SPIRITUAL LIFE COMMITTEE
MISSIONARY SERVANTS OF THE MOST HOLY TRINITY
Monthly Reflection: August 2004

A SENSE OF ENTITLEMENT? OR, WHAT CAN WE EXPECT?

Rev. John E. Ford, S.T.

 

Our own passionate desire to be faithful to the vowed life is challenged by: ...A sense of entitlement.
Acts of the XII General Cenacle of the Missionary Servants of the Most Holy Trinity, 2003.

      Then it was Peter's turn to say to him, "Here we have put everything aside to follow you. What can we expect from it?" (Matthew 19:27)

 Like St. Peter, each one of us Missionary Servants can stand, facing Christ, and ask the same question: "What can we expect?"  Expectation is a rich and motivating biblical concept.  Christmas and Easter, for example, are the touchstones of our faith.  They are the fruits of a hopeful expectation.  But, sadly, expectation is not always what we have spoken about in our gatherings.  We import the more secular concept of "entitlement" into some of our discussions.

 

 As religious we should be careful how we discuss being or not being entitled to something.  There are far too many people in our nation and the world who believe that it is the rich, the powerful, and those of European ancestry who determine what others may or may not be entitled to.

 

 The idea of ""entitlement" can be understood in any way we choose:  as a right, or as a prerogative, or a privilege or a claim.  The blessing in our vowed life is to be found in the paradox that we have freely renounced any personal sense of entitlement for the sake of the Kingdom of God.  Yet, like St. Peter, we cannot help but continue to ask, "What can we expect?"

 

 I would suggest that we can expect to realize (in this life) only that which God has already entitled us to.  That is, four essential entitlements that were placed in the core of our very being, at birth, by God.  First, we are entitled  to be; second,  to have; third, to relate; and, fourth,  to sense Transcendence.

 

 As Missionary Servants, religious life should- ideally – be the place and the reality in which we negotiate these entitlements.

 

 Yes, we are entitled to be. That is, we require a sense of self in this world, and we also acquire an identity within the community of the faithful and within the Cenacle.  Yes, we are entitled to have.  We are entitled to have adequate resources to live – not just survive.  The vow of poverty assures us of this.  We are also entitled to relate.  For it is in relating to others and the world that we are nurtured;  we are oriented to the realities around us; and we are rooted in family and culture.  The vow of chastity is our personal statement of how we will choose now to relate.  And fourth, we are entitled to a sense of Transcendence.  That is, a sense that we are neither self sufficient nor accountable only to ourselves.  Our vow of obedience names the Transcendent as The Triune God.

 

 Expectation and entitlement may well be the two sides of the same coin.  St. Peter had to adjust the expectation of himself,

 

 "Though all may have their faith in you shaken,  mine will never be shaken!" (Mt. 26:33)

 

Before he could begin to glimpse that to which he would be entitled:

 

 "Lord, to whom shall we go?  You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe;  We are convinced that you are God's holy one." (Jn 6: 68-69).

 

For Reflection:

 

 What can I, in faith, expect from the Lord?

 

 What can I expect in and from religious life and the Missionary Cenacle?

 

 What can the community and the Cenacle expect from me?

 

 As a vowed religious, just what is it I feel entitled to?

 

 And, as a Missionary Servant, what is it to which I can proudly lay claim?