Celebrating the MSC Foundation Day, December 8th – 169 years.
- Feast of the Immaculate Conception
From Raincy Church Facebook page, 2021
Homily: Celebration of Perpetual Profession, Daniel Magadia MSC & Quoc Trieu Nguyen MSC
Stephen Hackett MSC and a perspective on our spirit.
On the eastern outskirts of Paris in the town of La Raincy stands the Church of Notre-Dame du Raincy, Our Lady of Raincy. In a chapel behind the original high altar stands a statue of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. It isn’t a traditional statue of the Sacred Heart, with an extruded heart showing the piercing by a lance, bleeding droplets of blood, and flame atop, all surrounded by a crown of thorns. No, this statue of the Sacred Heart is all white and smooth, save for a finely etched heart which is all but imperceptible until standing quite close. I tried to photograph it, but without any success.
This statue of the Sacred Heart is quite unlike any other I have seen elsewhere. Instead of the heart going out, as it were, signifying an outpouring of God’s love and mercy through the human heart of Jesus, the statue of the Sacred Heart in the church at La Raincy appears to draw us in, signifying Jesus’ invitation to come to him, to enter into his heart, and there to contemplate the love and compassion of God in the human heart of Jesus; to enter deeply into his heart that we might come to know everything he chooses to reveal to us, which is nothing less than the ‘fulness of God’.
This being drawn into Christ Jesus, not just drawn to him but drawn into contemplation of his heart, Trieu and Daniel, is at the very centre of our vocation as Missionaries of the Sacred Heart. It is this intimacy with Jesus, this communion of our hearts with his heart, his gentle and humble heart, which makes it possible for us to discover in our own hearts the depths of God’s love for us, which is greater than we can imagine or desire. It is our response to this same experience of God’s love that impels us to mission, to sharing with others all that we have come to know of the Father’s love for us through what we have first received from Jesus.
St Paul recognises this in his own life, setting forth in his letter to the Philippians the supreme advantage of knowing Christ Jesus, of forsaking everything else life has to offer so as to have life in Christ Jesus through the power of his death and resurrection; that is, through the paschal mystery. It is through baptism that we first enter into this mystery of Jesus’ dying and rising, making it possible for this same mystery to become the pattern of our own human and Christian living; and it is through our participation in the Eucharist that our life in Christ Jesus is nourished, strengthened and sustained.
Here, this morning, Daniel and Trieu, you will affirm through perpetual vows a choice you have already made, a choice like that of St Paul, to accept loss of everything so that you can have Christ Jesus and be given a place in him; that by embracing his dying and rising as the pattern of your own lives, you can pursue for the rest of your days and years what you have already come to know through him, which is nothing less than the love of God for you, and a glimpse of the totality of this love which is the very fulness of God.
The vows you will profess are a radical way – to use St Paul’s imagery – of capturing the prize for which Christ Jesus has captured you. Of the many disciples who are called by Jesus to follow him and learn from him, relatively few are chosen to live the consecrated life. By professing poverty, you are freely letting go of possessing the things of this world which might otherwise possess you. By professing consecrated chastity, you are freely letting go of the fullest expression of the gift of our human sexuality that you might have ever-deeper intimacy with Jesus and live out of the love with which he loves you. By professing obedience in fraternal charity, you are freely letting go of fulfilling your own will so that, by attentive listening and discernment, the will of Jesus for you can become you own will.
What you profess to Jesus Christ here in our midst today is graced by God; you can be sure of that. For those of us who have been on this journey for many years already, your profession gives us new heart. For those just beginning, or even discerning, this way of life, your profession serves to inspire. Yet what you are committing to for the whole of your lives is not always easy. Patterning our lives on the dying and rising of Jesus means accepting even death, dying to ourselves over and again, that we might share more fully in his life, the life that flows from his heart, pierced on the cross, the gift of his Spirit, poured out upon our Church, to bring salvation to all people.
So, come forth, Trieu and Daniel, in the presence of your families, your confreres and your friends, and entrust yourselves to the heart of Jesus, that you may come to know ever more deeply the fulness of his love and live wholeheartedly for him. Commit yourselves to him in the little Society of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart by the profession of perpetual vows, that you might share fully in the life and the mission to which you have been called and for which you have been chosen. And make your own in our common life and in our shared mission the motto given to us from our Founder, Jules Chevalier, ‘May the Sacred Heart of Jesus be loved everywhere’.
