That charism leads us to humanities true meeting point found in God the Father, our creator, God the Son, our redeemer and God the Holy Spirit, our animator. Charisms tend to stress certain aspects over others. That’s not to negate the value of the other, but we humans operate best when we can concentrate on a few points at a time. Leo Dehon’s gift to us is helping us concentrate on God’s love for humanity as expressed in the Heart of Jesus, and as lived out with the help of the Spirit, in the words of Our Rule of Life, to construct the earthly city and build up the Body of Christ... (ORL #38).
Our first reading reminds us that it is God who is calling us, and God who has taken the first step through his covenant relationship with the human family; and here more specifically with the people of Israel. Moses reminds the people that it is not because they are strong, or great, or even faithful that the Lord has chosen them, but because “God has set his heart” on them. In plain English, “God has fallen in love with them.” I’m sure Fr. Dehon smiles on that revelation for it is what he preached by his life and writings that God keeps falling in love with humanity, and more important God keeps falling in love with you and with me, not because we are great, or powerful, or even always faithful, but simply because we are.
The Gospel builds upon the first reading in showing us two ways we ought to live out that covenant relationship, or in more dehonian terms that love relationship between God and us. We should live that relationship first in a Spirit of Gratitude and then in a Spirit of Gentleness and Compassion.
Throughout his public ministry we find Jesus offering words of appreciation, that is to say, gratitude to the Father. Jesus shows us how important it is in times of joy and in times of sorrow, in both good times and bad, that we are always to stand before in gratitude God, not for what God does for us; but because God loves us, plain and simple. Even on the night before he died, after washing the feet of his disciples, Jesus spoke at great length in a spirit of gratitude and about the spirit of gratidute in that splendid soliloquy we find in St. John’s Gospel and simply call The Last Supper Discourse.
I think Fr. Dehon modeled this same sense of gratitude throughout his life. He shows us that it is just as important, though never as easy, to appreciate who God is for us in the hard times as well as the good times. Two examples readily spring to mind. Fr. Dehon’s life during the dark days of World War I at San Quentin; and even more to the point, his acceptance of the Consumatum Est when the Vatican suppressed his beloved religious congregation. His witness, especially at the Consumatum Est, is an example of true dehonian gratitude in the spirit of today’s gospel message.
The spirit of gratitude speaks to how we relate to God in our love relationship with God. The spirit of gentleness and compassion speaks to how we live out that love relationship with our brothers and sisters. We live in a world that really does not value much gentleness or compassion. They are seen as signs of weakness not strength. And yet, quite the opposite is true! The world flocked to Mother Teresa of Calcutta not because she was powerful, well connected, rich, or ruled over vast territories, no, the world came because they saw a women who, in the latter half of the twentieth century, epitomized more than anyone today’s gospel call to be gentle and compassionate people.
It is fitting my fellow dehonians that we began our encounter at the Lord’s table and we end it here as well. For dehonians are at heart Eucharistic centered people. We are nourished here in God’s love so that we can be people of gratitude as well as people filled with gentleness and compassion. We have learned much this week from each other and about each other. We are different persons from whence we came last Sunday night. We have come to know and appreciate the vast richness of our dehonian family. Our task now is to build on this encounter and to help one another experience, each in our own way and our own vocation, the charism of Leo John Dehon, which is, after all, a gift of the Spirit to the Church.
And so my brothers and sisters, members of our dehonian family, let us leave here filled with hope and confidence that the Spirit will indeed lead us in all that we do, and all that we are, as diverse parts of the dehonian family who scatter now to the four corners of the earth. As Eucharistic centered people let us leave here modeling our life after Fr. Dehon and carrying from this Mass the recognition that it doesn't end here, but rather starts here, and in the words of Our Rule of Life, let us have the same attitude of Fr. Dehon who found his relationship with God was
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