in it and through it, to follow Christ in the way Saint Vincent did: namely, by putting on the affections of Christ, by uniting our action to Christ's action, by loving Christ in evangelizing the poor, in a word, by living in Christ's spirit.

In this same context let us meditate on the words of John Paul II which he wrote on the occasion of the 400th anniversary of the birth of Saint Vincent:

The contemplative look at the Vincentian epic easily enables us to say that Saint Vincent is a modern saint. Certainly, if he were to return today, his field of activity would not be the same. There has been success in healing many illnesses which he had learned to care for. However, he would find at once the path of the poor, the new poor, in the urban concentrations of our time, as in the past it was in the country districts. Can one even imagine what this herald of the mercy and tenderness of God would be capable of undertaking by utilizing wisely all the modern means at our disposal? In a word, his life would be as it always was: a Gospel opened widely, with the same procession of poor, sick, sinners, unhappy children, crowned with men and women devoting themselves to love and to serve the poor. All hungry for truth and for love, as well as for earthly nourishment and bodily care! All listening to Jesus still saying: 'Learn from me for I am gentle and lowly in heart.'

***** Do I consider my vocation in the Congregation as a gift of God; a gift which crowns my human and Christian vocation?

***** Do I appreciate my vocation and encourage others to follow this way of life?

***** Do I give my vocation a missionary dimension that responds to the demands of the Gospel?

PRAYER:

God our Father, you filled your priest Saint Vincent with the strength of the apostles to work for the poor and the instruction of the clergy. May we who follow the example of his life be driven by unceasing charity to continue the Mission of your Son in the world. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.