IT IS ME IN PERSON! Lk 24,39
DOMINIC OF GUZMÁN, LIVING GOSPEL IN THE MIDDLE OF HUMANITY
Then they said among the nations: The LORD has done great things for them, The LORD has done
great things for us; we are glad, Psalm 126
PREVIOUS FORMATION IN DOMINICANISM
Fourth delivery: January 20, 2013
4. SPIRITUAL AND EVANGELICAL PROFILE OF DOMINIC II
4.1 Ascetic and penitent for the cause of the Gospel
- The specific gestures of Dominic’s ascetic and penitent activity are
abundant:
- He was very frugal in his meals, well content with a simple plate of
food. He fasted for one Lent on bread and water. He had a single
tunic and a poor cloak.
- He walked barefoot along the paths where he did his missionary
work carrying his shoes on his back.
- He did not have a room of his own nor did he use a bed to rest. He
laid down on a mat on the floor, on the altar during his prayer vigils.
- To these ascetic practices, Dominic added other penitences that lacerated his body and
tempered his spirit. The cave of Segovia has been left as a Dominican monument to this ascetic
and penitent spirit of Dominic’s. This style of penitential practices will be better understood and
interpreted if we keep in mind the fact that historically, Dominic lived at the height of the middle
Ages.
- To these ascetic and penitential practices, those unsought sufferings, the ones that come from
preaching the gospel, must be added. These sufferings are the fatigue of his evangelistic journeys.
At the summit of these sufferings for the sake of the gospel it is necessary to place the fear of
martyrdom. He always dreamed of having the resources to evangelize the unbaptized.
- Dominic is very clear about this truth: the only pain that has meaning is the pain that redeems.
The cross of Christ that he contemplated in his prayer and the cross of men that he saw on his
constant apostolic trips gave his ascetic and penitential life true Christian meaning.
4.1 Ascetic and penitent for the cause of the Gospel
- The specific gestures of Dominic’s ascetic and penitent activity are abundant:
- He was very frugal in his meals, well content with a simple plate of food. He fasted for one Lent
on bread and water. He had a single tunic and a poor cloak.
- He walked barefoot along the paths where he did his missionary work carrying his shoes on his
back.
- He did not have a room of his own nor did he use a bed to rest. He laid down on a mat on the
floor, on the altar during his prayer vigils.
- To these ascetic practices, Dominic added other penitences that lacerated his body and
tempered his spirit. The cave of Segovia has been left as a Dominican monument to this ascetic
and penitent spirit of Dominic’s. This style of penitential practices will be better understood and
interpreted if we keep in mind the fact that historically, Dominic lived at the height of the middle
Ages.
- To these ascetic and penitential practices, those unsought sufferings, the ones that come from
preaching the gospel, must be added. These sufferings are the fatigue of his evangelistic journeys.
At the summit of these sufferings for the sake of the gospel it is necessary to place the fear of
martyrdom. He always dreamed of having the resources to evangelize the anabaptized.
- Dominic is very clear about this truth: the only pain that has meaning is the pain that redeems.
The cross of Christ that he contemplated in his prayer and the cross of men that he saw on his
constant apostolic trips gave his ascetic and penitential life true Christian meaning.
4.2 Humble at the urging of the evangelical spirit.
- Dominic’s humility had deep roots: deep knowledge of himself and constant confrontation with
the ideal of Jesus Christ, meek and humble of heart. His humility sprang from a deep experience of
God and a profound knowledge of himself in the Lord.
- His evangelical poverty becomes the first manifestation of his evangelical and apostolic humility.
His renunciation of all type of material possessions and the choice to live on alms as a way of life
are the best testimony that he saw material goods as only an instrument or means of survival and
not a pedestal to make himself look good or to preach the gospel.
- Free of everything he is also free of himself. And it is this liberty that came out of evangelical
humility that allows Dominic to establish truly evangelical relationships with others. His humility
shines through in living with all classes of people.
- He desired a shared, democratic government for his communities and he would be the first to
subject himself to the rules of this democratic spirit. His love for his friars translated into humility
and rather than call himself master, he preferred to call himself Friar (Brother from the French
equivalent) Dominic.
- Humble with respect to himself also he considered himself a sinner looking at the Cross of Christ
the distinctive feature of true holiness. Dominic’s humility is always reconciled with the truth.
4.3 Dominic, ivory of chastity
- Dominic confessed at the hour of his death that he had always remained a virgin in body and
spirit. However, he did not see it as personal merit but as grace he received. Virginity and celibacy
made him evangelically free: free of himself, free in human communication and love, free for an
oblation type and universal love that drove him towards preaching the gospel. However, this
evangelical renunciation in search of liberty does not mean a negation of human love in Dominic.
- If there is something that stands out in him, it is precisely this aptitude for living human
friendship intensely. Dominic believed in human love. He valued it, lived it, and directed it
evangelically. Dominic’s joy and the affability in the way he treated others, his human closeness,
his capacity for friendship with all the people who approached him... are the best testimony of this
mature personality and of this integration of the values of human love in a project of evangelical
and apostolic life.
- A symptom of this maturity is also the simple spontaneous way Dominic treated women. It is a
warm, human, transparent treatment in which the oblation type love prevailed over possessive
love. It is the way of getting along that Dominic had succeeded in establishing with his friars, nuns,
with women, with all of the people that crossed his apostolic path.
- Dominic’s virginity was an incarnate virginity in fraternal relationships that were always inspired
by the Christian ideal of communion in the Lord and by the apostolic ideal that he shares with
brothers and sister. His virginity had its inspiration in the spirit of Jesus that inspired his entire life.
It was the fruit of an intense experience of God, of a profound love towards men in the Lord.
4.4 And above all, charity
- Dominic’s testament is very simple: charity, humility and poverty. Dominic left that which that he
himself had considered the best treasure of his life at the service of the gospel as an inheritance
for his children. The career in charity Dominic started through contact with his mother, a pious
woman who was full of mercy for the needy, given to charity and alms. This Spanish woman had
taught Dominic that charity did not consist of giving from what was left over but in also giving up
what was necessary.
- Charity goes through Dominic’s entire life but not as a mere human sentiment. Rather it is a
profound evangelical virtue. And the ultimate source and definitive root of Dominic’s charity is the
contemplation of Christ crucified.
- Charity intensifies upon contact with suffering humanity. Specific men crucified with poverty,
hunger, captivity, ignorance, heresy, sin… would be the ones privileged with Dominic’s charity.
- That is why Dominic’s charity is specifically expressed in compassion, the feeling and virtue that
was most characteristic of his life and his personality. Compassion! It is also one of the most
intense feelings of Jesus in his public ministry, the root of many of his acts and the final motivation
for many of his miracles.
- Dominic continued to pay attention to the most diverse circumstances that demanded his
compassionate charity. Poverty, disease, ignorance, heresy, sin, disbelief... and even death touch
the fibers of his charity and compassion.
- However, Dominic’s charity is seen above all in daily living with those who were the closest to
him. He knew how to stand beside the needy and offer him effective solace. Dominic’s friends
were all human beings beginning with those who were the farthest from the good news of
salvation.
- Poverty, ascetics and penitence, humility, virginity... all of his evangelical virtues culminate in
charity which is the link to perfection. Through his charity, Dominic was faithful in following Christ.
In Him he experienced what the love of God for mankind and man’s love for God and his brethren,
or man’s love for God in the brethren truly mean.
QUESTIONS FOR PERSONAL AND GROUP REFLECTION:
1. Biographers present Dominic as a convinced ascetic and constant penitent. Does this feature of
Dominic’s personality clash with his evangelical ideal which closer to mercy than sacrifice?
2. What meaning did Dominic give to his humility and virginity?
3. Where is your compassion for your neighbor?
Forum: http://www.idymcolombia.wordpress.com/
TEXT: fr. Carlos A. ORTIZ, O.P.
TRANSLATION: Cecile DUNN / Jose M. CATAÑO
DRAWINGS: fr. Carlos A. ORTIZ, O.P.