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HANDING-OVER ADDRESS,
by bro. Albert Ketelaars
Wa, 21 November 2006
Dear Brothers,
Today is a historic day, not only because today is the birthday of our Congregation - 166 years, but also because it is the first time we do the handing over of office after a transition period. As a matter of fact this has been done already in a different way. It took place when we worked as a Chapter and discussed the new General Council; when we discussed the important issues for the future of our Congregation as laid down in the first circular letter of our new General Superior. We practised it when we had our first meeting in Maastricht together on 21st August, where we discussed a number of very practical matters. It continued whenever there was special contact between us on various issues concerning our Congregation.
It especially happened when Martinus and myself met for 10 days in Maastricht between 11th and 21st September. For me this was emotionally the time when I effectively handed over. Ever since my mood became one of sabbatical, re-orientation, a new and different future. Sometimes even so much that I felt bothered with so many little things I felt was no longer my business.
Still I hope that you brothers of the new Council, will get the feeling that we, members of the old Council, looked well after matters, at least in such a way that you can continue to build on that.
Today during the official handing over we want to wish you well and want to express our fullest support for you and the way you are going to practically fill in the office you are embarking on today. There are many things that can be said on an occasion like this, but I would like to stress just one point, that I think should be the foundation of all you are going to undertake. Our vocation is a vocation from the Lord which we received through special circumstances in our lives. Each one of us can tell his own story concerning that. The Lord called us through concrete people and everyday events. We embarked upon our being-brother when we started our novitiate and grew in it. Vocation means entering into a process of growth through listening in a very special way - expressed through the vows - to what comes to us from inside as well as from outside. Through our commitment as religious we have promised to stand in life with a very special and well-defined attitude; we are tuned to the spiritual. Bro. Martinus describes this attitude in his first circular letter as follows:
“The outcome of the Chapter is not so much the number of resolutions or decisions we made, but rather the positive impact it has on our lives as religious brothers” (page 4)
On page 6 he says: “This is to me a clear indication that we, as individuals and as Congregation, have been continuously searching for the deepest spiritual motivation of our being religious brothers. This is in my opinion one way of protecting the heritage of our Founders.”
There I think we have to search for the basis and foundation of our lives and also the basis and foundation of your service in the highest office of our Congregation. Within this perspective there are some points I would like to stress:
1. God’s presence in daily life
“Awareness of the presence of God in the stuff of that daily, the everywhere, the always, the everyone” as Joan Chittister says in her book “Illuminated Life”. You find it on page 141. God has redeemed our world and this redemption continues to be active now. Where do I see this? Am I sufficiently geared to hear and see? This attitude is very important and I hope that you will encourage each other to develop this attitude continuously make it more and more your own. In the light of this I think your recollections as a council are very important. Common recollections will help you to grow in this attitude.
You are to be seekers of God as Joan Chittister says in that very same book: “Seekers see what others cannot even imagine: the presence of God in the things of the daily”. Therefore I will plead with you to give time to this reflection as a person and as a group. Bro. Martinus expresses this as follows:
“As religious brothers we should always ask ourselves why we do what we are doing, so that the spiritual and religious dimension of our being-brother is continuously challenged. What moves me to do what I am doing?”
2. Being near to fellow-brothers
Very closely connected with the above is your attitude towards your fellow-brothers. If you manage to see the presence of God in the daily, you must surely see the presence of God in your fellow-brother. It is therefore very important for you to have time for your fellow-brother and above all to listen to his story. Within that personal experience you must be sufficiently sensitive to discern God at work who called you as well as your fellow-brother. Be close to him and stand next to him, so that he experiences you as his brother.
That feeling will also give you that corporate feeling that we as FIC brothers have. In your personal contacts with fellow-brothers something of that FIC identity will come to the surface. This common quality is constantly commissioning us in the field here in Ghana, but also in The Netherlands, Indonesia, Malawi and Chile. Remain close to your brother and live that special quality of brotherhood that is so unique to our Congregation. Therefore the Chapter stressed communication. Martinus expresses it as follows on page 8:
“As a matter of fact our lives are directed towards the happiness of our fellow-beings, first of all towards the happiness of those with whom we form a community (Const. Art. 36). Based on my limited observation, there have been brothers who were not able to enjoy their being-religious because of the poor communication they experienced in their community. A good communication requires a sensitive and listening attitude from the parties involved. Above all, good communication is not a matter of knowledge and mind but a matter of goodwill and heart and therefore should be practised in the real setting, namely in our own immediate community.”
I would like to translate this basic attitude to our Congregation and its heritage as well as to our present day society in which we live.
3. Congregational heritage
In “Rules of Conduct for Superiors” our fist Superior-General said that a superior must love his brothers as a father and a mother at the same time:
“An ordinary love is not sufficient for a superior: along with the love of a fatherly heart he must have the deep tenderness of a mother” (page 30 Rules of Conduct).
What does that mean? It can only mean that each one of you must feel closely connected with the joys and sorrows of each of your brothers. This closeness asks a lot of you. It means to listen to be open, to receive and not so much to direct and to command. Of course there may be situations where also this is needed as our Constitutions say, but your fundamental ground attitude must be that closeness to you fellow-brother. Through that closeness we can listen to the inner side of his story and interpret it, encourage the brother and feel the fire that each vocation is; taste the presence of God in that person. Obviously this will make it very clear that you need to develop a personal attitude and sensitivity to the Holy around you in order to feel and identify the Holy in your fellow-brother. Be a father and a mother at the same time as Bernardus said. Love your brothers with a fatherly heart as well as with motherly guts. This is a very big challenge, but one that will be very rewarding once you give yourself to that, because both the receiving side as well as the giving one will become richer through it.
Therefore invest in the contacts with fellow-brothers and from there sense which direction our Congregation is to go. It is the core of our religious obedience.
To stress the importance of the heritage of our Congregation we will give you in a moment the picture of our Founders as well as our Constitutions - symbols that were always present when we met as General Council. May they also be for you that guideline which leads you safely into the future.
4. Present day
In this way I think the mysticism of the daily is a necessity to concentrate on and develop in yourself. In order to help you in that I want to give you a booklet entitled: “STREET WISDOM” which I hope will help you to interpret what you hear and see within this vocation perspective I have tried to paint. Bernardus talked about loving with a fatherly heart as well as with motherly guts. The author of this book, a Benedictine monk, calls these same attitudes in life ‘mastery’ and ‘intimacy’. I would like to read you a story from this book:
“A discarded bottle lying on the ocean bottom is, it seems, an irresistible temptation for a baby crab. The little creature, about the size of your thumbnail, glides easily through the bottle’s mouth to discover an enclosed world that offers everything it needs: plenty of organic debris to eat, shelter from strong currents, protection from the countless predators who feed on young crabs. Delighted, it makes itself at home, and begins to thrive in the cozy surroundings. After some weeks, however, when instinct tells it the time has come to migrate, it crawls confidently to the opening, expecting to swim back out the way it came in. That is when it discovers the ghastly price of that time of perfect security: it has grown too big to fit through the neck of the bottle! In a terrible ironic twist, that safe shelter now becomes a death chamber; its protective shield will be its coffin”.
In every human being there is tension between the lure of the safe and certain on the one hand, and the challenge of the unknown and risky on the other. Our lives are shaped by the ebb and flow of the struggle between these two forces inside us. In this book “Street Wisdom” they are called “mastery” and “intimacy”. Bro. Martinus expresses the same as follow:
“I have been wondering whether we need to develop a so-called FIC culture, where we can find common understanding and values regarding our being FIC, so that problems arising from misunderstanding and misinterpreation among us can be reduced.”
Or as Bernardus called them: love with a fatherly heart and motherly guts.
I think the big challenge of this service of leadership as a team is to help one another find a good balance between these two forces which are present in each of us: mastery and intimacy or a fatherly heart and motherly guts. They will come to you in many varied ways and it is the art to discern and recognize both movements inside yourself and bring them into contact with each other without one dominating the other. As part of the handing over I herewith give you this book apart from the symbols which we as Congregation attach so much value to: our Founders and our Constitutions. May you in the coming six years find that balance inside your self and in this way grow as a person and a brother in the spirit of our Congregation. Brothers, it will not be easy, but I believe that if you are aware of that tension inside yourself and bring the poles of that tension constantly into contact with each other, you will grow as religious brothers and be an example to your fellow-brothers and be able to stand next to them, be close to them, encourage them and in this way lead our Congregation to new horizons wherever those may be.
Bro. Martinus, Methodius, Lo, Cosmas and Guido, I wish you well and assure you of my prayers and support as well as that of our fellow-brothers here present and in the whole Congregation. May you find happiness and peace of heart in this service.
Bro. Albert Ketelaars
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