Caught up, seized, impelled

Caught up as we are in the desires of His Heart, we want people to grow in dignity, as human beings and as children of God. Our starting point is the Gospel, with all that it demands from us of love, forgiveness and justice, and of solidarity with those who are poor and rejected by the world. ~ Para 7, RSCJ Constitutions

Our 1982 Constitutions were written by RSCJ gathered at an international Chapter, meeting and working in our three official languages - English, French and Spanish - though between them, they also spoke a dozen or more others. And since 1982 those Constitutions have been translated into those other languages, with new ones added as the Society returned to Hungary and began in Indonesia. As with any good translation, the focus has been less on the literal, or word-for-word, in favour of nuance and naturalness and flow, to retain their reflective, spiritual essence. This can simply mean different sentence structures; but, in some places, there are marked differences in actual verbs or nouns.

One example is paragraph 7, which I've been reflecting on since it was quoted in Dilexit nos, Pope Francis' encyclical 'on the human and divine love of the Heart of Jesus Christ'. We Anglophones are caught up in the desires of his Heart... while Spanish-speakers are impulsadas (impelled) by the love of his Heart, and French-speaking and Italian RSCJ are saisies, and afferrate (seized, grasped) by the love which is in his Heart... And, I have no doubt, our Hungarian, Korean, Japanese, Polish, German-speaking and other sisters will have their own subtleties, each with their own depths of meaning and significance.

But we English-speakers are caught up... And this is a verb we often use negatively, to say that someone has been trapped, or ensnared - unwittingly, or against their will - in something unpleasant or illegal. But people can also be caught up when they are engrossed in a story, or in their own thoughts or dreams... in contemplation, or when they are enthralled, or captivated by something wondrous. Either way, whether rapt or entangled, there is a sense of someone being held, taken over, by a far greater, far stronger power than themselves.

And whenever I reflect on these words I see, not a static 'being held', but movement. I see autumn leaves, caught up in a whirling, swirling, circling and spiralling dance, by strong winds. And yes, in that movement they have been seized, they are being impelled... and they are also being carried along, borne however, wherever the wind will take them. Borne by the desires of his Heart, which spring from his love... which gives life to his desires... and thus the spiral continues, unending.

But however we see or understand this paragraph, the important thing is that we allow ourselves, unreservedly, to be seized, impelled, caught up by the unlimited, unconditional love of Jesus' Heart, and his desires for us and all humanity. As our Superior General said in response to our Constitutions being quoted in Dilexit nos, this is both an honour for us, and a renewed call for us all to live these words, and this mission of love fully, as we respond to the needs of our times. 

And a reminder, too, as is all of the encyclical, of the essentialness of love being everyone's primary mission... Christ’s love can give a heart to our world and revive love wherever we think that the ability to love has been definitively lost... And it is by drinking of that same love that we become capable of forging bonds of fraternity, of recognising the dignity of each human being, and of working together to care for our common home. (DN, 218, 217)