On the altars of the Congregation of the Mission, we venerate missionaries with shepherds’ staffs, hallowed priests in the corridors and classrooms of the seminaries and on the missionary paths, and humble brothers sanctified like Martha in the hidden missionary life. Among them, 64 sons of Vincent de Paul shine with their halos. But there was an empty niche, that of the seminarians, which today, on the eve of the 400th anniversary of the “Little Company”, is occupied by Jan Havrik.

He led a holy life: excellent in singing, gifted in speech, devoted to the Miraculous Mother, persevering and loving in prayer, always faithful to his Christian and Vincentian vocation in the midst of the cross and persecution.

On June 9, 2013, the diocesan investigation into his martyrdom began. The Congress of theologians, meeting on March 30, 2023, approved his martyrdom, and on December 14 of the same year, Pope Francis authorized the promulgation of the decree of martyrdom, setting the solemn beatification for August 31, 2024 in Šaštin (Slovakia). The representative of the Holy Father will be Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, Prefect of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints.

1. The seed of God germinated in his family upbringing

I am inspired to begin our reflection by the words of Our Lord in the Gospel according to Matthew 3:9, when he affirms that “God can make children for Abraham by taking them out of stones”, and it is not a stretch to infer that Our Lord was saying that if this were so, how much more so would he take them out of fertile and well-cultivated land. Our brother Ján did not emerge from a stony and arid field; on the contrary, from a fertile and well cultivated land, as was the home of Karol and Justina, with Ján being the first and most extraordinary fruit who showed the path of God to his three brothers who came after him.

The Lord called him to life on February 12, 1928, in the town of Vlčkovany (then Czechoslovakia), today Dubovce (Slovakia). His parents had basic salaries; his father was a state employee and his mother was a nurse who also worked in farming in order to earn a better income. They worked hard, and prayer in the home was daily and fervent, with study of the catechism, recitation of the rosary, and participation of the whole family in the Sunday Eucharist.

In a climate of love, prayer, and sacrifice, our future missionary was formed. He attended secondary school in an even more distant town, Skalica, 18 kilometers away, a journey that the young Havlík made on foot or by bicycle. It was clear that his youthful vigor would serve him well to carry out his desire to further his education. In fact, Ján’s studies would continue at a high level, because they were carried out with seriousness and dedication.

2. Vincentian life… the field where the planted seed grew, matured and bore fruit

St. Vincent de Paul, in a conference of July 1642, speaking of the first Daughter of Charity, affirmed that Marguerite Naseau, of Suresnes, is the first sister who had the joy of showing the way to the others…. In our case, the figure of Sister Modesta Havlíková, DC, Ján’s aunt, emerges. Making a parallelism, we can affirm that she, the beloved aunt, the Daughter of Charity, who one day met the Lord as a Vincentian, and living happily and fulfilled in the Vincentian Charism, by all means taught her nephew to drink from the crystal clear water she enjoyed, showing him the way of St. Vincent.

Thus in 1943, we find our future saint in Apostolic school and then after finishing the preliminary stage, in 1949 in the Internal Seminary, thus becoming a member of the Congregation of the Mission forever. He is the young man who, having heard the voice of the Lord, evangelizer of the poor, followed him in his youthful joy, but solidly prepared to carry the cross of fidelity and dedication throughout his short missionary life– an unsuspected and undreamed-of cross, but which he carried without faltering when it came to him.

Many of us missionaries have had the joy of counting on Daughters of Charity, Vincentian Missionaries or committed lay people, who have been a light to us on the path of our uncertain search for the Lord; who, with their example, their words and their company have led us and sustained us in the perseverance of the Vincentian missionary vocation. Fr. Tomaž Mavrič, CM, stresses to us with much insistence to strive for vocational work and even to look for “our replacement” so that tomorrow we will hand over to him the torch of vocation that we have held high. How can we not pray for our vocations, how can we not support those who knock at our doors or whom we meet under the sun and the rain of missionary work, how can we not encourage those who feel faint-hearted and want to look back… to be, in a word, guardians of our vocations?

3. Prison… the mission field among the poor

Vinícius Augusto Teixeira, c.m., in his insightful article “Ján Havlík: the power of desire”, tells us:

All Havlík’s efforts were energized and animated by his desire to become what the Lord was calling him to be. On one occasion, his sister Maria mentioned what her mother had told her about the missionary zeal that had been a part of her first-born son’s youth: “From my mother I know that in his novitiate days Ján wanted to be a missionary and go to Russia to teach Christianity to the children of Stalin. A schoolmate also refers to the apostolic aspirations of the young Havlík: “His classmates at that time already knew that he wanted to become a priest and go abroad as a missionary”. These youthful ideals are not the fruit of an adventurous heart, but the result of a soul matured in God and for God, as he manifests in his writings: “There is no greater gift than to give oneself unconditionally to God”.

But very soon, our seminarian understood that being a missionary could no longer take place in the high mountain ranges of Russia or in its icy mountains, but in the uranium mines and in the dark communist prisons. And why? Simply because the communist regime had been established in his homeland, and Ján, in his fidelity to God and the Church, did not want to give up his vocation. In the dungeons and prisons was his missionary field. There he had been planted by the Lord, and there was his space to flourish and bear abundant fruit. (He was sentenced to a ten-year prison sentence after a fabricated trial.) He rightly tells us:

“Is it not the task of Missionaries to help those who have been thrown into the rubble of society? If we are sentenced to 10 to 15 years in prison, we cannot talk about the temporary and think: … ‘I will work later for the Kingdom of God.’ They need it now, while they are weak. All the prisoners, the desperate, the ignorant, the apathetic, the murderers and the criminals need it. Manifest now what you have inside you, if you are serious about the mission you have dreamed of since you were young. I feel the same way about missions. I could not imagine a better and more challenging field of work. We must let everyone know that our love is Christ. To all the thousands of prisoners in Jáchymov, Příbram, Slavkov… It is a program for our whole life. Put love into government matters, into families, communities, schools, offices… bring love into all our actions.”

And this was the missionary pulpit of this young man, with his boundless fidelity to God, to the Church, to the Congregation of the Mission, to the poor: his resilient witness, the joy of his dedication, his sacrificial work, his praying of the rosary and the catechesis with his cellmates, was the missionary field where Ján realized his vocation and mission. He endured exactly 11 years of isolation and humiliation (1951 – October 29, 1962). Once released, he continued his mission in the warmth of his family, doing good inside and outside his own, until the Lord, from his cradle, led him to sing Christmas carols with him eternally, “in the mission of heaven” on December 27, 1965.

4. And the tree planted by God’s streams of water…did not wither or fall…it died standing upright

And let us see the glorious end of our Blessed Havrík, to quote Fr. Teixeira:

“After a more intense discomfort on the afternoon of the 26th, it seemed that his health problems had given him a respite, so he commented to his father that he would like to find a job in order to contribute to support of the family. On December 27, 1965, Ján took a bus to the nearby town of Popudiny to see his doctor. From there he went to Skalica, taking a radio that needed to be fixed. He would then go to the hospital for tests and, if necessary, admission. If it was still possible, he would visit his brother Anton, who lived in town, to spend New Year’s Eve with him. However, that would be the last day of his earthly life. As soon as he arrived in the city, while walking down the street, just as he was in front of a doctor’s house, he felt ill and leaned against a garbage can. Noticing the young man’s condition, the doctor came over to help him, but in vain. Ján Havlík’s weak heart was barely beating. The doctor took him home with the help of a passerby to give him his final aid. He did not know Ján, but his wife did. As a nurse, she had received him at the hospital during one of his many admissions, and she remembered his serenity and kindness.”

In the silence, prayer, and meditation of his cell, most certainly more than once, this conference of his Founder, which he had read in the Internal Seminary, came to his mind. Would our martyr imagine that this text would be fulfilled, to the letter, in himself:

“Let’s give ourselves to God, Messieurs, to go throughout the world to carry His holy Gospel and, wherever He may lead us, let’s stand by our post and observe our practices until it’s His good pleasure to withdraw us from it. We mustn’t let difficulties shake us; the glory of the Eternal Father and the efficacy of the Word and Passion of His Son are at stake. The salvation of nations and our own is so great a good as to deserve to be won at any cost; it doesn’t matter whether we die sooner or later, provided we die arms in hand; we’ll be all the happier for it and the Company will be no poorer, for ‘The blood of martyrs is the seed of Christians.’ For one Missioner who has given his life for the love of God, the goodness of God will raise up many others to do the good he will have left undone.” (XI: 365-366)

5. Let us conclude with the Chinese proverb: “It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness”

• Ján’s prayer, next to the Lord in the heavenly mansion, has been heard: he could not physically go to “teach Christianity to the children of Stalin”… but his confreres would, when, with courageous courage motivated by Father Maloney, they went to different regions, reaching Ukraine, Russia and Belarus, continuing there with tenacity and evangelical heroism. And others, many heroic Vincentians, have gone to other parts of the world to bring the Gospel of Jesus to the poor. His beatification should be, for the young and not so young, an incentive to continue in the battle without hesitation and with fortitude, until the last breath of life.
• If Ján is a Vincentian model, he is especially so for the young people of our colleges, schools and seminaries. There is now no excuse for them not to follow the Lord; there is a current, young reference point for our times, and a courageous herald of the Gospel, seeking to cultivate an upright conscience, enlightened by faith, capable of educating their desires and directing them in the direction of what is true, good and beautiful, according to the will of God.
• In the face of the culture of the fleeting, the liquid, and the ephemeral, we are called to persevere in the good, in the most sincere searches and in fidelity to the missionary and Vincentian vocation, even in the midst of adversity and trials.
• The new Blessed Ján Havlík places us at the gates of our Fourth Centenary, as sentinels of the treasure of the Society that we have received, and to be daring in the spiritual life, more creative in the fulfillment of our mission, more generous in the mission, opening new paths that lead us and our brothers to the Lord.

What a joy to know that, as missionaries, we are little lights before the Tabernacle and before our brothers and sisters, that we spend with joy the last drop of the oil of the lamps of our lives before Him and the poor!

Fr. Marlio Nasayó Liévano, CM
Source: https://www.corazondepaul.org/