36. Freedom and commitment

After several years of noviciate, there comes the day of profession: a conclusion and a beginning. An engagement "until death". The formula is awesome. Is it a death sentence? No indeed, but the fruit and consecration of liberty. It is certainly the point of no return, but in the vital forward thrust of the road already covered, a free and joyous flight! Something that is beautiful and that is great, triumphant! There is something here that is very impressionable - who can deny it? - but paradoxically, it causes no surprise: a simplicity taken for granted, not as routine, but as a beautiful continuity. Something light and yet strong, graced and graceful, the grace being simultaneously aesthetic and spiritual, liberation and reconciliation, strength and beauty.

The man or woman who makes this commitment, responds above all to a call. This call is heard in the reply which is given to it! The particular moment is lived in utter peace and with the calm of veteran troupes and the poise of those who have outgrown their first emotions or early inclinations. They face the future with the assurance of trained sportsmen or musicians who are not daunted by what lies ahead. Something surprising then occurs: at the most tense moments, one has the impression of something completely natural, of utter simplicity, a subtle mixing of the sublime and the matured human being. This extraordinary "natural" allows one to perceive at once the discipline involved and the result of that adventure in a liberty that is contagious. This natural behaviour in the case of the human person, comes as the fruit of long discipline and perseverance, of efforts at personal and community culture, and as the discreet fragrance of a very pure perfume.

Solemn profession is before everything else, an act of thanksgiving, the festive celebration of a charism that has been welcomed and acknowledged, that has matured and become stable. Of course it is man who gives himself, but that would not have been possible had not the Holy Spirit first of all bestowed on him the gift of self -offering. It is as we know, the person who makes the promise, but it is first of all the community which engages itself before the Church, to say that this person can undertake this lifestyle with the grace of God. It is the community which gives the green light for the candidate to launch out body and soul on the adventurous road of the apostles of the Risen Jesus. It is therefore the community which, with the candidate who is about to make profession, gives solemn thanks for the gift which has been given to it.

With fear and trembling... for if it is true that this celebration places a definitive seal on the orientation of this man's life, we are all aware that nothing is ever fully acquired, and that everything in both our personal and community history can suddenly be called into question. Each one of us is aware, and sad experience is there to prove it, that drama is always round the corner, with the rupture of serious engagements, even those which had been well prepared. We have been warned. We are not ignorant of the difficulties, and in spite of the fear and trembling, we persist in taking the risk of accepting an engagement, and thus to ally ourselves with the person who undertakes it. It is the inherent risk in every human life, in every human word, in every human history. It is the risk taken by our God when His Son took flesh, when He called His disciples, when He confided Himself to us in His vulnerability, to awaken in us the reciprocity of friendship.

The one who makes profession not only gives "of" his time, but gives all of his time. He donates his entire life, and by this engagement alone, he becomes a witness. A thorny question for his contemporaries!, a scandal even, let's admit it: to live every moment a mad logic of which the world has no idea; to breathe in every second, a Breath which humanity does not know, or - tragically, rejects; to live as closely as possible to the Beatitudes which he does not even attempt to explain. It would be pointless anyway! Let him who can, understand!

It is the living God who engages himself first of all. He makes a promise to us which transfigures our lives, and which is so elevated above the ordinary, that here and now, there is no other means of welcoming His gift to the full except through symbols and through the Liturgy.

The word promised in the vow, witnesses to the Word which communicated Itself, which offered Itself, and was sealed in the gift of Christ to His Father and to humanity. The word is given in response to the Word of God. The human word is carried by the Word of God, taking its place in the joyful song of redeemed humanity, happy in its turn to pronounce the words of love, in the assurance that fidelity is possible, and that love has already triumphed over every form of betrayal, in the Passion of Christ Risen from the dead.

In the Order of Preachers, only one vow is pronounced, that of obedience. It includes the others, for it means that the preacher wishes to conform his life to the priorities of the community. There is nothing servile or infantile about this. We do not regard authority as something sacred. It is quite simply a question of being coherent: of respecting those elected, and of following the orientations voted upon. It means too, living in conformity with the rules one has chosen, and in an institution which, by chance, is evangelised in its very roots.

The vow of obedience renders us free in our responsibility, as members of a community which consecrates itself wholly to the Risen Christ in order to welcome the Spirit, and share whatever has been received. This vow of obedience sums up the frustrations which we freely impose on ourselves, and which usually go under the names of poverty, chastity, obedience. The limit is that spot which thwarts our initiatives, our desires, and where in the beginning, we suffer as in a strait jacket. But it can also be the starting point from which we feel ourselves possessed by the life of Another, and from where- in communion with Him- we can leave ourselves open to an encounter where frontiers have been abolished. Our engagement is not "so far, no further", but a wonderful opening up. Our vow of obedience does not close us in on ourselves, but launches us out with others on a mission. For the Beatitudes are for everybody! Our present engagement is our personal response to an engagement offered to everyone; a commitment which we promise to share, that of entering into the joy of the living God. It is the prayer of Christ, His entire plan, His unique desire, that burning desire which we make our own.

That they may be one, as we are one: I in them, and Thou in Me. That their unity may be perfect; thus will the world know that it is You who sent Me, and that you have loved them as You have loved Me. (John I7.2I.)