My Dear Missionaries,

This expression, "couper court" was used for the first time in the spiritual writings of Saint Francis de Sales. It has become famous and is now a part of spirituality - especially in Visitation cloisters. In the Saint's biography we read of something he said during a retreat in Lyon a few days before his death, "We must cut short (couper court) all those things that do not contribute to our spiritual health […] Everyone knows that the goods of this world are strong reasons for dissipation … we cut them short."
The IMC Bulletin gives me the opportunity to speak about a variety of subjects that concern our life and our mission. I thought of taking this insight from the spiritual writings of St. Francis de Sales (last year's protector) and applying it to our every-day life. It will help us strive to make our lives in all places and to all people a joyful and contagious witness of the Gospel.

MISSIONARIES WILLING … TO RISK THEIR OWN LIVES

Renunciation is never an end in itself. It is always directed towards some higher good. This is the motivation Francis de Sales provided for those sacrifices he courageously asked his followers to make. He went so far as to ask them to be willing to risk their very lives for God and for the Kingdom.
For us that higher good is the full realization of our vocation - that is to be transparent and joyful missionaries of the Gospel so that our evangelization will be ever more effective. Paul VI said the same thing in Evangelii Nuntiandi: "And may the world of our time, which is searching, sometimes with anguish, sometimes with hope, be enabled to receive the Good News not from evangelizers who are dejected, discouraged, impatient or anxious, but from ministers of the Gospel whose lives glow with fervor, who have first received the joy of Christ, and who are willing to risk their lives…" (EN 80).
A few years later John Paul II expresses the same wish for cheerful and effective missionaries: "May this witness become present everywhere and universally clear. May the people of our times, in their spiritual weariness, find in it both support and hope. Therefore, serve your brethren with the joy that wells up from a heart in which Christ has His dwelling. And may the world of our time...be enabled to receive the Good News not from evangelizers who are dejected and discouraged …" (Redemptionis Donum, 16).
As missionaries we can only express that joyful witness and fervent proclamation if we are willing to risk our lives. This is the same risk God graciously takes with us - we must take it with Him. God and ourselves - an engagement that spreads out to others, to those we have been sent to serve. Little by little this risk will envelop our whole existence; it will not be limited to the margins of our life as a part-time or optional concern.
- This risk requires concentration, effort, commitment; when God comes into someone's life He demands the maximum. Maximum intelligence, maximum heart, maximum will. If He is the vine (Cf. John 15,1-11) we, the branches, must bear fruit. "Abandonment to God" is a fundamental Christian attitude, it can never be an excuse for indifference.
- This risk demands openness to God and to others in our life without reservation, without pointless complaint or disengagement; this was the risk God took with Abraham, Mary and Blessed Allamano - they were people always open and eager to say "Yes, Father, because it pleases you!" (Mt 11, 26).
- It is a gratuitous risk - one takes it expecting nothing. This is precisely its savor - one gives and asks nothing in return. This is the logic behind St. Francis' prayer: "O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life."
- Finally it is a risk taken by those who want to "fly." Francis de Sales used this image - flying - in an attempt to explain his ideal of Christian life: the dynamic movement of virtue and good. "When the love of God reaches a level of perfection where we not only do good but do it diligently, assiduously and readily it is called devotion. Ostriches never fly. Chickens fly awkwardly, low and rarely; but eagles, doves and swallows fly often, gracefully and high … to put it succinctly, devotion is the spiritual agility and grace with which charity works in us and we work in charity - promptly and with dispatch …" (Philothea, 5/7).

WHEN "CUTTING SHORT" COMES INTO PLAY

The readiness to risk our lives - something demanded by our vocation and called the "over and above" by Blessed Allamano - requires constant commitment and perseverance. It cannot be sustained by good intentions and empty sentiments; it must rest upon daily training and attention to details.
A pianist once said, "If I go two days without practice I am aware something is missing. If I go a week without practice my children also become aware of it - and if I go a fortnight without practice, the public is aware of it too." This is probably true of us as well. We must pay daily attention to what God is working within us. Very likely we are not the first to become aware of something missing. Others will notice our work lacks commitment and enthusiasm, our life does not reflect certain values or closeness to God. People will quickly notice our disinterest in others, that our preaching is more words than the Word, our services are impatient or lacking substance … We should consider ourselves fortunate if someone has the courage to tell us what is evident and help us to pull ourselves together.
One of the things we should do to pull ourselves together is "cut short" - St. Francis de Sales' legacy to his spiritual daughters and his followers. Conscious of the fact that correction implies self-criticism and can be an occasion for personal conversion through fraternal love, let me suggest some instances where I believe this advice - cut short - can serve us well as missionaries. These are certainly not the only, and maybe not even the most important, instances.

1. "Couper court / cut short" with improper use of the computer

Nowadays computers are everywhere: in the jungles of Congo, in the most isolated outposts of our American missions, in far off Korea and in the communities of Europe. Everywhere the computer is becoming the missionary's unpaid helper allowing him to expedite office work and, through the internet , maintain easy contact with the whole world.
I don't intend to sing the praises of the computer but rather to point out some of the problems that can arise from its immoderate or improper use. This is what happens when it goes from being an instrument to save time and increase accomplishment, into something obsessive consuming time that should be devoted to missionary work. "Surfing the net" can become an obsession in competition with fraternal community life.
This is when de Sales' advice to "cut short" comes into play - when our work instrument eats up time that should be dedicated to missionary work or diminishes our efforts to communicate with the members of our community. I won't even mention the pointless and dangerous things one encounters while wandering around the internet - they can fill our hearts and minds with things that alienate us from our mission and make our lives arid.
What we have been saying about the computer can apply to other means of communication - the television for example. "When it is our only form or recreation it can become an obstacle to relationships with others; it can block fraternal communication and endanger religious life" (Fraternal Life in Community, 34).

2. Couper court with criticism

Nothing can so easily destroy missionary fraternity, ecclesial communion and human relations as a spirit of criticism, complaint, irony or sarcasm. This is a habit that deserves to be destroyed forcefully and decisively at birth - couper court in the words of de Sales. Otherwise it can become a sickness that spreads like a virus; it undermines and stifles our impulse to do good; in spite of its unreasonableness it gains ground (we criticize everyone who doesn't do what we would like, we make judgments on things we know absolutely nothing about). We sabotage courage and the willingness to look ahead with courage and hope.
Criticism is a sickness that not only poisons the atmosphere but can damage the person who practices it. It keeps him from getting beyond his own complexes and defensive attitudes and undermines any serious interior life. Whenever we undertake a serious commitment with the Lord the spirit of criticism vanishes - understanding, mercy and love gain the upper hand.
In a pastoral/missionary context envy that finds an outlet in criticism, that pits one group against another, one person against another can be especially harmful. Equally lamentable is the new community superior who criticizes his predecessor and sets out to undo everything his predecessor accomplished.
Blessed Allamano called this attitude: the "spirit of criticism" and wanted to see it banished from missionary communities. "Woe to those communities that harbor this spirit! I always say it is the beginning of the end" (VS 140). The absence of this spirit assures a future for the Institute: "Let us pray to Our Lady, the Consolata, that she keep this plague - the spirit of criticism - far from us and all will go well, the Lord will bless us and the Institute's work will prosper" (VS 141).

3. Couper court with the temptation of consumerism

"Oh yes, globalization! It is a marvelous excuse for a host of things." These words are attributed to Robert M. Solow, the Nobel laureate in economics. It highlights the ambiguity of a phenomenon that directly or indirectly has enormous influence on mankind. We too feel its effects. Closely linked to the media, consumerism is presented as the last frontier of happiness based on an abundance of possessions and a multiplication of needs. The subtext of the advertising that surrounds us is: Only one thing is lacking for your happiness - go out, buy it, and you will be satisfied!
In this area there are extreme situations that challenge our life and our missionary work. Our vocation calls us to solidarity with the poor; we are involved in their struggle for health care, food and education. At the same time we realize that today's society is blowing these basic needs out of proportion to the extent that they can never be satisfied.
We are witnessing an unbridled race to possess material things - even among the poor who identify consumerism with the dream of progress.
Without serious discernment and the forceful application of de Sales' rule the atmosphere of consumerism that surrounds us can have damaging effects on our own life and apostolate. How can we be prophetic to the poor in whose midst we live when our own houses are packed with things they could never afford; are not these "things" an advertisement for consumerism? The austerity of life our documents speak about should prompt us to reflect before buying something new - can I do without this? Will this new possession improve my missionary work? Will this possession help or hinder my Gospel witness?

4. Couper court with activism

Allamano wanted us to be active, energetic, hard-working and zealous. Frequently in his spiritual conversations we find such expressions as "Your life is worthwhile to the extent that you are active for others;" "A man is alive to the extent that he is active for the love of God;" "Your life is not a life of ecstasy but a life of hard work - work that carries out the Will of God;" "Don't be afraid to get your hands dirty" (Cf. Pietre vive per la missione).
The missions have always been synonymous with activity, hard work and commitment. Not just because "the harvest is great and the workers few" (Mt 9,37) but because our mission centers are crossroads where a host of activities come together; our centers are the hub of so many projects. Whoever is fully engaged in the missions cannot distance himself from this context of hard work, commitment and constant contact with people. I believe that Blessed Allamano - while on the one hand would be happy to see us so engaged in work - on the other hand would not hesitate to ask us: what are we trying to achieve by this constant running from morning to night? Are your daily tasks a direct response to your personal and community search for the Will of God? Do days so full of activity leave you any time for those other, "passive" tasks that are indispensable for missionaries? We must admit that these days of frenetic activity can contain the seeds of destruction - they could empty our work of any meaning and make our whole missionary commitment sterile. These "seeds" are called activism. They make it impossible to keep all the parts of our life in balance; they deny us the time necessary for prayer; they lead us to consider time spent in reflection and study as alienation. In the past there was the risk of seeing opposition between action and contemplation, service to our brothers and service to God, apostolic activity and times of personal silence. Today, perhaps, balancing the various aspects of our lives is still a hard thing for us to do.
I believe the words of Father Paolo Manna, recently beatified by John Paul II, to his PIME missionaries in September 1930 can apply to us: "Sometimes our missionaries are too missionary; they are outside too much, they spend too much time with others. We must avoid extremes and learn how to balance active and contemplative life - in plain words, our time spent outside visiting Christians, and our time spent at home, preaching and praying, working and studying. God forbid that I should cause you to neglect your work or dampen your enthusiasm. I am talking about those excesses that can lead to unbridled activity" (Paolo Manna, Virtů apostoliche, EMI, 1997, p. 201).

THE "MYSTERIUM LUNAE"

My dear brothers, in closing I would like to cite a passage from the Holy Father's Apostolic Letter Novo Millennio Ineunte where he uses an image taken from the Fathers and urges us to be authentic missionaries and evangelists by being a "reflection" of Christ: "A new century, a new millennium are opening in the light of Christ. But not everyone can see this light. Ours is the wonderful and demanding task of becoming its "reflection". This is the mysterium lunae, which was so much a part of the contemplation of the Fathers of the Church, who employed this image to show the Church's dependence on Christ, the Sun whose light she reflects. It was a way of expressing what Christ himself said when he called himself the "light of the world" (Jn 8:12) and asked his disciples to be "the light of the world" (Mt 5:14). This is a daunting task if we consider our human weakness, which so often renders us opaque and full of shadows. But it is a task which we can accomplish if we turn to the light of Christ and open ourselves to the grace which makes us a new creation" (54).
The courage to couper court (cut short) all those things that threaten our path of holiness or dampen our missionary enthusiasm will make our lives less opaque and our mission more transparent with Christ.
In the year 2002 we commemorate one hundred years of evangelization in our family. May this year see all of us ever more committed to making our ministry of evangelization more effective and to taking the quality of our life to heart.
I greet all of you and call upon you - especially the elderly sick and the young people in formation - the intercession of Our Lady, the Consolata, St. Joseph and the benediction of our Blessed Founder. I ask also that you remember me in your prayers.
Fraternally,

Fr. Piero Trabucco, IMC
(Father General)