A FRANSALIAN IN THE WORLD TODAY

–  Fr. Mario D’Souza msfs

(An article published in DSM Bulletin Vol-14, Sept 2021)


The Missionaries of St. Francis de Sales, all over the world, have begun “the Year of Missions” that started from Pentecost Sunday 2021 and will end on “Divine Mercy Sunday, 2022. The Year of Missions, in the context of COVID-19 and in response to the Call of the General Chapter 2019, and Fratelli Tutti of Pope Francis, is an invitation to stimulate our missionary call to step out of our world and to give ourselves to others.

The Year of the Missions has a Purpose. The life of Jesus was filled with a purpose. St. Francis De Sales and Fr. Mermier had a purpose of renewal of faith. Our purpose is to proclaim the good news. In this year of mission, let us look at ourselves, and find a purpose, a mission.  How can we as Fransalians be relevant today especially in the pandemic which we find ourselves in? 

1. First, we take a look at our world.

1. Space travel is today looming as a distinct possibility. Imagine: If we were to take a space-ship to go into outer space and from there look at our world, what would we see?  We would have two contrasting pictures:

On the one hand, we would see a very beautiful world:

A world marked by a lot of progress. Think of the amount of scientific and technological ‘wonders’ we witness today.  We take so much of what we have for granted. E.g. Electricity.

A world marked with a lot of care and concern: Think of the current pandemic, the way people from the four corners of the earth reached out.  Because of the modern means of communication and the media, we become instantly aware of disasters and calamities in any part of the world.

A world becoming unified and coming closer together.  Whole world has become a kind of a global village, a “tightly wired world” – wired without wires.  The buzz word today is globalization, one culture, one ethic.  What happens in one corner of the world immediately has repercussions in the rest of the world. A world marked by tremendous speed. We can know with lightning speed what happens in any part of the world, but also that our mindset is: we want things urgently, immediately. Computers that work faster, machines that deliver goods more speedily etc. Instant noodles. Instant prayer.  We want a thing and we get it.

But, on the other hand, we have a very ugly world:

In the name of progress, we have destroyed so much of our beautiful world. Few months into the lockdown saw less pollution, cleaner air. That is the extent to which we have damaged the earth. We are becoming ever more aware of the warming of the earth, greenhouse emissions, melting of the polar caps.We have overused the world’s resources to satisfy present needs so that there is nothing left for the future. The garden of Eden has become a desert.

Along with care and concern, we find a lot of cruelty.  Century marked by warfare.  Number of big and small wars. Cruelty comes to the surface when we have riots etc.; but there is also the hidden cruelty of abortion, of violence against the defense-less and so on. A violent world–almost sickening violence. As against a world becoming unified, we have a divided world. Divided into north and south, east and west.  Narrow nationalisms as each country set against its neighbouring one. In our own country, so many divisions based on communal and caste lines.

A speedy world.  But, result: has left us breathless. Paying the price for it in blood pressure, diabetes and other stress related diseases.

This is the world around us. India is this world in miniature: a subcontinent of contrasts, of development & poverty, of compassion (the land of Buddha & Mahavir, ahimsa) and yet of tremendous cruelty, one Bharat Mata and yet so divided – and the divisions are growing with the polarization fueled by the political forces, a land of the bullock cart and of the jet plane all together. 

At the same time, a country with a rich spiritual heritage, a country characterized by a deep yearning for God down the centuries. We must proclaim Jesus who is an answer to the questions and issues faced in India, accepting inspiration from the rich religiosity of India.

2. Having looked at our world, let us now turn to the Fransalians. It is in this world of contrasts that the Fransalian is challenged to live his religious life. 

A Fransalian is one who, out of his deep experience of the divine, promotes the positive and at the same time struggles against the negative aspects of this world, creating a kind of a counterculture to the negativities, what John Paul II described as ‘the culture of death’ prevailing in the world.  I would like to present four characteristics which should mark the radical disciple of Jesus, each of the four beginning with the letter ‘C’.

To counteract the dizzy speediness that characterizes life today, the first characteristic that should mark a Fransalian is Contemplation. Contemplation is a word so much in vogue today.

A Fransalian has to be a contempla-tive, one who in the midst of his ministry is like Jesus, a man of the multitudes and also of the mountains,a person at home with people but also at home with the Father, a person who combines the social and the solitary.  St. Francis de Sales, in his book Treatise on the Love of God, dedicates a whole chapter to the primary difference between contemplation and meditation. He explains how, “contemplation is no other thing than a loving, simple and perma-nent attention of the spirit to divine things; which you may easily under- stand by comparing meditation with it.”

For St. Francis de Sales meditation is primarily focused on divine things, contemplation is that type of prayer that focuses on God himself, resting in his love. He calls contem-plation elsewhere a “loving attention.”

The words of Evangelii Gaudium are so true: “The presence of constantly new gadgets, the excitement of travel and an endless array of consumer goods at times leave no room for God’s voice to be heard. How can we fail to realize the need to stop this rat race and to recover the personal space needed to carry on a heartfelt dialogue with God?”1 Both mediation and contemplation have their place in our prayer lives and complement each other. We can incorporate both, using them to draw closer to the Author of prayer and Love itself.

2.2. The second ‘C’ is Character.  

St.Francis de Sales said “Be who you are and be that well.”  In Psalm 19: 13-14, King David declared “Keep back Your servant from presumptuous sins… Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight.” David knew both his words and deeds were evident to God, and he wanted them to be pleasing to Him.

The spiritual life of a priest is not something apart from life itself. It is not some section of a priest’s life which he works at when he is at prayer or during the annual retreat just as he works at another part of his life when he plays table tennis, another when he goes on his holidays.  The spiritual life of a priest needs integration, integrity.

We are reminded of the words of PresbyterorumOrdinis2(no. 14) “Priests who are perplexed and distracted by the very many obligations of their position may be anxiously inquiring how they can reduce to unity their interior life and their programme of external activity.

This unity of life cannot be brought about merely by an outward arrangement of the works of the ministry nor by the practice of spiritual exercises alone, though this may help to foster unity.   Priests can arrive at this only by following the example of Christ our Lord in their ministry whose food was to follow the will of him who had sent him to accomplish his work.” Authentic spirituality is not about the ‘practice of spiritual exercises alone’ but is about integrating the programme of one’s external activity to one’s interior life. Or to put it differently, a truly holy priest is only who possesses a certain wholeness or integrity in his life. Holiness is not about doing more or doing it better, but about being a certain type of person, a person whose life has a definite direction, goal. To put it simply: The words we say are very important.The deeds we do are equally vital.Aligning our words and deeds is crucial for an impactful life.

Self-awareness is essential for becoming the man God wants you to be. Aligning your words and deeds requires an honest assessment of one’s self. We cannot embark on this kind of change alone.

We need others to give us an honest review of our character and keep us strong and accountable as we journey towards greater integrity. It takes guts to live a life of integrity, to live and serve like Fransalians.

2.3.The third ‘C’: Compassion. 

In a world marked by a lot of cruelty, I think of a Fransalian as a person of great compassion. Jesus was a compassionate person. Recall the number of times where it is explicitly said that he felt compassion:

A Fransalian is one whose life is marked with compassion: he suffers with and is ready to stake his life for others, one with them in their suffering, their misery. 

Compassion makes us reach out in love so that we readily identify with those who suffer, and we become like them. It makes us experience what they are experiencing but not merely for the sake of the experience or the pain, but so that we will be moved to alleviate their suffering and pain or at least to help them bear with it and make sense out of it. St.Francis de Sales’ insights on how to practice real poverty in the midst of riches is an excellent example of the power of compassionate love:Love the poor and love poverty, for it is by such love that you become truly poor. As the Scripture says, we become like the things we love. Love makes lovers equal.

“Who is weak and I am not weak?” says St. Paul, and St.Francis de Sales might have also said, “Who is poor and I am not poor with him?” for love made him like those he loved. If you love the poor you will share their poverty and be poor like them. If you love the poor, be often with them. Be glad to see them in your own home and to visit them in theirs. Be glad to talk to them and be pleased to have them near you in church, on the street, and elsewhere.

2.4. Finally, the fourth ‘C’: Communion:  As against an individualistic, divided world, a Fransalian is a man of communion.

Communion is something so basic for us human beings.  If we take a tiny pup home and rear it away from the company of other dogs, when that dog grows up, it will behave very much like a dog: it will bark like a dog, play like a dog, eat like a dog etc.  It follows an instinct which dictates a particular type of behaviour.

But if we were to take a small baby and rear it in the wilds, away from the company of other human beings, even if that baby were to survive, it would hardly behave like a human. For one thing, it would lack the knowledge of any human language and with language goes so much of the process we call socialization or ‘humanization’.  To grow up as human beings, we need other human beings. We require the love, affection, the sense of belonging etc. that comes from being part of a family.

“To be me, I need you”!  More than ever before we realize that no one is an island.  We are persons, but persons in communion. Each of us is a reflection of the mystery of the Trinity in our inmost being as humans. Truly, we have been made “in the image and likeness” (Gen.1:26-27) of the Triune God.

In his encyclical letter, at the dawn of the new Millennium, John Paul II speaks of a “Spirituality of Communion”. He affirms in No.43 “To make the Church the home and the school of communion: that is the great challenge facing us in the millennium which is now beginning, if we wish to be faithful to God’s plan and respond to the world’s deepest yearnings.”  That is why theologically Communion is a key concept.  The Church, for example, is seen as the People of God, the universal sacrament of unity. Church is seen as a communion, a reconciled and a reconciling community.

A Fransalianis called to be a man of Communion at 5 levels

Fransalian is a whole person and not a fragmented. Not aslave of whims and fancies;

Fransalians: breaking barriers of caste, culture, region and building bridges of love, understanding, tolerance, acceptance.

To do this, we must be inwardly reconciled ourselves – a man of communion is at peace within himself.

Am I inwardly at peace with myself?  In my community do I build bridges or build barriers? What have I done to foster unity?

To summarise then a Fransalian has to be a person of contemplation, of character, of compassion and of communion.  All this is theory.  How does one translate it into concrete terms?

The pandemic has thrown in new challenges to the Church and to us Fransalians. How do we cope with the new normal of online Masses? Some are perhaps weary of preaching in front of the camera day in and day out. When giving is tight and the budget is tight, we may feel anxious over the financial viability. How do we reach out to the people in need of our assistance when the finances are low?

While living in challenging times of the pandemic, we are celebrating the Year of Mission. We continue to carry out the mission despite the limitations before us. We are, as it were, slowly learning to find a “new normal”. As we learn to find a “new normal” in the Year of Mission, we:

3.1. Trust the Risen Christ. We do not know the future, but we know who holds the future. We also know that “in all things God works for the good of those who love him” (Rom 8:28). This core belief disperses panic and enable us to bless the Lord always (Ps 34:1).

3.2.Learn from the pandemic. Many have lost their lives, we have lost our confreres and loved ones and this saddens us. Yet, on the bright side, there are lessons to learn. Some confreres shared with me that they have improved their community life, their prayer life; others have tried to innovate ways for mission. The pandemic has literally forced us to introspect. Let us not forget the important lessons and values we have learnt.

3.3.Face challenges together. We are ordained propter homines, to serve the people of God. Our lives do not make sense without people we serve. When asked what he thought about the laity, Saint John Henry Cardinal Newman famously said, “the Church would look foolish without them”. Pope Francis at his Chrism Mass 2013 homily urged us to “be shepherds with the smell of sheep,” so that people can sense the priest is not just concerned with his own congregation, but is also a fisher of men.

We can expect great pastoral challenges before us post Covid. We take courage in the words, “Fear not, I am with you” (Is 41:10).

We recall the words of Pope Francis, we are “in the same boat, where one person’s problems are the problems of all …  no one is saved alone; we can only be saved together” (Fratelli Tutti, 32). As we move ahead, we need to make many sacrifices just as our people are obliged to in the face of this crisis. Hence, we make a conscious option for simplicity, austerity, and hard work to address the difficult times ahead.

We will have to assess the situation, accommodate our budgets by prioritizing what is most important and necessary.



If we are to go hungry, let us all embrace it together. We strive to be sensitive towards those around us with the attitude of Christ who taught us the secret of abundance: it is in giving that we receive (cf. Lk 6: 38). We let the Lord do with our priestly lives what He does with the bread of the

Eucharist: bless, break, and share to give life to others.We trust the Risen Jesus and welcome the future with open minds, loving hearts and brave hands without looking for worldly securities. May the Mother of Compassion, St. Francis de Sales, Fr. Peter Mermier guide us to be effective instruments in these challenging Covid times.

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(Footnotes)

1Evangelii Gaudium, 29 

2PresbyterorumOrdinis, no. 14