Most of us find ourselves in a different world than we grew up in!
We have long since left what was hopefully the safety and security of our familial homes. But we often find ourselves in “A Brave New World” that is often frightening and eerily similar to some 80 year ago. Technology seems to set us against our social and spiritual moorings.
Vincent’s family, with their peasant background, openly professed and lived their faith … there were no doubts or hesitations. Their faith rested on the foundation of an ordered universe in which everything had its place, in which (despite many miseries) nothing was questioned. This universe was composed of some saints and also some sinners who knew they were sinners.
When Vincent de Paul left the home of his parents, he was in fact, changing his universe.
He entered a turbulent world of new ideas, a world that was still recovering from sixty years of civil war and that had not yet forgotten the sight of the blood that was shed. Despite its seeming order, Vincent discovered a material and moral poverty in the midst of the word… these were unexpected and surprising discoveries. The categories of his faith had not prepared him for such a discovery … he thus vacillated before the clash of values and attitudes.
Everything that he saw and heard further diminished the certainty of his thinking and he found that all his plans were completely changed. Though there was no ray of light that that threw him from his horse (as happened to the Apostle Paul), nevertheless, Vincent experienced disorientation and blindness … he did not know what to think or what to do … he entered a crisis of faith in which his whole being became completely and profoundly unsettled.
Thus Vincent began a long journey that would eventually allow him to see anew.
He escaped to the de Gondi estate where he was assured a problem-free future … a future which his past seemed to have prepared him for. Leaving behind his past, however, Vincent became like Abraham or, better still, became like Paul who was blinded and led by the hand to Damascus where he was told what he had to do.
As Vincent entered more fully into this unknown world he was led to the bedside of the infirm at the Hotel-Dieu, he was led to the home of the infirm and poor family in Châtillon, he was led to the bedside of the dying man in Gannes and led to the dungeons of the galley slaves. These were the evils and wounds and scars that Jesus spoke about … the wounds and scars that Jesus had suggested could be healed and also suggested how they could be healed … the wounds and scars of the Risen Christ that Thomas has been invited to put his fingers on and as a result his faith was restored.
Vincent’s life was transformed as a result of these different encounters that we have referred to.
Those events were the key that led him to a spiritual world that was both uncomfortable and yet open to far distant and unknown horizons. In the eyes of the poor men and women Vincent discovered the gaze of Jesus Christ. It was Vincent’s faith that impelled him to engage in various initiatives to confront the situations of misery and to engage in a process of evangelization and material relief on behalf of the poor.
The above paragraphs are taken almost verbatim for a wonderful article Vincent dePaul and Faith which unpacks the details of this journey.
Cf. A brief video The Journey of Vincent portrays the various stages of that journey… Peasant, Social climber, priest, teacher, spiritual leader, organizer … and most importantly, SAINT!
See also the excellent video “Charity’s Saint” produced by dePaul University.
Tags: Journey, Vincent
