10/06/2013
A plan of holiness for all
Father Fabio Ciardi, OMI
Doctor in Spirituality
Dear readers,
One of the most beautiful analyses of spirituality for consecrated lay persons was carried out in 1990 by Father Fabio Ciardi.
Father Fabio Ciardi was born in Italy in 1948, became an Oblate of Mary Immaculate in1970 and was ordained priest in 1975. He studied in Rome where he completed a doctorate in Spirituality. He has written several remarkable papers on the charism of founders. At the request of the Congregation of the Oblates he led a team of writer which produced the Dictionary of Oblate Values, a publication of invaluable spiritual wealth.”
Father Louis-Marie Parent, O.M.I.
‘The one who can be trusted in little things can be trusted in great things.’ (Luke 16:10) These are the words of the gospel that first came to mind when I read this great little book In the Footsteps of Jesus. Its content is consistent with the simplicity and depth found in the gospel. We have often complicated Christian life. To this day, for many people, holiness remains a complex itinerary reserved for a select few in spite of Jesus’ teaching in Matthew: ‘I bless you, Father, Lord of heaven and of earth, for hiding these things from the learned and the clever and revealing them to mere children.’(11:25). The deepest realities of the kingdom of God are for the little ones. ‘Unless you change and become like little children you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.’ (Matthew 18:3).
Everyone is called to holiness and, in his book, Father Louis-Marie Parent presents a concrete gospel itinerary suitable for all. The universal vocation to holiness is now recognized in Church circles, but often we do not know how to live such a vocation or how to strive towards this calling.
His approach is very simple: live your everyday life allowing yourself to be guided by the will of God in the present moment. Live an authentic intimate relationship with God while being fully aware that you are enveloped in his boundless love. Be aware of God’s presence everywhere, develop a positive attitude, be happy with what he gives you, with what he wants of you or allows to happen in your life by totally accepting God’s will wherever he has placed you. Be at the service of all. Be a gospel leaven in all social structures. Radiate joy and love in order to become a peacemaker.
In this spirituality, what spontaneously comes to mind is the little way, the spiritual childhood of Theresa of the Child Jesus, the free and joyful spirituality of St. Philip Neri, the open vision of holiness of Francis de Sales, the emphasis on the will of God of Paul of the Cross or Alphonsus Liguori or the insistence on the present moment of St. Leonard Murialdo. But Father Parent did not presume in advance the spirituality for his new foundation, he simply allowed himself to be guided by the Spirit. He proposed to the members of his secular institutes an itinerary of holiness typically for lay people that all Christians can adopt, not bound by structures or particular living conditions,. Jesus is the model of life for all Christians, ‘by his Incarnation, he became a specialist of ordinary life’. It is precisely in ordinary life – in the life of every day – that charity lived to the fullest transforms people into saints.
The concrete proposal is to allow oneself to be penetrated by the presence of God until one becomes totally available to do his will in fidelity to the Holy Spirit in the present moment, in order to become an attentive presence to the world and its temporal realities by unconditional and universal acceptance of others manifested through service and demonstrated by the building of new relationships in peace.
The mystery of the Incarnation, in its full realism, is the point of departure for this Christian proposal. God came into our world. In Christ, he made himself present to our daily life. He dwells in us. He is in our lives, in our room, everywhere we may be. He sees us, follows us and loves us. ‘He is wherever I am. He goes wherever I go. He comes wherever I walk… wherever I work, wherever I eat… wherever I sleep, wherever I welcome… wherever I love… wherever I sing… wherever I exalt… wherever I suffer.’ He is present! It is up to me to stop, be silent and let myself be filled with his presence in order to be present to him in return. We need only to open the eyes of the heart and take notice of this reality in us and around us. We need only ‘believe that God is alive and that he penetrates all the fibers of our being’.
This awareness is the beginning and even the heart of prayer rediscovered in its simplest essence: to stay with God, to be there before him, to give ourselves to one another. This encounter produces inner peace and frees us from anxiety. It inspires confidence and gives joy. This awareness opens a way to holiness; it is God’s work in us: ‘We will become holy when we accept that the Holy Spirit is in us to make of us other christs, other instruments of the will of the Father’.
Another characteristic feature of the way to holiness is relating to God by doing his will in the unconditional and total acceptance of what he calls us to in the present moment. ‘The present moment is the minute lent to us by God to contact him; it is the door he opens onto eternity; it is God opening his arms to me, and me throwing myself into his embrace.’
The presence of God and his will are found in a concrete modality. ‘Do we want to see the face of Christ?’ Father Parent asks, ‘then let us look at the persons around us, the child, the teenager seeking freedom, the young man striving to get his life settled, the senior stooped under the weight of time, the ill struggling to survive, and we will find him in their features’. Loving God and doing his will, leads to loving and serving our brothers and sisters. ‘Never separate your neighbour from God. Through the neighbour we see God, through God we see the neighbour’. We serve God by serving our brothers like Christ did.
Father Parent then proposes two attitudes with regard to God and our brothers and sisters that may be surprising: abstention from criticism and abstention from complaint. At first glance these may seem trivial. ‘The idea came to me’, he said, ‘when I was preaching a retreat in religious communities. I could see that many of the great virtues were being put into practice, but that the small virtues were not. Criticism and complaint were very much on the agenda. A solution had to be found to remedy this deplorable situation that paralyzed the practice of total charity in the communities.’
These attitudes, abstaining from criticizing and complaining, are not simply small virtues. Rather, they indicate that those who live them have found fullness of life, that they have abandoned themselves to the action of God that is forever new and to the exalting adventure of his love and, consequently, that they are inwardly resolute.
Abstention from criticism means forgetting oneself, being in a state of constant self-giving, discovering the positive in simple things that seem unimportant. Those who live in the presence of God constantly live in the light of faith. Criticism, on the contrary, is the work of darkness: it destroys the work of God and halts the progress of sanctification.
As for abstention from complaint, it indicates the total acceptance of God’s will. Complaint is the expression of discontent, anguish and frustration. Father Parent had noticed that many people complained about their working conditions. The self-centeredness they carried within made them dissatisfied with their lot. Each one wanted to be someone different, to do something else and to be somewhere else… The remedy consists in accepting God’s will in all situations as being the most beautiful reality that can exist because it is the expression of God’s love for each one of us at this time. When things do not go well, we simply need to place our concerns in the heart of God. Such an attitude develops a sense of wonder and makes us capable of serving with simplicity and joy without complaining. We become peaceful and, with a sense of wonder, marvel at the positive we discover within ourselves. ‘There are things that others cannot do for us. If we do not do them, no one will’.
Accordingly, we acquire greater confidence in ourselves and learn to have confidence in others. Referring to the Oblates, Father Parent once said, ‘I have always held the firm belief that all should be allowed to realize the potential God had given them, that they should develop their talents, channel their energies and live as though they were responsible for their own activities and their own initiatives’.
The final program that Father Parent suggested is summarized in five attitudes: presence of God, abstention from criticism, abstention from complaint, being of service, and being a peacemaker.
The objective, charity lived to the fullest, is one that every Christian can pursue. Added to these five attitudes is a concrete commitment to performing five acts of charity every day. The vital source that nourishes this life is constant communion with God through prayer.
Another concrete commitment is that of five daily moments of prayer.
This is how the simple and realistic program of the ‘5-5-5’ proposed by Father Parent came to be. It has nourished and continues to nourish the life and apostolic influence of many people.
The 5-5-5 may seem too basic or simplistic, but it is a program of life rooted directly in the gospel. It is adapted to the little ones of the kingdom of heaven: simple, incisive, easily understood without the need for complicated theological explanations. And yet, they are demanding and engaging proposals that require authentic self-denial. But ultimately they produce fruits leading to a deep communion with God, the generating of true relationships between brothers and sisters and, consequently, evangelization.
Fabio Ciardi, O.M.I.
