19. Built on solid rock

Everyone who listens to these words of mine and puts them into action is like the wise person who built a house on rock. The rain poured down, the flood came, the winds blew hard against the house; but it did not collapse, because it was established on solid rock.
Matthew 7:24-25

In order that, with God’s grace, it might achieve its purpose, the Congregation of the Mission, which consists of clerics and lay persons, strives to be filled with the sensitivity and attitudes of Christ, indeed with his very Spirit which is particularly clear in the examples from the Gospels explained in the Common Rules.
Constitutions, 4

Without doubt the first idea of the above text of the Constitutions is that the membership of the Congregation is like that of the Church, i.e., we are clerics and laity. But the text goes further. It points out that Jesus, his affections and his spirit, are the focal point for the members of the Congregation. For, as has already been said, the first and most important duty of the members of the Congregation of the Mission is to put on the Spirit of Christ. Another idea of the text revolves around the value and the place that we give to the Common Rules. Are we, priests and brothers, able to find in them the evangelical doctrine necessary to live our lives as missionaries? Let us reflect further on this.

1. The Doctrine of Christ Does Not Deceive

An indisputable principle: Christ does not let us down; his doctrine does not deceive. Saint Vincent asked his missionaries to be convinced of this reality.

Each one must strive, above all else, to ground himself in this truth: the teaching of Christ can never deceive, while that of the world is always false, since Christ himself declares that the former is like a house built upon solid rock. For this reason then the Congregation shall always make claim to act according to the maxims of Christ, never according to those of the world…¹

2. We Are Spiritual Persons

Saint Paul made a distinction between the spiritual and the wordly person (1 Corinthians 2:14). The wordly person does not accept the spiritual person’s way of living. Since, for Saint Vincent, the missionary is a spiritual person, spiritual values are foremost in the Congregation of the Mission:

Christ said: ‘Seek first the Kingdom of God and his justice and all these things that you need shall be given to you besides.’ Each one shall endeavor to prefer the spiritual to the temporal, the welfare of the soul to the health of the body, the glory of God to the vanity of the world. Indeed, one should be determined with Saint Paul to choose privation, infamy, torture and even death itself, rather than be separated from the love of Christ. Therefore, no one shall be solicitous about temporal goods; rather shall he cast his care upon the Lord, convinced that, as long as he is rooted in this charity and grounded in this hope, he will always remain under the protection of the God of heaven; and thus no evil will befall him nor will he himself be wanting in any good, even though he may think that everything he possesses is about to be lost².

3. Let Us Venerate with Our Hearts the Common Rules

The Common Rules can be considered as the “code of perfection of our institute.” Saint Vincent exhorted us to venerate them:

We shall all venerate with our hearts our Rules and Constitutions, including those that might seem to us of minor importance. Let us look on them as the means that God has given us to acquire the perfection proper to our vocation and so to attain our salvation. Therefore, let us frequently excite in ourselves the living and generous desire of observing them with fidelity. And if any of these rules are repugnant to our understanding or feeling, let us force ourselves unceasingly to overcome and conquer our natural desires. Let us remember that, according to the words of Christ, the Kingdom of Heaven has been enduring violent assault, and the violent have been seizing it by force³.

• Do I continue to consider the Common Rule as a true “code of my spiritual life?”
• Have I concerned myself with the internalization of the Rule by frequent reading, study, and meditation?

Prayer:

Exhortation of Saint Vincent at the End of the Conference of February 14, 1659, on the Evangelical Maxims:

Let us fill our spirit with them. Let us fill our hearts with his love and let us live accordingly.

Let us pray to the apostles, who loved the evangelical maxims so much and observed them so well.

Let us pray to the Blessed Virgin who, more than anyone else, entered into their meaning and practiced them.

Let us pray, finally, to our Lord, who has established them in order that he might give us the grace of being faithful in practicing them, exciting us to it with the testimony of his virtues and with his example.

There are reasons to hope that, living according to these maxims will be beneficial to us both in time and in eternity.

1. Common Rules, ii, 1.
2. Common Rules, ii, 2.
3. Common Rules, xii, 13.