Our experience of faith (Cst. 9)

As highlighted in the Introductory Letter of the Dehonian Jubilee (2024-2028) by the General Superior, the spiritual core of our Jubilee celebration is a dedicated reflection on Constitutions nn. 9-39. To guide us through this journey, the Centro Studi Dehoniani and the Communication Office of the Congregation have proposed a comprehensive reflection program for each of these Constitution numbers.

To deepen our engagement and bridge the gap between text and daily practice, each reflection is divided into two integral parts:

• A commentary on the Constitutions: providing a theological and spiritual exploration of the text.
• A testimony of life: offering personal reflections oriented around a specific theme drawn from that Constitution number.

Our experience of faith (Cst. 9)

Within the Church we have been initiated in the Good News of Jesus Christ: So we have known and believe the love that God has for us (1 John 4:16). 

We have received the gift of faith, which grounds our hope; a faith which orders our life and inspires us to leave all to follow Christ; in the midst of the challenges of the world we have to strengthen this faith through living it in charity. 

With all our fellow Christians, through the Spirit, we then confess Christ as Lord, in whom the Father made His love known to us, and who remains present in our world to save it. 

No one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:3).

The title “Our experience of faith” was chosen by the Preparatory Committee of the XVII General Chapter to emphasize that the religious vocation is deeply rooted in a concrete, lived experience of faith, directly mirroring the personal spiritual experience of Father Dehon.  This serves as a connection or continuity with his experience of faith but also a particularity of our experience of faith. On the other hand, it gives a fundamental vision of the  Constitutions, not merely this single paragraph, as a path of discipleship of dehonians in a dynamic of adhesion to the Person of Christ and an active participation in the Church’s broader mission in the contemporary world.

At the core of Constitutions n. 9 is the biblical text of 1 John 4:16, defining our fundamental spiritual experience as having recognized and believed in the love that God has for us. The text highlights three significant verbs to outline the dynamic of a faith experience: “to know” as a profound life experience, “to believe” as a radical personal adhesion, and “to proclaim” as the active fulfillment of an apostolic mission. This dynamic shows that our faith is a state of being ‘in-formed’ in Christ through baptism and an initiation into the new life according to the “Good News” within the Church, which acts as a visible sacrament that manifests and operationalizes God’s love for humanity. This “Good News” is not merely a theological message. For us, it takes the definitive shape of a Person: Jesus Christ. As part of the Church, through taking part in the life of the Mystical Body of Christ, we share with Christ His life, mission, death, and resurrection.

From this understanding of the new life in Christ, Cst.9 defines the organic link between the three theological virtues: faith, hope, and charity, as the fundamental way of bearing testimony of the Good News. For us, faith in God (who is Love) serves as the foundation of our hope and a support that frees us from human solitude and permanently inserts us into the divine condition. This faith must be constantly consolidated by being lived out actively in charity, especially amidst the provocations, trials, and secular challenges of the modern world. In other words, Cst. 9 establishes a fundamental perspective of our acts of love: we love our brothers and sisters simply because God first loved us, making our practical dedication to our brothers and sisters the logical, necessary development of experiencing God’s prior love.

This profound experience of faith serves as the primary guiding principle of religious life, deeply inspiring believers to leave absolutely everything to follow Christ. Drawing inspiration from the calling of the disciples to share life with Jesus and to be sent out to take part in His mission, the religious life, as a living testimony of the Good News, is not primarily understood as an act of announcing the Gospel; rather, we announce the Gospel precisely because we follow Him, embracing a radical adherence that demands our entire lives. 

Cst.9 concludes with the insistence on relying upon the powerful action of the Holy Spirit. Confessing that “Jesus is Lord” is completely impossible without the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 12:3), underlining the charismatic dimension of our religious vocation, which is a pure divine gift received to witness in a secularized society.

My experience of faith as the foundation of my intimacy with Christ

A testimony of life provided by Father Cyrillie Mindzié Tama, SCJ, Novice Master of our Cameroonian province since 2020.

This experience originates from an intimacy with Christ that began at my baptism and through the catechesis I received during my initiation into the faith. This initiation began in my family, where my parents taught me to make the sign of the cross and showed me the way to the church. My vocation to religious life finds its foundation in this early initiation.

My faith in Jesus Christ has inspired an adherence to, and a deepening of, my intimacy with the person of Christ in His love for humanity and His sacrifice through His death and resurrection. The knowledge of Christ leads to faith, and faith leads to a prophetic witness. My religious vocation is thus a commitment to following Christ. It is a gift of love received from God, who called me to follow Him and to leave everything behind to make Him the center of my life. Thus, my consecration has become the driving force that guides my life and grounds my hope.

In my imitation of Christ, my life is lived in charity and according to the spirituality of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, deeply connected with the faith experience of Father Dehon. My personal experience of faith is a continuous effort to unite with that of my congregation, where Christ’s union and reparative oblation to the Father for humanity guide my life of faith and my mission. To this is added the celebration of the Eucharist, adoration, fidelity in living out the evangelical counsels, and community life under the action of the Holy Spirit. This allows me not only to know God but also to truly experience Him in my mission.

The call I received from God and my consecration are dedicated to the service of the Church and my brothers and sisters in charity. This consecration motivates me to recognize my current responsibility: to proclaim the Word of God and to be an exemplary witness for the young people I am initiating into religious life.

The Dehonian charism compels me to love as Christ loves, despite my own limitations. Every daily examination of conscience seeks to determine whether my life has been charitable and radiant with the personal and collective reconciliation of humanity in God—a witness the Lord expects of me in a world that is losing its faith.

In short, the community project—in its human, spiritual, and charismatic dimensions—when lived faithfully, gives me the opportunity to deepen my knowledge of Jesus through the reading and meditation of His Word. Furthermore, my religious and priestly vocation grants me a passionate attachment to the person of Jesus, allowing me to offer attention, availability, and tenderness to the novices, my confreres on the formation team, and the community staff.

Finally, the ultimate endeavor is a life lived out in concrete actions. It is the testimony of a life of love that draws its source and energy from the contemplation of the pierced Heart of Christ, who loved me and gave Himself for me (Galatians 2:20), thereby impelling me, in turn, to make this love a living reality in my daily life.