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personal and profound experience of God. An anonymous writer, speaking about our founder’s intense search for God and His will, wrote this way: “He kept fervently and ceaselessly beseeching the Lord to indicate to him a religious Order.” It took some time and much prayerful reflection before they could discern and respond to their special call and mission. After the initial inspiration of the vision of St. John de Matha, he retired to the woods of Cerfroid where St. Felix and other hermits accompanied him in prayer and penance for a few years before John and his companions came up with the project of the foundation of the Order of the Holy Trinity and of Captives. Cerfroid, the cradle of our Order, was and is still an isolated place and as such, it reminds us of the importance of silence and recollection in our life. In the frenzy of modern life, a genuine spirit of interior recollection is to be highly sought and cultivated. Prayerful discernment is an imperative before any important decisions and the execution of any project. Once the community was formed and the project was made clear, John, Felix and other companions surrendered all of themselves and their possessions to the community and the project of redemption. All were active participants of the God-given mission.
Likewise, St. John Baptist of the Conception needed some time and much discernment before he could initiate and surrender himself to his call and mission as the reformer. He was a great preacher who enjoyed much prestige in this capacity. Initially, he did not want to let go of this human satisfaction at
the prospect of his entry into the reform movement. He was also concerned about his precarious health before the great challenge of the simplicity and poverty of the reform. Although he was very fervent in his childhood, he had allowed himself to grow cold by making room for his comforts, little honors and his own projects. These human considerations kept him postponing his decision to launch and dive into the reform movement for some time. He realized that he himself had to undergo a personal reform before venturing to reform the Order. Finally God’s call and grace triumphed over him and he embraced the reform whole heartedly despite all the uncertainties and hardships it involved. He surrendered himself completely with all his gifts and weaknesses to God and His project of the renewal of the Order. Four hundred years have gone by since the reform took place and we all know that the Trinitarian Family, particularly, the Order continues to exist because of the reformer’s profound experience of God and his unqualified response to the mission God entrusted him.
My brothers and sisters, we embody and continue in the Church a long-standing charism and mission which is intimately and irrevocably linked to the person and mission of Jesus. St. John de Matha and St. John Baptist of the Conception were the chosen mediators and instruments of God to communicate to us their undeniable experience of their conversion and total surrender to Christ and His gospel. The success of their life and mission was God’s sustaining grace to which they responded relentlessly. No personal interest, gain or comfort came in their way of total surrender. There was a conscious and sustained discernment in all their reflections, deliberations and decisions. Only with the help of this divine light, were they able to detect and acknowledge their personal human weakness. Once their inner motivations were laid bare before their conscience, they humbly admitted to themselves their frailties and failings. Consequently they sought divine assistance which came to their rescue, setting them free from the tyranny of personal pride and egoism. This reminds me of the Gospel incident of the healing of two blind men in the Gospel of St. Matthew:
As they left Jericho, a great crowd followed him. Two blind men were sitting by the roadside, and when they heard that Jesus was passing by, they cried out, “Lord, Son of David, have pity on us!” The crowd warned them to be silent, but they called out all the more, “Lord, Son of David, have pity on us!” Jesus stopped and called them and said, “What do you want me to do for you?” They answered him, “Lord, let our eyes be opened.” Moved with pity, Jesus touched their eyes. Immediately they received their sight, and followed him. (Mt. 21, 29-34).
The blind men received their sight only after calling on the Lord persistently. How insistent are we on seeking divine assistance to know ourselves as we are? To enter the depths of our being, to discover our inner promptings, to lay hands on our personal motivations, to admit our true selves with all the hurts and failings, to recognize the dignity of our call, the many gifts, strengths and weakness that are latent in us, we need divine light. We stand in need of gaining a spiritual vision, we are in need of looking at ourselves and the world around us with the eyes of Christ. I have heard some friars say, “we have prayed enough in the past, we have sacrificed enough too. Still there is no change. What is the use of praying so much or sacrificing?” If the blind men in the Gospel did not keep crying out for help, they would not have received their sight. Only after having gained their sight, they followed Jesus. To follow the footsteps of Christ, to announce His message of freedom and fullness of life, we need a new vision, a strong faith vision. We need the light and strength to let go of our hidden selfish motives and personal interests to fulfill our mission, transmitted to us by St. John de Matha and St. John Baptist of the Conception.
May the upcoming feast of our founder and the Christmas celebration be an occasion to receive a fresh infusion of divine light and strength for each one of us and every community of ours. A more powerful and personal encounter with Christ is available to us if we persevere in crying out to the Lord insistently, humbly and confidently like the two blind men in the Gospel. Certainly the Lord will open our eyes and we will be able to follow him more readily and faithfully.
I wish each and every one of you a Happy Feast of St. John de Matha and a Wonderful Christmas!
Message of the Minister General to the Trinitarian Family
My dear Brothers and Sisters,
It is with great joy and gratitude I greet each one you on these special occasions of the feast of St. John de Matha and the Christmas celebration that follows it. Every celebration is an opportunity for us to recall gratefully some great and memorable person or event and thus to receive another impulse and motivation to continue onward our life journey and mission with renewed enthusiasm. Jesus was born to set us free and thus enable us to share the Trinitarian life more fully. His person and message continues to be embodied and proclaimed by outstanding Christians in the different times and circumstances of human history. St. John de Matha concretely incarnated the life-giving message of liberation in the 12th and 13th centuries. And we his spiritual daughters and sons are privileged to transmit the same good news to the poor and captives of our century. May God be praised now and forever for this great gift as we prepare to celebrate the greatest Gift of His Son at Christmas!
As you all know, we are only a year away from the start of the great Jubilee Year of the centenary celebrations of the death of St. John de Matha and St. John Baptist of the Conception. My thoughts turn to them and the great patrimony we have received from them. Both the founder and the reformer were conscious recipients of their call with a