Jesus The Master - The perfect Master, that is, the way, the truth and the life 2

JESUS, "THE MASTER"

A historical-charismatic survey

Acts of the International Seminar
on "Jesus, the Master"
(Ariccia, October 14-24, 1996)

by Eliseo Sgarbossa ssp

4. The "devotion" to Jesus Master

From that experience of death and resurrection lived in the spring of 1923 came to Fr. Alberione a richer understanding of Christian spirituality understood "in its fullness" which has as its center and heart the "total Christ". In his memoir, he thus remembers: "In the study of various spiritualities... it appeared more and more clear that each has good aspects, but basically there is always Jesus Christ, the Divine Master, of which each considers especially an aspect. Some concentrate more on His truth (St. Dominic and his followers); some, more on His charity (St. Francis and his followers), some, more on His life (St. Benedict and his followers), some consider two aspects... etc. But if then one goes on to study St. Paul, he finds the disciple who knows the Divine Master in His entirety. St. Paul lived the whole Christ; he probed the profound mysteries of His doctrine, of His heart, of His sanctity, of His humanity and divinity. He saw Him as the doctor, the host, the priest; he presents to us the whole Christ as He had already defined Himself: Way, Truth and Life" (cf. AD 159).

From another source we know that the first perception of such "fullness" was drawn from meditations on Tametsi futura and on similar documents referring to the Holy Year,(116) in concomitance with his discovery of the "lighthouse" and the overcoming of his crisis at youth. The starting stimulus then was the teaching of Leo XIII on the "threefold hinge of salvation," Christ, "Way-Truth-Life". But the internal expression of that perception unfolded and raised by the time that the Johannine trinomial started to be habitually and organically associated with the title "Master."

We could chronologically locate this conjunction of terms between the autumn of 1923 and the spring of 1924. It was as if a first stage of a growth journey started during adolescence and slowly made to mature by means of study, meditation on St. Paul, the crisis and the overcoming of the numerous trials. The theological vision of Christ became intimate communion with the Master and turned to "devotion,"(117) that is, a spirituality and a method of life.

It is fitting to emphasize that the word "devotion," in the Alberione language is other than "devotionism". It indicates "the giving of self" to the person of Christ.(118) Explaining such self-giving to the Divine Master, Fr. Alberione would later further explain: "Devotion [means] consecration, self-giving to the Divine Master, Way, Truth and Life, and total donation, integral of our whole self, in our physical, moral, intellectual strength and also in being Him from whom all strengths come. It is to take the whole of the Divine Master in his light, in his spirit, in his examples and in his grace. To live in him, through him, with him and from him" (HM I, 3, 14).(119)

This total self-giving becomes intrinsic in all the expressions of thought, action and prayer. It becomes a tridimensional commitment: of mind, will and heart. This is the way-truth-life method.(120)

At the beginning of the twenties, the "devotion" to the Divine Master was manifested and promoted with some practices among which we remember the principal ones:

a) Adoration or Eucharistic Visit. – "The devotion to the Divine Master in the house is concentrated on the Holy Tabernacle." Thus it is affirmed in an article of June 1923. Hence, aside from the Mass, the daily Adoration or Eucharistic Visit was prescribed for all groups: a usage started on May 1919 and finally established in the actual form on 22 July 1922.(121) What characterizes the Eucharistic Visit in the Pauline sense is its reference to the Divine Master as the source of spiritual life and apostolic courage.(122)

Already in 1909, Fr. Alberione suggested to the seminarians and diocesan priests "the hour of visit to Jesus-Master present in the Tabernacle" according to the four-part scheme used at that time: adoration, thanksgiving, reparation, supplication.(123) In January, 1924, however, it already assumed a configuration and its specific articulations: beyond the four traditional modes, its threefold structure is already evident, with reference to the "Divine Master Way, Truth and Life" who, from the Host, "wants to enlighten".(124)

Let us notice the explicit putting together of the title "Master" and the Johannine trinomial "Way and Truth and Life", which documents by now the acquisition of the classic tridemensional definition of Christ Master.

b) The Cult of the Gospel – From 1921 Fr. Alberione began carrying always with him, as "effective prayer," the text of the Gospel (cf. AD 145, footnote 1).(125) We are informed that in 1923, since the start of the Institute, school classes started with the reading of a passage of the Gospel, and that "a very brief comment of the teacher served to let the doctrine and examples of the Divine Master sink into the small souls [of the students]. Thus it was every day"(UCBS October 1923; PP 296).(126) And in 1924 information was given about the solemn exposition of the Gospel on the altar, or beneath it, beside the Tabernacle. This practice was intended to teach that "one must learn to venerate also the book of the Gospel" like the Eucharist, inasmuch as it is "the teaching chair of the Divine Master". For this reason, "the Good Press must be the Commentary on the Gospel" (cf. UCBS 15 May 1924; PP 841). Consequently, the Gospel would soon become an object of special yearly celebrations – the "feasts of the Gospel" – in connection with the launching of new editions of the Sacred Book.

c) A third form of veneration or cult consisted in the joint celebration of special "days" of the Divine Master and of the Good Press which were expanded in the "Month of the Divine Master" (January of every year) beginning 1924. Such initiatives turned out to be effective not only for the development of a theology of the Divine Master, but also for the birth of an exquisitely Pauline spirituality capable of giving new thrust to apostolic initiatives.

d) The prayer of penance or of "reparation" was another equally vital form of devotion to the Master. The "school of the Gospel" was in fact teaching that an authentic following of Christ is inseparable from the almost dramatic perception of the "mysterium crucis," represented by the militant opposition to the Truth, to the "teaching chair of the Divine Master." There were three practices that manifested such penitential spirit: the frequent celebration of the Via Crucis; the offertory in the daily mass; the evening prayer to Our Lady of Sorrows. (summary)

5. The Master who "thirsts for souls"

At the end of the wooded path where every evening the young Paulines came to sing the last homage to Mary, Fr. Alberione placed a "Pietà" representing the sorrowful Virgin who held in her arms her crucified Son: it was an ordinary image but it acquired a new magisterial meaning thanks to the words in Latin that came with it: "Magister quem delicta scriptorum rursus crucifixerunt."(127)

These writers’ crimes had to be borne in mind every day and "atoned" mainly through the offering of the divine sacrifice. That is why in the autumn of 1923, Fr. Alberione gave Paulines and the Daughters of St. Paul the text of a prayer to recite every day: "For those who thirst for souls like Jesus."(128) This prayer assumes a special importance because it puts together in few short formulas the essential affirmations of Alberione’s teaching on the Divine Master and because it documents officially for the first time the conjunction of the title Master and the trinomial Way-Truth-Life.(129)

In it three elements deserve to be underlined: above all the situation of conflict among the adversary writers – the "blind ministers of Satan, false teachers who have raised their teaching seats against the Divine Master" – and Jesus "the only perfect Master"; in the second place, the identification between the "Perfect Master" and the Johannine self-definition of Christ "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life"; in the third place, the explication of the trinomial, thanks to its predicates: the Truth that enlightens; the Way or the model of every holiness; the true Life of the soul, that is, the sanctifying grace."

From the start of 1924 onwards, the identification between Master and the trinomial Way-Truth-Life has been an acquired reality, and has become a habitual formula as it appears from the explanation of the Eucharistic Visit (cf. PP 209) and by a brief compilation of Pauline history traced ten years after foundation.(130)

The wealth of doctrine and of apostolic spirituality arising from such integration appears ever more evident as the Pauline Family grows in persons and in institutions. The birth of the Pious Disciples, in March of 1924, represents a fundamental stage in this process wherein we shall not pause for now.(131) Some references taken from the bulletin UCBS would be enough for us.

In February 1924 it appears that a house named "Casa Divin Maestro" (cf. UCBS 15 February 1924; PP 368) was already ready for the group of Pious Disciples. It is affirmed about them that, in the heart of the Pauline Family, "they know how to love much and serve well the Divine Master and those who preach the Gospel" (cf. Ibid., June 1924; PP 370). These consecrated women are pupils and helpers of the Divine Master "like the Pious Women of the Gospel" (cf. Ibid.; PP 373).

Three years later, their identity and their duties are defined, beginning from their official name. "The name Pious Disciples come from their task: they ought to carry out for the Divine Master the task of the Pious Women... [and] of Our Lady: to invoke from the Divine Master the triumph of the Good Press..." (UCBS 20 March 1927; PP 377). Few months from their birth, however, it is already clear that the primary objective of their interests shall be the Person of the Master present in the Eucharist: hence adoration, also nocturnal, "so that the Divine Master may give graces to the writers" (cf. UCBS 15 June 1924; PP 370; 15 September 1924; PP 372-373).

In the devotion and in the service to the Divine Master, the specific mission of the Pious Disciples converges with that of the Daughters of St. Paul: "The Daughters of St. Paul take care of the Gospel of the Master: to hold classes, to write, to diffuse, to work in the press. – The Pious Disciples take care of the Divine Master and of his ministers: adoration, work in the church and in the house..." (UCBS 15 November 1924; PP 374).

The point of union is Jesus’ person himself – in his double manifestation of Word and Eucharist – which becomes principle of unity among different subjects and within the inner self of every human being. "The Divine Master, in order to unite all to himself, gives us his teaching and himself: the Gospel and the Eucharist" (UCBS 20 December 1924; PP 849).

This affirmation, of summary importance, has to be underlined. It shall be taken up by Fr. Alberione thirty years later when he would manifest the theological and charismatic roots of the unity among the different institutions of the Pauline Family.(132) - (summary)

6. The "Month of the Divine Master"

In June 1922, the editor of the bulletin for the Cooperators expressed a wish: "We are very happy to know that in some parishes the month of June is celebrated in honor of the Divine Master" (UCBS 4 June 1922). On 15 January 1924, however, the same bulletin informed its readers on the "Month of the Divine Master" with this explanation: "We celebrate it in January: a month of meditations... on the examples of Jesus, on the teachings and on the grace that the Divine Master grants us." He "is in the midst of us and from the Host he wants to enlighten us" inasmuch as, precisely because he is "the Master," he "is the way that leads, the truth that enlightens, the life which sanctifies."(133) The subsequent issues of the bulletin offered a punctual chronicle of the development and of the fruits of that month wherein "The Divine Master gathered around himself the whole Family" and "taught us", always insofar as Master in the globality of his functions. And hence, so the reporter concluded, "let us all draw from the fullness of the Divine Master."(134)

This expression, drawn from the Prologue of the fourth Gospel,(135) offers us the key of that bonding which by now was done between the vision of the "Master" according to the Synoptics (the Rabbi who teaches with divine authority guaranteed by the Father and is followed by the disciples...) and the Johannine vision of Christ (Light, Shepherd, Communicator of the Spirit, Way and Truth and Life). It is a growth in understanding which, by analogy, we could describe as the passage from a bidimensional vision – like a painted icon – to a tridimensional perception, well-rounded, of the Divine Master.

In the following years, the fruits of the "month of the Divine Master" became even more evident: not only was the devotion to the Divine Master and the privileged "school" – the Eucharistic Visit – installed as a central element of the Pauline piety but also the doctrinal knowledge of Him was widened and deepened. References to the Divine Master increased in all the issues of the bulletin UCBS (the only organ of internal and external communication since the ’30s) and the modalities of his magisterium were made explicit: how he "sanctifies and teaches," how "he makes fruitful the work of his apostles," how he becomes "the center of our life" (cf. UCBS 20 January 1925; PP 230). An article of January 1927 underlined and emphasized: "Jesus, the center of all our life," is the "true Master of all truth, of all virtues". Hence, "from him we must receive every teaching and to his teachings we must conform our mind and our heart..." (cf. UCBS 20 January 1927; PP 254-255). (summary)