Sermonette: Commemoration of Charles de Foucauld, Missionary and Martyr
Thursday, 3 December 2020 06:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cjbanningAs preached at the midweek outdoor Eucharist at St. Thomas' Episcopal Church in Glassboro on the evening of Wednesday, December 2, 2020. (Some lines from the biography of de Foucauld are lifted from Wikipedia.)
James 1:1–11
Psalm 73:24-28
John 16:25-33
Vicomte Charles Eugène de Foucauld was born in 1858 in Strasbourg, France. While by all accounts his childhood was full of love, it was also marked by tragedy. At the age of six, he and his younger sister Marie were orphaned and sent to live with his grandmother, who then died of a heart attack. He and Marie were then raised by their other grandparents.
Charles’ young adulthood had an unauspicious start. After being kicked out of a preparatory military academy for being “lazy and undisciplined,” he succeeded at being accepted at the military academy for which he had been being prepared, where he eventually graduated 333rd out of a class of 386.
Continuing to lead an extravagant lifestyle, Foucauld joined the French calvary and was posted to the 4th Regiment of Chasseurs d'Afrique in Algeria. Bored with garrison service he travelled in Morocco, the Sahara, and Palestine. While reverting to being a wealthy young socialite when in Paris, Foucauld became an increasingly serious student of the geography and culture of Algeria and Morocco. In 1885 the Societe de Geographie de Paris awarded him its gold medal in recognition of his exploration and research.
In 1890, de Foucauld joined the Cistercian Trappist order first in France and then at Akbès on the Syrian-Turkish border. He left in 1897 to follow an undefined religious vocation in Nazareth. He began to lead a solitary life of prayer near a convent of Poor Clares and it was suggested to him that he be ordained. In 1901, he was ordained in Viviers, France, and returned to the Sahara in French Algeria. He first settled in Béni Abbès, near the Moroccan border, building a small hermitage for "adoration and hospitality", which he soon referred to as the "Fraternity".
He moved to be with the Tuareg people in southern Algeria. Living close to the people and sharing their life and hardships, he made a ten-year study of their language and cultural traditions, working on a dictionary and grammar.He formulated the idea of founding a new religious institute, under the name of the Little Brothers of Jesus.
In 1916, Charles was killed by tribal raiders during a botched kidnapping.
There are two things we ought to take away from our commemoration of the life and death of Charles de Foucauld. The first is that Charles was not the first flawed person that God has called to sainthood, nor has he been the last. God knows that we are broken vessels, imperfect beings, that we have done terrible things and struggle with temptation. But still God calls us--yes, the four of us here tonight--to saintliness, and provides us with the grace necessary to achieve it, even knowing that sometimes we in our rebellion will resist it. God sees our truest selves and knows what we are capable of with God’s help.
The second thing we should take away is that the life of a saint is more than the sum of its parts. At the time of his death, Charles’ martyrdom must have seemed a meaningless conclusion to a rather eclectic life. But the confraternity he inspired and helped to organize in France, l'Association des Frères et Sœurs du Sacré-Cœur de Jésus, kept his memory alive and inspired an entire family of lay and religious fraternities that have expanded beyond France to include many cultures and their languages on all continents. His dictionary manuscript was published posthumously in four volumes and has become known among Berberologists for its rich and apt descriptions.
It might seem like a little thing, even foolishness, for us to be out here tonight in the cold, gathered together yet socially distanced to share in the sacrament of Christ’s Body and Blood. Yet we are here because we recognize that God has called us to be here, that this is where God wants us to be tonight.
Our service here tonight might change the world, alter the course of nations. It probably won’t. But either way, we leave that in God’s hands. We do what we can when we can, no matter how small or insignificant, because we recognize what Jesus tells us in John’s Gospel this evening: that He has conquered the world.
James 1:1–11
Psalm 73:24-28
John 16:25-33
Vicomte Charles Eugène de Foucauld was born in 1858 in Strasbourg, France. While by all accounts his childhood was full of love, it was also marked by tragedy. At the age of six, he and his younger sister Marie were orphaned and sent to live with his grandmother, who then died of a heart attack. He and Marie were then raised by their other grandparents.
Charles’ young adulthood had an unauspicious start. After being kicked out of a preparatory military academy for being “lazy and undisciplined,” he succeeded at being accepted at the military academy for which he had been being prepared, where he eventually graduated 333rd out of a class of 386.
Continuing to lead an extravagant lifestyle, Foucauld joined the French calvary and was posted to the 4th Regiment of Chasseurs d'Afrique in Algeria. Bored with garrison service he travelled in Morocco, the Sahara, and Palestine. While reverting to being a wealthy young socialite when in Paris, Foucauld became an increasingly serious student of the geography and culture of Algeria and Morocco. In 1885 the Societe de Geographie de Paris awarded him its gold medal in recognition of his exploration and research.
In 1890, de Foucauld joined the Cistercian Trappist order first in France and then at Akbès on the Syrian-Turkish border. He left in 1897 to follow an undefined religious vocation in Nazareth. He began to lead a solitary life of prayer near a convent of Poor Clares and it was suggested to him that he be ordained. In 1901, he was ordained in Viviers, France, and returned to the Sahara in French Algeria. He first settled in Béni Abbès, near the Moroccan border, building a small hermitage for "adoration and hospitality", which he soon referred to as the "Fraternity".
He moved to be with the Tuareg people in southern Algeria. Living close to the people and sharing their life and hardships, he made a ten-year study of their language and cultural traditions, working on a dictionary and grammar.He formulated the idea of founding a new religious institute, under the name of the Little Brothers of Jesus.
In 1916, Charles was killed by tribal raiders during a botched kidnapping.
There are two things we ought to take away from our commemoration of the life and death of Charles de Foucauld. The first is that Charles was not the first flawed person that God has called to sainthood, nor has he been the last. God knows that we are broken vessels, imperfect beings, that we have done terrible things and struggle with temptation. But still God calls us--yes, the four of us here tonight--to saintliness, and provides us with the grace necessary to achieve it, even knowing that sometimes we in our rebellion will resist it. God sees our truest selves and knows what we are capable of with God’s help.
The second thing we should take away is that the life of a saint is more than the sum of its parts. At the time of his death, Charles’ martyrdom must have seemed a meaningless conclusion to a rather eclectic life. But the confraternity he inspired and helped to organize in France, l'Association des Frères et Sœurs du Sacré-Cœur de Jésus, kept his memory alive and inspired an entire family of lay and religious fraternities that have expanded beyond France to include many cultures and their languages on all continents. His dictionary manuscript was published posthumously in four volumes and has become known among Berberologists for its rich and apt descriptions.
It might seem like a little thing, even foolishness, for us to be out here tonight in the cold, gathered together yet socially distanced to share in the sacrament of Christ’s Body and Blood. Yet we are here because we recognize that God has called us to be here, that this is where God wants us to be tonight.
Our service here tonight might change the world, alter the course of nations. It probably won’t. But either way, we leave that in God’s hands. We do what we can when we can, no matter how small or insignificant, because we recognize what Jesus tells us in John’s Gospel this evening: that He has conquered the world.
Thank you
Date: 2020-12-03 11:52 pm (UTC)Re: Thank you
Date: 2020-12-24 03:05 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-12-04 02:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-12-24 03:04 am (UTC)