Poverty January 5
Our practice of poverty should not diminish adult responsibility or foster immature dependence on the superior (Const. 13.5).
Augustinian religious life has nothing to do with childish relationships between superiors and members. It is a community of adults, each one exercising proper Christian responsibility. What is an adult? The adult is a person who has grown up, a person who has developed to a certain maturity. Psychologically, it is a man or woman who has the knowledge and qualities of character to direct personal, family, civic, business and Church life in a mature way. When Jesus counseled us to become as children, did he refuse to honor this natural movement created by his Father? No. He was speaking of a deeper maturity. And when Theodore and his companions left the Cathedral of Liège to found the Crosier Order, was that an escape to childish religious fantasies? Quite the contrary: it was a reform of a certain clerical childishness that rejected true evangelical responsibility. And I, how do I behave in my community as a disciple of Jesus and companion of Theodore today?
What the heart ardently desires makes the legs march. (Rwanda)
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