As we gather here this morning, I find myself thinking of the last time when many of us were together - one year ago in Rome at the Chapter. My mind easily turns again to the sense of hope - almost tangible among the delegates and consultants - that we might know a new Pentecost ... that the Spirit of God, through the experience of the General Chapter, might breathe renewed life into our Institute, our mission, and our Lasallian family.

I have found myself in preparing these remarks thinking of my own powerful experience of election ... when, gathered in our own "upper room" of the Chapter Hall to cast lots to choose a Vicar General, I knew the experience of Matthias who found himself chosen by the eleven to accompany the other apostles.

I clearly recall being struck that early June morning as I read the passage of his election in the Acts of the Apostles. The very next line in the Scriptures was the story of Pentecost; and I believed then, and I believe now, that my "yes" to the Body of the Society that morning - and the "yes" of each of you in this room when you accepted the ministry of leadership in the Institute - is somehow in the mysterious plan and providence of God related to the unleashing of that new Pentecost fire for which we yearn.

In preparing these remarks, I re-read that New Testament passage and noted, as it were for the first time, that Matthias was chosen by the eleven, in the words of the Acts of the Apostles, to "become with us a witness to the [resurrected Christ]" (cf. Acts 1). I was startled to read those words because, as you will soon see, the remarks that have been prepared for this morning have as their framework the resurrection accounts. My recent intuition is that our encounter with the resurrected Christ is a pre-condition for the unleashing of that Pentecost fire for which we so ardently hope.

The message, then, that I bring to you today, in the name of Brother Superior and the General Council, is framed in terms of a reflection about four resurrection appearances.

1. The Appearance of Jesus to Mary Magdalene at the Tomb

In her encounter with him at the tomb, Magdalene thinks Jesus to be only a gardener. I recently came across a deeply moving meditation (cf. The Tablet) on what might be meant when Jesus says to her: "Mary ... do not cling to me" (Jn 20).

The author of the article, reflecting upon the normal human experience of the loss of a loved one, proposed that perhaps Jesus was telling Mary that she needed to be willing to let go of her prior experience of him if she was to be able to know and love him in his resurrected glory. "Do not cling to me as you knew me," he says, "for, if you hold onto the past too tightly, you will be unable to meet me as I now am in my newness."

As I listened to the gospel accounts this Easter season, it became clearer to me that the disciples did indeed have trouble recognizing the resurrected Jesus. On the seashore ... on the road to Damascus ... in the garden near the empty tomb ... although seen, he remained unrecognizable. Something had changed. He has a different look.

One of the hardest challenges we face as Church and as Institute, I suggest, is, that, like Mary Magdalene, we too must let go of what we have known - of what we knew in another century that was very good and sometimes even wonderful - and we must meet the resurrected Christ already in our midst waiting to be recognized and named ... a resurrected Christ desiring to re-infuse us with "the impetus of the beginnings" and with the "fervor and ... fresh enthusiasm" to meet the new challenges of the third Christian millennium (cf. Novo Millennio Ineunte).

"Do not cling to the memory of a larger, younger, more powerful Institute," he tells us; or we might fail to know him in the newness all around us ... groups and individuals seeking to associate with our mission and our spirituality ... growing numbers of young people all around the world identifying in word and deed as Lasallian ... extraordinarily creative initiatives - some recent and some renewed - on behalf of the educational service of the poor and the evangelization of young people.

The Christ of the gospels is always being lost and found ... revealed and discovered. Like the disciples, we too must let go; we must pray with Magdalene "at the tomb while it is still dark"; we must let ourselves be found once again by him. "Do not cling to me."

2. The Appearance of Jesus to the Women

To the women who came to anoint his body on the morning of the resurrection, Jesus says: "Do not be afraid; go and tell my brethren to go to Galilee, and there they will see me" (Mt 28).

The resurrected Jesus has been sending our Institute the same message by way of the delegates of five consecutive General Chapters. "Do not be afraid; tell my brethren to return to the poor (our place of Galilee encounter), and there I will meet them." It is in our return to the poor that he waits to renew our persons, our mission, our communities, and our Institute. "Do not be afraid."

Brothers, I want you to know that it is also my firm conviction that it is truly the Lord who has convoked this meeting and gathered us here at Sainte-Dorothée (Laval). It is the Lord who these past few weeks, each day in the liturgy of the Easter season, has been preparing our hearts for this assembly.

Please, Brothers, don't doubt the importance of this encounter of the leadership of the Institute in the Americas. Believe as I do that, for the whole of our Institute and its mission, this can be, if your allow it to be so, a moment of great grace and consequence. That same Spirit, who scattered us at the end of the 43rd General Chapter, re-gathers us together today to strengthen our communion with one another and with him for the sake of the gospel.

And, like at that first post-resurrection gathering in Galilee, I have no doubt that he will be here with us these days and that he will again urge us to play our part in making the commandment of love the moral norm of the human family in this 21st century. "There they will see me."

3. The Appearance of Jesus to Thomas in the Upper Room

Jesus confronts the disbelief of Thomas with the words: "Put out your hand and place it in my side. Leave doubt behind, and be a man of faith" (Jn 20).

The challenge of these words echoes across almost two thousand years. How hard it is to leave doubt behind when confronting the enormity of the issues that face us, as a consequence of the means of modern communication, on a daily basis. How hard it is to leave doubt behind when faced with the task of announcing the gospel to youngsters and young adults in an increasingly secularized and materialistic world. How hard to leave doubt behind when faced, in some sectors of the Institute, with an aging population and empty novitiates. How hard it is to leave doubt behind, on this awesome continent of the Americas, where our lives and ministry are daily confronted with the phenomena of human rights violations, unchecked globalization, external debt, growing urbanization, corruption, the drug trade, and the endangerment of the ecological system (cf. The Church in America).

And yet it is precisely within the context of these challenges that the resurrected Jesus offers to the world our Institute, its mission, and the Lasallian family as his own wounded and battered, but glorious body. He invites us to continue to be his witnesses ... the living expression of the gospel in our consecrated life and community living, in our efforts at inter-religious and ecumenical dialogue, in the growing communion of Brothers and Partners, and in our educational service of the poor, the marginalized, the lost, and the excluded. In pointing to us, he invites the world to "Put out your hand ... leave doubt behind, and be people of faith."

4. The Appearance of Jesus to the Disciples at the Sea of Tiberias

Recall the story of the miraculous catch of fish when, at the instruction of Jesus, the disciples after having caught nothing all night long cast their nets one more time. Jesus stood on the seashore and called out to them, "Cast your net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some" (Jn 21).

To the Brothers of "the third age" he says, "Cast out your nets again." To all of us who are catechists by vocation, in a world where to be a young Christian is to be an "at risk Christian" (cf. Novo Millennio Ineunte), he says, "Cast out your nets again." To Districts and Sub-Districts whose vocation promotion programs have seemingly yielded minimal results ... weary because, like the disciples, you have "caught nothing all night long," he tells you, "Cast those nets one more time." On a continent where for too long the indigenous populations and the people of color have too often been absent from our communities, he says, "Cast out your nets again." To Brothers and Partners on a continent where three Regions have, although members of the same family, for too long operated in isolation, he urges, "Cast out your nets again" ... foster vitality and interdependence ... re-vision a future of concrete cooperation that respects legitimate diversity but manifests profound communion.

And in that same gospel account of the resurrection encounter at the Sea of Tiberias, Jesus says to the disciples, "Bring some of the fish you have caught ... and ... come and eat with me."

Brothers, our family in the Church was born around the sharing of a meal in Rheims, France. Once John Baptist de La Salle invited the first teachers to his table, his life was never the same again. "Come and eat with me."

At the Jubilee 2000 World Youth Gathering in Rome, the young clearly showed "themselves to be ... for the Church [and for the Institute] a special gift of the Spirit" (cf. Novo Millennio Ineunte). They've already begun to dream of an international Lasallian Youth Movement and to organize a manifestation of Lasallian solidarity at the time of the World Youth Gathering 2002 to be held here in Canada. With De La Salle and with the resurrected Jesus, let us say once again, "Come and eat with us."

To the many, many Lasallian Partners who are attempting to Associate with our Institute and its mission, let us have the courage to continue to act boldly and creatively to promote forms of association and put flesh and substance to the invitation "Come and eat with us."

To former students and to the parents and guardians of students past and present, let us be not afraid to say, "Come and eat with us."

And, finally, to the poor, Christ-in-us continues to say, "Come and eat with me." As recent Church and Institute documents have clearly stated, it is not enough to allow the poor only a seat in our schools and agencies. We must "ensure that ... the poor feel at home." We must welcome them into our lives. We must go out to meet the poor where they live. In the words of John Paul II (cf. Novo Millennio Ineunte), we must "get close [enough] to those who suffer, so that the hand that helps is seen not as a humiliating handout but as a sharing between brothers and sisters." "Come and eat with us."

The Conclusion

At the liturgy for the 4th Sunday of Easter, we heard the words: "And the one who sat upon the throne said: Behold, I make all things new" (Rev 21). "I make all things new."

The scripture scholar Walter Brueggemann (cf. Hopeful Imagination), in writing about another time . about the prophets at the time of the destruction of the Temple and the Babylon captivity, notes that some of the leaders mistakenly interpreted those events for the people as a somewhat mysterious interruption in the flow of sacred history. They foretold a quick return "to life as it had been." It was, however, the prophet Jeremiah's task and gift to help the people accept and understand that the destruction and the captivity were not a glitch in salvation history; he helped them to find God and God's mysterious design in their present experience.

Our challenge as leaders of the Institute in the 21st century is to help our Brothers, Partners, and Associates, Students and Lasallian family members to sense, acknowledge, name and cooperate with the newness of the Spirit quickening among us. "We must rekindle in ourselves [and in our Institute] the impetus of the beginnings and allow ourselves to be filled with the ardour of the apostolic [period] which followed Pentecost. We must [continue to] revive in ourselves [and in our Brothers and Partners] the burning conviction" of the importance of our vocation and our ministry in the world and in the Church (cf. Novo Millennio Ineunte). The resurrected Jesus even now stands among us breathing out his Holy Spirit. "Behold, I make all things new."

And so, I would like to conclude by making our own the prayer with which John Paul II concluded the Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation "The Church in America":

Increase, O Lord, our faith and love for you,
present in all the tabernacles of [this] continent.

Grant us to be faithful witnesses
to your resurrection
for the younger generation of [the Americas],
so that, in knowing you, they may follow you
and find in you their peace and joy.
Only then will they know that they
are brothers and sisters
of all God's children scattered
throughout the world. Amen.

References:

Beattie, Tina. "Christ and the Women," The Tablet (14 April 2001), pp. 524-525.
Brueggemann, Walter. Hopeful Imagination: Prophetic Voices in Exile. Philadelphia:
Fortress Press, 1986.
John Paul II. Apostolic Letter "Novo Millennio Ineunte" to the Bishops,
Clergy, and Lay Faithful at the Close of the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000. Vatican City, 6 January 2001.
John Paul II. Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation "The Church in
America." Mexico City, 6 January 1999.