SPIRITUAL LIFE COMMITTEE 
Missionary Servants of the Most Holy Trinity    
Monthly Reflection: July  2004    

TO TRAVEL STEADY, LIGHT AND FAST
Fr. Christopher Reilly, S.T.    
 

The essential elements of the life of Missionary Servants of the Most Holy Trinity include prophetic witness in the manner we live out the vows. Acts of the XIIth General Cenacle of the Missionary Servants of the Most Holy Trinity, 2003.

Prophetic witness is a demanding phrase.  Prophets have to pay a price.  A new word was born because witnesses died.  The Greek "martyr" was a witness.  The martyr-witness came to mean a witness who died in the process.  He or she was martyred because of their testimony.  Sometimes we want to live so badly that we opt for silence.  Not the silence of reflection but the muting of the mind and voice.

David Thoreau observes that a person is free according to the things that he does not need.  More needs, less freedom.  The world was growing by leaps and bounds in the post-war 50's.  Communicators like Marshall McLuhan and Archibald McLeish made us think (but not for long) that the super-communicative electronic  world that was coming to life would produce a society that was glutted with knowledge- information but much poorer in feelings (possibly including "convictions").

Father Judge told us that our vocation as Missionary Servants is to witness to the truth.   One of the truths that came across has been that a Missionary Servant is necessarily a poor person.  He may be capable in many fields but above all he should be able to handle a functional but legitimate poverty.

Vincent Fitzpatrick gave me a job once in Holy Trinity. The 12-steps stairs were already made. I just had to set them against the second story entrance of the building and on the ground.  When he came back an hour later I hadn't finished the job. He asked me what went wrong. I explained that nothing went wrong.  The hammer had a very short handle and poor driving power.  He shook his head and said that any idiot could do the job with a good hammer.  It took intelligence to adjust to a defective tool.  I got the message.

Gerald Arbuckle told us in Tucson, Arizona that to get back to the primal roots, we would have to pass through chaos.  The idea was that we would have to dismantle a lot of good looking things before we could rebuild.  That's how I heard it. It sounds very threatening but also very honest.

There is a deep admiration for the life that opts for the poor. It's kind of a secret admiration. Sort of good to look at but not to get too close to or involved in. You can't do a lot of things that under more efficient circumstances are possible. But, at the same time, when everything is well organized and in place, it's difficult to identify with the world we choose to serve as S.T.'s , as Missionary Servants.

There isn't much logic to poverty and being poor on purpose.  I overheard a funny but somewhat bitter comment during a Community ST-meeting on the future, "The only solution to keep alive the Trinitarian spirit is to construct old buildings!"

When the Lord refused to change stones into bread, he gave us the sign. Man or woman does not live by bread alone.  This was his blessing on not accumulating goods for super-security.  A solid precedence!

It doesn't help to dwell on the past.  Many of the Community did not share those times and sentiments.  There was a fidelity born of the need to share and a humor of not having.
Holy Trinity, Silver Spring and St. Joseph's Shrine were monuments to the virtue of frantic maintenance.  Fr. Joachim said that if we opened all the doors at once in the refectory and bunk house, the building would collapse.

Poverty is not a hang-up. It can be a very healthy habit.  There's no beer so refreshing as the one and only beer you'll get while on work detail at Holy Trinity on a hot afternoon, roofing. That's an aside but not less true.

The western world we live in is distinguished by excesses. Also by boredom and accompanying disorders, physical and spiritual.

The counsels given by Father Judge about the room and the furniture of the poor religious can sound archaic and out of date but it's pretty much on target for today (viz. Meditations, p. 90).
Institutions are having a rough time of it.  Politics, economy, religion and services are hurting. The best way to healing is to remember…to be what we said and say we are and what we want to be.

Questions for Reflection:

1. Does poverty conflict with pastoral efficiency?

2. Are our Cenacles known for their hospitality-open door-community-wise and pastorally for the whole faith communty?