Père Olivier BARNAY + Directeur national (France) de la Garde d’Honneur
Homily for the Solemnity of St Francis de Sales (Patron Saint of the Guard of Honor) Monastery of the Visitation of Paray-le-Monial, January 24, 2024.
“Prayer, this immersion of the soul in the Heart of Jesus. » “May Christ dwell in your hearts through Faith; stay rooted in love, established in love. » (Eph. 3, 17). This is how St Paul exhorted us to “ know the love of Christ which surpasses all that we can to know. » (Eph. 3, 19). As for Jesus, He gives us restores these words that we know well, that we know by heart – no pun intended – in this Chapel of the Apparitions: “Become my disciples, for I am gentle and humble heart, and you will find rest. » (Mt 11:29). Have you noticed how beautiful the Liturgy is?
On each Feast, our Mother Church gives us, through the Word of God, the broad outlines of the personality of the Saint whom we let’s honor. In this case today with St Francis de Sales. To reread the texts that we have just heard, it really seems to us that St Paul or the Lord is presenting to us our Blessed Father, Founder of our Institute of Visitation. To be rooted in love, falling on our knees before the Father of all paternity so rich in glory, understand the width, length, height, depth, know the love of Christ which surpasses all that can be known (Eph. 3, 14-19).
This Epistle of St Paul, we recalls the Treatise on the Love of God where St Francis de Sales offers us his spirit and his heart. When he speaks to Théotime we seem to hear an echo from St Paul to Christians. of Ephesus. St Francis de Sales is in turn invested with the mission of evangelizing the inscrutable riches of Christ, to teach this science of charity which fulfills the hearts of all the Fullness of God. And then, this exultation of Jesus who proclaims the praise of the Father “what you have hidden from the wise and learned, you have revealed to the toddlers.” How can we still not hear our Blessed Father who wants 5 plunge your audience into the Heart of God, union of the soul with its Principle, union begun here below with prayer, to be consummated in Heaven in splendors of the vision of God? It is precisely this dive into the heart of God I want to invite you this morning. The Jubilee of 350th anniversary of the Apparitions of the Sacred Heart of Jesus right here pushes us to enter into this union, in this heart to heart, in what St Francis de Sales calls “the maintenance and conversation of the soul with God.
So let us let St. Francis de Sales teach us himself. Looking closely, the entire direction of St Francis de Sales tends to the development of the interior life made of an ever more complete adhesion to the Spirit of Christ living in us by his grace. This adhesion to the Spirit of Christ constantly requires our love for Jesus and our willingness to respond “love for love”. Because we are dealing with a Saint who is simple just as he wishes to be our Institute of Visitation, humble and hidden, St Francis de Sales gives us very pragmatic advice for growing in this heart to heart with Jesus. I note at least 4:
1. First of all, St. Francis de Sales warns us against the pitfalls of demon. He tells us this: “the demon often gives us great desires for absent objects which will never present themselves, in order to entertain our mind from present objects from which, however small they may be, we could make great profit “. Thus, in order to flush out the traps of Satan who constantly wants to divert us from God, St Francis advises us:
2. Recourse to a spiritual Father. “Before consenting to the inspirations of things important or extraordinary, always take advice from your guide, says St Francis de Sales, provided however that this leader is full of charity, knowledge and prudence, because if one of these three qualities is lacking there is hazard. » 6 Also, concludes our Saint, we must choose between 1,000, and even 10,000. But God grants it to those who humbly ask it for their spiritual advancement.” We think here of Saint Marguerite-Marie to whom Jesus promises: “I will send you my faithful servant and perfect friend who will teach you to know me and to abandon yourself to me.” Thus, St Claude la Colombière was sent to our sister Marguerite-Marie as Father Spiritual. This is perhaps a grace to ask for us today: Lord, give me a good and holy Spiritual Director. The role of the Spiritual Father is even given very precisely by our Bx Father: “Grasp the soul in this minute of good will, fix its desire, strengthen its complacency in the divine goodness glimpsed, such will first be the role of the Director.
3. To dive into the Heart of Jesus, St Francis de Sales invites us to do regularly a Spiritual Retreat. “
It is a matter, he says, of withdrawing for a few days in solitude.” During this Retreat, he invites us to make a confession general: “I confess,” he said, “that it is not always absolutely necessary, but I consider that it will be extremely useful…”. And what will this soul do during these days of Retreat? St Francis de Sales goes as far as give us the progress: Take the time for what we today call the rereading his life by pointing out the benefits of God, all the graces received in order to “understand,” St. Paul would say, “what is the width, the length, the height, the depth of the Love of Christ which surpasses everything we can know. “. After this rereading of life, St Francis de Sales invites us to a kind of contract with God. “At the end of his Retirement,” he wrote, “Philothée, in the presence of God and the entire celestial court, even, if possible, before its Director, will read his protest of fidelity to God. » And St Francis de Sales gives the text: “This – this contract – is my will, my intention and my inviolable and irrevocable resolution… Then, continues our Holy Bishop, Philothée will sign this contract and God, in fervent communion, will seal it, putting himself like a sacred seal on this renewed heart. “. Fidelity to this contract, St. Francis de Sales finally explains, will be 7 ensured by an ever more fervent and intimate daily trade. “We could not love what we do not know, he writes, and, as knowledge attentive to the good increases, love also grows more, provided that there is nothing preventing its movement. “.
4. Also, and this is the last piece of advice that I emphasize, St. Francis de Sales gives us very practical instructions for growing in this heart to heart with Jesus, for respond to this call that we heard earlier: “Come to me… Become my disciples because I am meek and humble in heart. » (Mt 11, 28-29). St Francis of Sales imposes on all souls who require direction: one hour, if possible, each morning, and a quarter of an hour or even more The evening. Prudent Director, St Francis de Sales advises going to God by the way of humble: “Like the fly (bee) which goes from flowers in bloom not to recreate only but to seek honey, the soul goes from mystery to mystery to find motives of love” he writes. “Prayer,” he said, “is an interview, a conversation of the soul with God, an incommunicable heart to heart through which the soul communicates with God, of God himself to unite and join with Him. “. St Francis de Sales finally teaches us that the Christian day must be a prayer uninterrupted if the soul wants to grow in union. St Francis de Sales recommends us then, very concretely, in addition to some vocal prayers, common to all Christians, he prescribed, among other things, what he called “morning exercise.” It’s morning prayer from rising, the offering of the day, followed by a quick examination of foresight of the resolutions that we are making for the coming hours. “All this,” he said, briefly and briskly before leaving the room. “In the very midst of the most absorbing occupations and affairs, that the soul join God with short but ardent twinges of the heart. These returns to God, far from hindering the execution of our duties, encourages us to fulfill them better, 8 and above all make us live in intimate union with Christ by bringing back our thought, our affections towards the fine point of the soul where its Spirit resides.
Is this not the beautiful intuition of the Guard of Honor of the Sacred Heart of Jesus? Join the Heart of Jesus, console the Heart of Jesus in the midst of occupations, at the heart of our ordinary activities without giving up anything. What the Council Vatican II will call “the sanctification of the present time” (Lumen Gentium). May the occasion of the 350th anniversary of the Apparitions of the Sacred Heart of Jesus obtain an increase in graces and, especially, the grace of being renewed in our life of prayer, in our personal relationship with Jesus which will allow us to witness to the Love of God all around us.
Let us commend ourselves to the Blessed Virgin Mary with this beautiful prayer of our blessed Father, St Francis de Sales! “O Holy Virgin, that I would be happy, if all the actions of my life were dedicated to God, as were yours. But that not being the case, I have nothing left than a desire, oh sacred Virgin, which is to beg you to get me this favor, that from now on I follow the good pleasure of God, and I release my affection from everything who is not Him, in order to love Him with all my strength, and with everything my heart forever. So be it. »