While waiting to complete your community. I have written to Father Vincens to send you Father Chaine, who is very talented and preaches very well. This young Father is excellent, but accustomed to the paternal government of Father Vincens, he could not stand being treated as a schoolboy. Watch out for that. Superiors govern brothers not subjects. They are obliged to have much regard for the men who, even though placed under their governance, belong to the family, and even more for those who must cooperate with him in the good order and administration of the community…
Kindness is an indispensable quality for making obedience easy. In a word, reread the chapter that treats of the local superior and conform yourself to everything you find there.
Letter to Fr. Toussaint Dassy, 16 October 1849, EO X n. 1025
REFLECTION
Community leaders guide equals not subjects – kindness is an indispensable quality for making religious obedience and cooperation possible. Our vocation, in community and in ministry, is to be co-operators of the Savior who humbled himself to wash feet.
At first glance I had difficulty connecting with this morning’s sharing from Eugene. It came from Eugene’s words; “Superiors govern brothers not subjects.”
Eugene is not speaking so much about management but rather about leadership and more specifically servant leadership where we are all gathered together, walking with each other and sharing the gifts we have been given. I think of the image, the logo of the 37th General Chapter: of people walking together, all of us pilgrims of hope in communion… Leadership is shared and marked with the light of tenderness and loving support.
I look out my window and see that with the wind and rain, many of the trees have shed their leaves. One tree in particular has laid out a carpet of colours that cover the lawn and the sidewalk. A small black squirrel seems to dance across the leaves looking for a place to secrete another winter stash of seeds and nourishment. The gardens no longer look pristine and manicured but there is an experience of joy in simply looking over them.
None of us is better than any other, except perhaps in our own minds.