1.“Who are the Dehonian Laity?” This is the question we propose to make clear to our lay people as the followers of Christ in a way of life which Father Leo John Dehon tried and wished to develop for the sake of the Reign of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in the Church and in societies. What should our lay dehonians have as their particular character as followers of Christ, and at the same time of Leo John Dehon? The following article is an attempt to offer some possibilities on how the formation of lay dehonians might be developed, without entering into the various components of the Dehonian Family.

2. We already know that all members - pastor, lay person and religious - each in his/her own manner, participate in the sacramental nature of the Church. Like-wise, each one, according to his/her proper role, must be a sign and instrument both of union with God and of the salvation of the world. All, in fact, have this twofold aspect in their vocation: (a) toholiness - “all in the Church, whether they belong to the hierarchy or are cared for by it, are called to holiness” (LG, 39); (b) to the apostolate - the entire Church “is driven by the Holy Spirit to do her part for the full realization of the plan of God” (LG, 17; cf. AA, 2; AG, 1,2,3,4,5).

Based on the divine gifts of baptism and confirmation each one of us has the responsibility to live out our vocation in this twofold aspect. If we are convinced of the necessity of the formation of lay dehonians should it not be on the same plane as that given to dehonian religious, i.e., for our quality of life and of the apostolate, we need both basic formation and ongoing formation.

3. A balance between the task of attaining holiness and of having the capacity to do apostolic ministry is the aim of our formation. Our primary concern is the need of being and living as Christians. Following this line of thought(1) there are elements that can become our starting points to develop our reflection on formation of the dehonian laity.

3.1. Discipleship. Discipleship is an important element of spirituality for all Christians. It means following Christ, imitating Him and growing into Him. For the laity, it means bearing witness to Christ in the ordinary circumstances of life, such as in the family, in professional life, etc. The challenge of the lay disciple of Christ is in evangelizing and sanctifying the world. As the dehonian disciple of Christ, this effort can be reflected upon in the model that we have in Leo John Dehon. And basically it is a personal commitment to Christ who calls each by name. The scripture passage that was so dear to Father Dehon was: “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; cf. Cost. 2).

He lived this message and felt how God had helped him to grow in it. Jesus called and trained his disciples. There was no academic methodology, as much of our formation is now done. Rather the disciples were involved in the total life and deeds of Jesus. When John the Baptist sent word to Jesus through his disciples, Jesus responded:”Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them. And blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me.” (Mat 11: 4-6).

Formation - in this model - helps us to commit ourselves to becoming the disciples of Jesus, making a clear decision to follow Him totally as our baptismal status demands. Learning by doing, especially in our status as lay people in our ordinary everyday life. To aid us in becoming adult Christians we need in-service training, etc., for it is truly a life long pursuit. Father Leo John Dehon spent a lifetime pluming the depths of his vocation. He ended his life with the phrase: “For you have I lived, for you do I die”.

3.2. Christocentric. Christian spirituality is Christ-centred. The Christian is to be animated by the spirit of Christ - the Holy Spirit. Christ’s life was life according to the Spirit. Led by the Spirit he preached the good news and went about doing good. The dehonian laity too are to be led by the Spirit. They have to discern the movement of the Spirit and watch for “the signs of the time.” They have to respond to these signs in a positive way. This is life according to the spirit of Christ.

The dehonian laity “Christ’s faithful”,(2) in their inner lives, is Christ himself, the spirit of Christ. The goal of our formation is to achieve such experience. Not as a foreigner anymore, but as a disciple that is Christ’s brother or sister. The risen Christ offers the possibility to be with Him in a mystical way. He dwells in us, among us. The pneumatological reality of our Christian existence can not be attained just by ritualistic or juridical commitment only. It demands abandonment, an offering of ourselves, openness to God, to have divine collaboration that God has promised to those who believe in Him.

To love Jesus with all our hearts it is necessary to search for Him unceasingly, in Eucharistic Adoration, prolonged meditation, the act of reparation, etc. Our thirst for love could be satisfied in the spirit of Jesus itself. So, to become dehonian “Christ’s faithful” laity, it means that we have to live in His Spirit. The Spirit who brings us closer and closer to God, and who transforms us to become His apostles, as Jesus Himself experienced: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” (Luke 4:18-19)

3.3. Biblical. It is through the Word of God that we meet Jesus, the Word made flesh. We have to listen to the Word of God that is Jesus; to the Word that is given to us in the Church; to the Word that is given to us through persons and events around us. There are many quotations in the Bible that Father Dehon liked, the most famous one: “See, I have come to do your will!” (Heb 10: 9), and “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.” (Luke 1:38) Even though it is important that our personal contact with Jesus should be cultivated through many different ways, as well as through many different entrances into the Scriptures. But the way, that is promoted now in different places, is through Lectio Divina, an approach to the Bible that promotes not only understanding intellectually, but also by ruminating on the Word of God through prayer and meditation.

It is not difficult anymore to be read the Bible in our own languages. We have opportunities now to deepen and to grow in our faith with so many biblical commentary books. To follow Jesus and Leo John Dehon we are called to become familiar with so many personages that are found in biblical stories.

3.4. Ecclesial. It is through the Church that we become united to the Spirit of Christ - the Spirit who dwells within us. It is through our incorporation into the Mystical Body of Christ, i.e. the Church, that we become participants in the priestly, prophetic and kingly functions of Christ. We are not merely members of the Church; we are the Church. It is this ecclesial dimension - we are the Church - which obliges us to actively participate in the mission of the Church. This is both lay spirituality and the lay apostolate.

Father Dehon loved the Church. He took part in spreading the social teachings of the Church, in sending missionaries for the mission “ad gentes”, etc. Therefore, it is impossible to become a disciple of Christ and at the same time be far away from the Church. No matter sociologically, what the Church looks like - lay people, clergy religious, bishops, the Roman Curia, the Pope etc. - we are invited to believe that it is the Mystical Body of Christ. Including our union with the saints, as seen in Father Dehon’s fondness for the patron saints of his congregation.

3.5. Communitarian and social commitment. Christian spirituality is ecclesial as well as communitarian. A self-centered and individualistic spirituality can never be genuine from a Christian perspective. The post-Vatican II Church has a greater awareness of her commitment to social justice and participation in the transformation of the world. Lay people have a special responsibility in this important area of the Church’s redemptive mission. The Fathers of the Synod on the Laity (1987) make this important observation in their message: “The Holy Spirit leads us to understand more clearly that holiness today cannot be attained without a commitment to justice, without a human solidarity that includes the poor and the oppressed. The ideal holiness of the lay faithful must integrate the social dimension of transforming the world according to the plan of God”.(3) It is significant that this call for social action comes under the title “The Call to Holiness.”

For religious, especially for SCJs, this dimension has its important role, since Fr. Leo John Dehon gave such character to the Congregation he founded. It is time now to share the same vision and mission with lay people. And it is more practical rather than theoretical, because to build the Church as “communion” and in “strong collaboration among her members” is in fact the question of sharing space and time in being in the same boat with Jesus Christ.

3.6. Sacramental. The soul of the Apostolate is spirituality. But the source of animation for spirituality is sacramental life. It is through baptism and confirmation that we become disciples and apostles of Christ. It is through the Eucharist that we participate in the Paschal mystery - the act of self-emptying and self-giving of Christ - repeated sacramentally. This act of supreme love and sacrifice is given to us sacramentally in order that we also show the same love and concern for others. The celebration of the Eucharist and Adoration become for us the sacramental and mystical way to deepen our relationship with Christ, with the Holy Trinity, and with our brothers and sisters in Christ, i.e., the Church. More than these, as a Mystical Body of Christ, we cannot separate ourselves from Him. So in turn we become the sacrament of Christ for the others, for the world. The Church has provided so many ways to develop this sacramental formation. Thanks to the fruits of inculturation and to the fidelity of the Church to take care of the needs of all the members of the Church with sacramental assistance.

3.7. Incarnational. The Word became incarnate and dwelt among us. Our discipleship of Christ becomes a reality only when it takes on flesh through deeds of love. Jesus sat for the Last Supper and climbed Calvary after showing his disciples the lessons of diaconia by washing their feet. The words of Jesus were followed by action. The great love that Jesus had towards the poor and the oppressed should prompt us to fight against injustice and corruption in society. On the occasion of the centenary of the Consecration of the Human Race to the Sacred Heart of Jesus (11 June 1999), Pope John Paul II repeated what had been stated in Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes that “it is only in the mystery of the Word made flesh that mystery of man truly becomes clear” (n. 22), since “by his Incarnation the Son of God has united himself in some fashion with every human being. He worked with human hands, he thought with a human mind, acted with a human will and loved with a human heart” (ibid.).

Being fully incorporated with Christ every Dehonian, Christ’s faithful laity, bears witness wherever he/she is. Since our Founder, Father Leo John Dehon was inflamed by the love of Christ and expressed it in different commitments, the same love urges us to be and to do for the Church and for society. There are unlimited lay apostolates that can be done in a spirit of charity, of solidarity, of total liberation of the human race.

4. Such essential elements give us a scheme of how some formative activities could be arranged. Various catechetical methods could be applied with wider vision and in accordance with the status and stages of our life as dehonian laity. It is not necessarily that each element must be cultivated separately. The example of the first Christian community (cf. Act 2:41-47) gives us a model or paradigm of how all the elements can be cultivated and lived in a “holistic” way.

As heirs to the legacy of Fr. Leo John Dehon and as his followers we have no common physical apostolates, but with a rich spirituality that can become our common spirit to build up our communional and collaborative efforts to bear witness in the Church and in societies.

NOTES

1. K.T. Sebastian, The Era of the Lay People, (Mumbai, Pauline Publications, 1998) pp. 96-98.

2. The Code of Canon Law 1983, no. 204; Christifideles Laici, the Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation of Pope John Paul II on the Vocation and Mission of the Lay Faithful in the Church and the World (St. Paul Publications, 1989).

3. Message to the People of God. Synod on the Laity. Synodal Bulletin on 29. XI, 1987, no. 4.