Jubilee 2013 / 2014 overview

Rome, 14th May 2012

Dear Fathers and Brothers,

In a year’s time, on 14th May 2013, we shall be celebrating the 150 years since the death of St Michael Garicoits. At the request of the 26th General Chapter and in agreement with the Council of Congregation we have decided to celebrate during a whole year such an important moment in the life of our Father, St Michael Garicoits. It will be a Jubilee year ending 14th May 2014!
When he died St Michael was enduring a combat of the heart. And what a combat! The lack of understanding on the part of the Bishop of Bayonne, Mgr Lacroix, about that gift of the Holy Spirit to St Michael resulting in the difference of appreciation on the very nature of the society of priests of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Knowing his diocese as he did, the Bishop considered the wish to assemble St Michael’s companions to be a good response to the pastoral needs of his diocese. He wanted them to set themselves up as a society of apostolic life. Besides, the Bishop had no authority to set up a congregation; this belonged to the Pope alone. So why complicate things with a “holy illusion”?
St Michael was a mystic. After long and serious discernment, he came to realise that the Holy Spirit had given him the gift of a new charism, which according to Fr Etchecopar was far from being an illusion. This new charism consisted in showing and reproducing the humility and obedience of Jesus; which meant that for those who wanted to give their lives to the Lord, they must make vows, live in community under the authority of a superior and dedicate themselves to obtaining the same happiness for others.
Such a conflicting project resulted that in the same community were individuals living under the two regimes: some had made vows, others not; some retained the management of their possessions, others not. Such a diversity of situations resulted in great confusion and caused the departure of some. With the result that for St Michael, what the Lord had revealed and desired could not be realised. Worse still, what had been started with great enthusiasm to answer the call of the Lord and to be faithful to Him was falling to pieces, crumbling and falling apart. Despite such a terrible failure, St Michael didn’t confront the Bishop, proving himself to be obedient in everything concerning the Congregation. St Michael died a good diocesan priest, at the same time seeing that the society which he had founded would soon no longer exist. This situation was hiding a mystery: configuration with Christ obedient unto death and death on the Cross. From his Cross Jesus may have felt that his mission also was a failure, but he continued to be certain that his Father was faithful to his promises and he, Jesus, always did what his Father willed. Just like Christ, our Father St Michael continued to be obedient to death and death on the Cross; he died on the cross of obedience. The same thing happens to the Lord’s friends. The Lord asked Abraham to sacrifice the son which He had given him, the son of the promise. Moses died only seeing the Promised Land from Mount Nebo, even though God had asked him to lead the chosen People there. Likewise with Elija.
The Lord gave the gift and joy of the Betharramite charism to St Michael: to know, love, imitate, manifest and announce Jesus, humble and obedient, and to share this same happiness with everyone. To be a worthy witness of this St Michael had to be tried to the limit. He had to show that what he said about Jesus, humble and obedient wasn’t just simply words but a life style; he had to be ready to give up all his projects, to see them come to nothing despite the pain that caused him until God’s project for salvation was realised in himself and in others. Was there anything dearer to St Michael than the Congregation? He had to prove that it wasn’t his Congregation but firstly that of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the one and only who could keep it alive. And to achieve this he had to show that he was ready to see the Congregation reduced to nothing, just as Abraham was ready to sacrifice Isaac, his son, the son of the promise.
He had the intuition and the stuff of which saints are made. The experience of the God of Love who had given a fresh orientation to his life when he was in his thirties helped him to enter into the mystery of God and to be convinced that the Heart of Jesus, which had shaped the Congregation, was the only one worth while and that without Him the Congregation was nothing. It wasn’t the Congregation of Fr Garicoits but the Congregation of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Just like Abraham, just like Jesus who learned to prefer the Father of the Mission rather than the Mission of the Father, whose messenger he was, a missionary. Just like Jesus saying “Not my will but thine be done, Father” (Mk 14,36), St Michael Garicoits, not trusting his own will or that of the Bishop, not acting on his own bat but always with God’s Spirit, always faithful to God’s commandments, to suffer and do whatever was wanted of him (Manifesto).
St Michael Garicoits took risks, because faith always demands risks! It’s good to take risks, to leap in the dark, knowing that I will be caught in loving hands and not get lost or crash to the ground. For he who keeps his life will lose it, but he who loses his life for my name will save it (Mt 16,25) St Michael Garicoits ran the risk that his plan for the Congregation, inspired by the Holy Spirit, should end in failure. He didn’t think that he was indispensable, trusting only in the God who had inspired the project, the Sacred Heart of Jesus, had the power to save the Congregation if it was what he really wanted. And today we are witnesses to this miracle
I think that we ought to take advantage of the celebration of these 150 years since the death of our dear Father and Founder to seize what he himself and our rule of life are reminding us: what should be our principal characteristic is our spirit of obedience; if obedience is lacking the raison d’etre is lacking (RoL 60). Obedience to death, even to death of the cross for Jesus as for St Michael; the obedience of the disciples trusting more in the God of Love revealed to us by Jesus and then St Michael, rather than in our own little projects which are often obstacles in our response with a little love for Him who loved us first. This is something which will make us more genuine in our vocation and more credible in our mission, for then we shall be the joyful witnesses to the God of Love who loves us in the Heart of his beloved Son, Jesus.
The theme chosen for the celebration is: From the heart of Christ to the heart of the world. Fr Enrico, Vicar General, is appointed to coordinate the three Regional Superiors for the preparation of the festivities. The plan is that each Region will set up a commission to animate the jubilee for the communities in each vicariate. Let’s go and drink at the source of our dear Founder; let’s ask the Sacred Heart who conceived and shaped our religious family, the grace of spiritual renewal for each religious and Betharramite community; let’s ask for the grace of new vocations who will continue to live with us the priceless gift and source of joy of the charism which has been transmitted to us through St Michael Garicoits.
On this feast of St Michael Garicoits I send my best wishes to all the Betharramites – religious, laity, young and old, men and women.

Gaspar Fernández Pérez, scj