In discernment, when faced with two apparent contradictions or polarities, the true answer is less about deciding either-or and more about arriving at both-and. This truth is deeply embedded in our faith, no more clearly than in the dual nature of Christ; the hypostatic union of the human and divine, that mirrors our own unitary nature as body and soul together. By putting on the cloak of humanity, God calls us to union with His divinity. As St. Louise put it, “Just as God sees Himself united to man in heaven by the hypostatic union of the word made Flesh, so He wanted such a union on earth so that the human race would never again be separated from Him.” [SWLM, A.15] Not either-or, but both-and.

In a similar way, when considering our home visits, we sometimes fall into the either-or trap, viewing our work as a choice between “transaction” and “transformation.” This false choice can in turn lead us to misconstrue the nature of both transaction and transformation. When the neighbor calls us in need of rent, utilities, or food, we always do our best to provide for that need first. It’s reason they called us, and a request for help, as Bl. Rosalie once said, is “proof of friendship.” [Sullivan, 237] Paying a bill is, inescapably, a transaction, but this should not lead us to divorce transformation from transaction.

The primary purpose of our Vincentian vocation is our growth in holiness and our primary means towards that growth is to serve Christ in the person of the poor. If we separate transaction from transformation in our work, making it an either-or, we can begin to see it as our mission to transform others, or worse still, to define transformation in merely material terms.

By our witness in words and works, we invite the neighbor to our faith and offer the eternal hope of Christ. This is part of our mission, too, but whether their hearts are converted is ultimately not up to us, but to God. As our first Rule put it, “We are not commissioned to perform the good which it is out of our power to effect.” [Rule, 1835] It is the poor who are the first evangelizers. We are sent to seek, to see, and to serve Christ, and by doing so, to seek our own transformation. Not either-or, but both-and.

Our Rule calls us to form “relationships based on trust and friendship.” [Rule, Part I, 1.9] It is through those relationships that we are naturally led to the transactions that ease deprivation, the words of comfort that restore dignity, and the ongoing accompaniment of our friends through advocacy, special works, and systemic change. All of these things, though, are mere transactions without God’s transformative grace, for “we can achieve nothing of eternal value without His grace.” [Rule, Part I, 2.5.1]

In this work of ours, the transaction becomes a relationship, and the relationship leads to transformation; transformation of ourselves towards holiness, of our neighbor towards hope, and of our society towards a civilization of love. Not either-or, but both-and.

Contemplate

How does my service transform me? What does my transformation call me to do?

By Timothy Williams,
Senior Director of Formation & Leadership Development
Society of St. Vincent de Paul USA.