The Marist project was described as “a tree of many branches”. There were branches of priests, brothers, sisters, and lay people. Within a year of the death of the founder of the brothers, 421 young men had become brothers. At the death of the founder of the priests’ branch, 258 priests and religious were working in France, Oceania and London. Within a year of its approval 16 young women from one small village had joined the sisters’ group. What was the secret?
Life force
In his letter to the Philippians, St Paul poetically describes the mystery of the Incarnation of Jesus:
Being in the form of God, he did not count equality with God something to be grasped, but he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, becoming as human beings are; and being in every way like a human being he was humbler yet, even to accepting death, death on a cross.
With these words, St Paul opens up our understanding of Jesus’ spirituality.
Out of compassion for us, and in order to save us, Jesus stooped down to the level of our human existence. Through this self-emptying, Jesus let go his privileges, his rights, his dignity as Son of God, and became hidden in our human nature, identifying with us so as to encourage us back to the Father.
When christians confront this mystery, they begin to understand one of the christian paradoxes: that what is significant in God’s sight is often hidden from human recognition.
The life of Mary reflects a similar self-emptying. She did not cling to her privilege as Mother of Jesus. She submerged herself among the disciples, becoming hidden and unknown at the heart of the Church.
Chapter three – Life Force
Silence gives you perfect sound
Fire and rose
If we were looking for a spiritual centre point of the Marist enterprise, we might possibly find it in two “moments” in Mary’s life which may, at first sight, seem almost contradictory: Mary’s life at Nazareth and her life in the early Church after Pentecost.
In many statements jotted down by Mayet, Colin calls up these two images of Nazareth and the early Church, sometimes making a distinction between them, and sometimes making no distinction, blending them together as if they were two sides of the one coin.
Marist historian Jean Coste writes: “The first point of reference for every Marist is the person of Mary, of whose spirit we must partake. That Mary represents the heart of Christianity, of the Church, is brought out in two biblical mysteries, to which Father Colin ceaselessly sends us back. The first is Mary present in the Church after Pentecost: humbly immersed in its midst, animating by her prayer and her zeal that first apostolic group. The second sets before our eyes the house of Nazareth, where, in the obscurity of a little carpenter’s shop, the redemption of the world began to be realised, and where we see so clearly that a personcannot truly work for God if he is not spiritually ready to accept, if need be, for God’s glory, even obscurity and apparent uselessness.”
Colin saw great richness in these two images.