The Dehonians, following the founder’s footsteps, are called to have a personal experience of the Heart of Christ. This as well grounds their communion with the community of brethren and with the whole creation
The Dehonians, following the founder’s footsteps, are called to have a personal experience of the Heart of Christ. Such, will be the source of its transformation: total union to the person of Christ in love expressed in the life of oblation and reparation. This echoes what Saint Paul said: “…It is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me (Gal 2:20).” Thus, Dehonian communion consists of a life totally consecrated to God. This as well grounds their communion with the community of brethren and with the whole creation.
Introduction
In preparation for the twenty-fifth General chapter of the Dehonian congregation, the commission formulated a particular theme which says: “Called to be one in a transforming world.”[1] It highlighted the important aspect of being one which is the call of the Holy Spirit amid “a transforming world”. The process aimed at looking back to the Dehonian journey of communion to learn and discover one’s own identity and mission in the present world.[2]
The goal of this work is not to come up with a detailed analysis of the theological foundation of the Dehonian communion. Though, this is an important task that has to be done. Rather, the hope is to be able to develop a deeper understanding of communion from the Dehonian perspective. It particularly answers the question: What is a Dehonian communion?
Dehonian Communion
The Dehonian Spirituality is rooted in the faith experience of the founder, Fr. Leo John Dehon. His faith experience can be conceptualized in these threefold movements: first, from the experience of love. Like the founder, the Dehonians ought to have a personal experience of the Heart of Christ where the unfathomable love of God is revealed. Fr. Dehon urges his spiritual sons to enter into the depths of the Heart of Christ and discover the richness of God’s love has for them. This is an essential beginning of the Dehonian spirituality for it leads the person towards the second and third movements.
Second, the discovery and the personal experience of the Heart of Christ, as a symbol of God’s love, move the person in such a way that he or she desires to unite him or herself to the Heart of Christ. It is an almost automatic response to the one who personally encounters the Heart of Christ. Fr. Dehon saw in the Heart of Christ “the very wellspring of salvation”[3] where human beings are born again. Fr. Dehon therefore wanted to unite himself to the Heart of Christ where the fullness of life is found.[4] It is for him an experience of liberation. Furthermore, this union to the Heart of Christ entails a life more than just an imitation of Christ’s life, but a life assimilated in the person of Christ (cf. Gal 2:20). Therefore, it is a life of oblation where it aims to glorify the Lord through obedience and self-giving. The Dehonians, in the life of oblation, submit everything to God’s will: “…total abandonment, absolute indifference, looking upon Him who preceded us on the way and made it practicable, and who has left behind the traces of His steps- bloody traces: this is our vocation.”[5]
Third, the life of oblation necessarily leads to the life of reparation. The Dehonians as they live the life of oblation participate to the reparatory works of Christ in the world. The reparatory vocation is understood as a return of love for love.[6] Having discovered and experienced the love of God through the Spirit, Dehonians respond to the love received with their own love which corresponds to the love of Christ. Since the primary concern of the Heart of Christ is to do the Father’s will for the salvation of the world, the heart of every Dehonian must follow the same concern. “For how can we really understand Christ’s love for us, if not loving as He did, in truth and in deed?”[7] In other words, the life of a Dehonian leads to cooperation and service for the reign of the Heart of Christ in the life of the individual and society.
The Dehonian communion consists of a life totally consecrated to God. In the congregation’s Rule of Life says: “… they shall render the worship of love and reparation that His Heart desires through their whole life, their prayers, works, sufferings, and joys.”[8] This is the heart the Lord desires in every man and woman. The Lord said to Margaret Mary Alacoque: “I want to see souls consecrated to loving and making amends to the suffering committed against His Heart.”[9] The Dehonians are called to have a special experience of the Heart of Christ where it becomes the source of their transformation and becomes a sign of God’s love in the community of brethren and the world.
Ultimately, their profession of the evangelical counsels of celibacy, poverty, and obedience is their proclamation of a life totally consecrated to the Heart of Christ which liberates them “for true love in accord with the spirit of beatitudes.”[10] Thus, they become witnesses of the liberating love of God in the world where they become “prophets of love and servants of reconciliation.”[11]
[1] Cf. Preparatory Commission, Preparation to the XXV General Chapter Questioner, 14 March 2023, Superior General Congregation of the Priests of the Sacred Heart, Rome.
[2] Cf. Ibid. 2
[3] Priests of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Rule of Life: SCJ Constitutions and General Directory, new ed., (Rome: 1986), no. 3.
[4] For Fr. Dehon, to restore the reign of the Heart of Christ among individuals and society mankind has to intimately unite themselves to the heart of Christ. , Priests, Rule of Life, no. 4.
[5] Leo John Dehon, Spiritual Directory of the Priests of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, trans. H. MacDonald (Hales Corner, Wisconsin: Sacred Heart Monastery, 1940) 7.
[6] Cf. Priests, Rule of Life, no. 23.
[7] Ibid. no. 18.
[8] Ibid. no. 7.
[9] Manzoni, Giuseppe, “Come in uno specchio: Conferenze sulle costituzioni,” in Studia Dehoniana scj, vol 32, (Roma: Centro Generale Studi, 1992) 28.
[10] Cf. Priests, Rule of Life, no. 40.
[11] Cf. Ibid. no. 7.
