An Order of Preachers

Spiritual Conference to Lay Dominicans
October 10, 1990

Introduction: Evangelization, the focus of the Church in the 90s.

The world has drifted away from God, and away from Christian morality. True of our own country, even of people who still call themselves Christians.

All the Christian Churches are mobilizing to re-evangelize our country for the year 2000: the gift they want to make to Jesus as they celebrate his 2000th birthday. A thought often expressed by Pope John Paul.

Just recently, from August 15 to 19, we had a huge "North American Congress of the Holy Spirit and World Evangelization" at Indianapolis. Attendance: 30,000. It was an ecumenical event in which a great many Christian churches participated. The byword: Evangelize the World Now! The stated goal of this movement to evangelize in the 90s is: To bring the majority of the human race to Jesus Christ by the end of the century. The congress featured Schools of Evangelism to teach Christians how to evangelize, how to bring Jesus to others.

Another highly significant event: From September 14 to 18, a Second Worldwide Retreat for Priests was held at the Vatican City, and the theme of the retreat was: "Called to Evangelize."

How exciting! Clearly, evangelization is THE THING of our times, a response to what the churches see as the most pressing need of our times. There has been a lot of talk about evangelization in recent years. In 1974, Pope Paul called a Synod of Bishops in Rome on Evangelization, asking the Bishops to make recommendations to him. In 1975, he made use of the Bishops' recommendations to publish a marvelous little book titled: Exhortation On Evangelization in the Modern World.

We Dominicans should feel so thrilled, for it is precisely to evangelize that Dominic founded an "Order of Preachers." We are an Order for our times. I will be more specific about that on some other occasion. For today, I would like to speak of St. Dominic and make two points:

• He was driven by a burning desire to evangelize and founded an Order to implement that desire.
• We shall ask ourselves: what was the secret of that inner drive that moved him to evangelize?

The Purpose of our Order, as willed by Saint Dominic, is clearly to evangelize.

This purpose is stated in the beginning of our old Constitutions: "Our Order, we know, was especially founded from the beginning for preaching and for the salvation of souls."

Evangelization is, actually, the essential mission of the whole Church. It is the commission given by Jesus to the Apostles just before ascending to heaven: "Go and make disciples of all the nations." (Mt 28:19) Mark records the same commission in these words: "Go into the whole world and proclaim the good news to all creation." (Mk 16:15)

Even contemplative Orders, to be of the Church, must see themselves as contributing in their way, through prayer and penance, also by the example of a totally God-centered life, to winning souls for Christ. They bear witness to the supreme values of life.

But apostolic Orders are called to go out into the world and proclaim the Good News of salvation. They exist for only one purpose: the salvation of souls. The various religious Orders differ only in the means employed to pursue this goal.

St. Francis of Assisi, a contemporary of St. Dominic, wanted to save souls by offering a living example of "evangelical poverty."

The Church at the end of the 12th and the beginning of the 13th century, was profoundly ravaged by false teachers, heretics, who were winning the simple people to their sects by the hundreds and thousands. Error was being spread in many parts of the Church. In France, these heretics were the Albigensians, in the south and the Waldensians in the area of Lyon; in northern Italy, in the area of Milan, there were the Patarins. All these heretics had much in common and called themselves "Cathari" or "Pure." They considered themselves an "elite." All those heretics were winning Catholics over to their sect by living a life of asceticism and detachment of the things of this world, and imitating the poverty of Jesus. The situation is not unsimilar to what we see in our own time, when Protestant Evangelicals are evangelizing Catholics and winning them to their churches in alarming numbers.

St. Francis wanted to counter the influence of heretics by practicing himself, with his followers, the spirit of poverty and living a holy life. He was not a priest, and did not found an Order of priests. That is why he was allowed to preach only simple Gospel truths, like the love of God and detachment of worldly things. That was Francis' way of evangelizing, and he was very effective at it.

St. Dominic did not neglect the witness of poverty - the times called for it and he attached a great importance to it; but he realized that the Church also needed well-educated preachers who could defend the faith and show the falsehood of the teachings of the heretics. So, he founded an Order of Preachers. His disciples would be priests and they would be well-educated. Accordingly, the first thing he did was to send them to universities so they would be well trained in Scripture and Theology in order to defend the Truth and save souls. In this he imitated St. Paul, the great Apostle, who spent his life preaching the saving truth and denouncing false doctrines.

Dominic discovered the first inklings of his calling to be a preacher one night at Toulouse, in southern France. He was accompanying his Bishop Diego, Bishop of Osma in Spain, on a diplomatic mission to the royal court of Denmark. They put up for a night at an inn in Toulouse. It so happened that the innkeeper was a heretic. Toulouse was the capital, so to speak, of the Albigensian heretics. This was the first time in his life that Dominic encountered heretics. It was a shock. Fired with zeal for the Lord and for the truth of the Gospels, he spent the whole night discussing religion with his host, and exhorting him to return to the Catholic Church. By morning, his host surrendered to the truth. This encounter was decisive in awakening in Dominic the zeal to defend the Truth, that was later to lead him to found an Order of Preachers.

We might note here, in passing, that Dominic was exceptionally well qualified to discuss theology and the Scriptures. In his younger days, he had been an outstanding and zealous student of the sacred sciences. He even taught theology for a few years. It is no surprise, then, that when he began to gather disciples, the first thing he did was to send them to the University. To defend the faith it is necessary to be well versed in the Scriptures and theology.

But having all the answers will rarely convert anyone. People are won over to Christ, to the faith, when they see that we, the evangelizers, the witnesses to Christ are glowing with his love; when they see in us the joy of believing. See the example of the early Christians: "See how they love one another."

The Secret of Dominic's Zeal to Evangelize

A word spoken by Jesus to Peter will put us on track. "Simon, son of John, do you love me?" Peter answered, "You know that I love you." Jesus replied, "Feed my sheep." Three times Jesus repeated the same question and, to Peter's reply he said: "Feed my sheep."

What does that say? If we want to bring people to Jesus, we must first be in love with him. The secret of evangelizing is love: to be in love with Jesus. Arguments may convince the mind; love moves the heart to believe in Jesus. People must sense that we love Jesus, that he is most important to us, that he brings us joy, radiant joy. Even enthusiasm!

Dominic had that burning love for God and for souls in his heart. Remember that night he spent with a heretic at Toulouse? He was on a long and tiring trip with his Bishop. He gave up his sleep to win a soul for Christ. Soon after that incident, he conceived an ardent desire to go and evangelize the Cumans, a desire that will haunt him all his life. Who were those Cumans? Warring nomads that roamed over an immense territory from the Danube to the south, to the Ural Mountains on the eastern edge of Russia. These Cumans were renowned for their fierceness and cruelty. What a challenge!

Dominic had a burning zeal in his heart for the conversion of sinners. Witnesses testified after his death to the anguish he experienced as he saw them on the road to damnation. During his night vigils, he was often heard to cry out, with tears in his eyes: "Lord, what will become of sinners?" He was so in love with Jesus, that he wanted all men to be saved, and he wept for those for whom Jesus died in vain. Tender love for sinners.

How was that burning zeal for the salvation of souls kindled that urged him irresistibly to go and preach, evangelize, win souls for Christ? In prayer and in the contemplation of Jesus on the cross. After his death, witnesses said of him: "He either spoke to God or of God." His contemplation ignited such a love of God in his heart that he just had to speak of him. It just flowed naturally from his heart with conviction and sincerity.

Dominic was so burning with the love of God that he could have said with Peter and John before the Sanhedrin: "We cannot help speaking of what we heard and seen." (Acts 4:20) Or with Paul: "The love of Christ presses us on." (2 Cor 5:14) And, "Woe to me if I do not evangelize, proclaim the Good News." (1 Cor 9:16)

The secret of evangelization is that burning fire in one's heart: hearts on fire with the love of Christ. It is that burning zeal in our heart for the salvation of souls that Jesus spoke of when he said: "I have come to light a fire on the earth; how I wish it were ablaze!" (Lk 12:49)

If we, sons and daughters of Dominic, want to evangelize effectively, we must, like Dominic, know God's Word, his saving truth; but most of all we must know Jesus Christ and be in love with him, with a love so ardent and sincere that it is like a burning fire prodding us constantly to make Jesus known to all. Something we must kindle in quiet contemplation. If Christ becomes truly "my life", then I will speak enthusiastically and convincingly of him. Whether I preach in the pulpit, give a formal teaching, or simply share my faith in a casual way with people I meet in my daily life.

LET US PRAY. St. Dominic, our Father, pray for us your children that we too may be so much in love with Jesus that we may have your zeal for the salvation of sinners. Amen.

Extra Notes on the Subject

Evangelization: requires knowledge and above all a heart on fire, love, deep personal conviction: we shall not convince people to believe or to enter the Catholic Church, or even to remain faithful to the Catholic faith by theological arguments, e.g. it is the one and true church founded by Christ; but by the way we live the Gospel, by our love, compassion, respect, helping one another, etc. Theological arguments may convince the mind; living the Gospel moves the heart. Example: Ghandi loved Jesus and the Gospel, but never became a Christian. He explained: "Christ is very good; Christians are very bad."

Look at the first community of believers in Jerusalem. "See how they love one another!" They had all things in common, selling their goods and sharing with the needy. And the Lord added to their numbers! Power of example. Love in action. The greatest miracle, when people, so selfish by nature, love one another.

St. Dominic loved sinners. He never condemned. He was gentle. He sought like Jesus to save. Not to quench the smoking wick. Jesus loved sinners. Dominic prayed, wept for them. That's true love. Don't judge, condemn, speak ill of sinners. Love them. Pray for them. Overcome evil by good.

We can evangelize only if we truly love God and men, and we are moved by that love, with gentleness, patience, respect of others, humility. To evangelize is to love, explain our faith, NOT ARGUE to prove another wrong. You never win by arguing. If you come out a winner, you have lost a soul.

Do You love me, Simon? Feed my sheep. Only if we love Jesus, really love him, can we go in his name to feed and shepherd his flock. Evangelization is not a job, something to do for the Lord. Servant mentality. Evangelization is sharing our faith, our love of Jesus.

Many ways of loving God: Loving him for myself. Personal satisfaction. I like the work I do for him. It is very satisfying for me. (Self-centeredness) Loving God for himself. Pure love. (I will be blessed in return, but that is not the main motive.) I love God as my Father. He is wonderful, good... We can love God as a friend, as a child loves his Father... in love with Him as a faithful servant: we expect a reward, salary. No intimacy.

Example of loving God for himself, what it means: First petition of the "Our Father". Notice: We seek His good, his glory, his will. God needs nothing in himself. He is infinitely good and perfect. We cannot give him or wish for him anything he does not have. So what does it mean to will the good of God, which is what love is about? We rejoice in the goodness and perfection he has. We desire and try to bring about his external glory: That he be known, loved, obeyed; we pray for the coming of his kingdom. Those are the things we are deeply interested in and desire if we love God for himself. And we feel sad when we see the sins of the world, the loss of faith of many. IS THAT REAL FOR US? A test of of our real love of God. Dominic had a real and deep concern for sinners being lost, How about us? Superficial?

Loving God truly (not a pretext for loving ourselves) We must love him for his own sake. That is what love really is. To want his good, his happiness. To rejoice in his perfection. To want others also to know and love and serve him.

Different from loving God as a servant who seeks to do his will for the reward or salary he expects. We can like and enjoy the work we do for him because of our personal satisfaction. We can also be so busy doing God's work, that we have no time to keep company with him as a friend. And we no longer miss it! Our love for him, our friendship with him is not very real, certainly not very deep. Something we all need to examine in our life.

Thy kingdom come, thy will be done. And, Hallowed be thy name. I want to seek the reign of God, in my life, in the world. I rejoice for all the manifestations of his reign in the world - good news; I am sad, for all the bad news: godlessness of the world, violence, immorality.

Do we experience anguish for souls as St. Dominic did? When so many Catholics leave the Church? How many have left in last 10-15 years and are still leaving? Especially those who have gone to Pentecostal Churches. Why? (Cf. Ralph Martin, in New Covenant. July-Aug. 1990, pp. 6-7.)

An all-too-easy answer: sheep-stealing on the part of Protestants. This lure would not last alone. Deeper reason: they do not find Christ in the Catholic Church, or any support for living a truly Catholic life. This is very sad. They discover the living Christ in Protestant churches. (Cf. My memoire to priests of the Fall River diocese, Sept. 1981.)

In love with Jesus. Are we deeply in love with him? Or, superficially? Do we hear the voice of Jesus, our Good Shepherd? That would depend on the quality of our relationship with him. If we are not very deeply in love and our relationship with him is superficial, we will not recognize his voice. We listen distractedly. Our heart is where our treasure is. (Cf. Mt 6:21)

Love is not self-seeking. (Cf. Holy Hour - Sorrowful Mysteries No. 67. St. Therese of Lisieux.) Disinterested love. A sign that we really love God is our desire that he be known and loved by all; a desire on our part to make him known and love by every means, at every opportunity. An ardent desire to share what we have: our faith, our love of God. Love is what drives us to witness to Jesus Christ, to evangelize. If it is not that, then any effort to convert people to Christ will sound hollow. Christ is not yet "my life," to use the words of Paul. Our testimony will be convincing only if we are "taken over" by Christ, if we live for him. When we are thus taken over by Christ, people sense it right away. They see that for us nothing else matters. Neither life nor death. Our lives are changed by Jesus Christ.

Do I love Jesus very much? If I did, it seems I would be inclined to spend time with him in quiet prayer and conversation. I would enjoy such moments. In reality, it takes some effort to make time and spend time with him. It is difficult to appreciate the companionship and love of one we do not see. Do I cultivate properly that intimacy with God in me? Do I make the necessary effort it often takes to simply pray, converse with him, enjoy his presence? I believe in his love, but my mind finds it hard to recollect, to become aware of his presence... Yet, if we really love someone, we like to spend time with him, What does that say of my love of God??? Would I rather read and do something humanly easy and appealing`? Maybe I love God enough to do his will, serve him faithfully, but not enough to appreciate his friendship, his intimacy??? Do I really enjoy being with him? I am not enough of a contemplative, I think. I was closer to God that way in my youth, especially during my novitiate. I walked with God. It was easy then. No distractions. Nothing else I could call "my treasure." Is God "my treasure" in that same sense? As Jesus said: "Where your treasure is (what you love, what is really important to you), there your heart is also (your desires, your thoughts)." (Mt 6:21)

If Jesus is my great love, I will be happy to do little things just to please him, like the saints did, for example, St. Theresa of Lisieux. My thoughts would turn to him often.

Do I feel sad, distressed, when I see God. Jesus my best friend, being offended by sin, crime, abortion? When I see God's precious gifts desecrated? When I see Catholics no longer believing, or living by the moral laws of God? I think of Jesus, seeing his followers leaving him, and asking his Apostles, sadly: "Are you going to leave me too?" How many Catholics in my time have left the Church...? Does my heart ache, not because the Church is diminished, "my Church" is losing members, power to retain its members, but because Jesus, my best friend, is saddened? Do the joys and sorrows of Jesus resonate in my heart?

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