by Dennis Murphy, MSC

1. Practical experience of various relationships between laity and our Society is a more valuable basis for discussion than any research I have done into past documents; but what I am going to present here may help confirm that experience; it may also question it; and it may, I hope, stimulate further discussion about this important topic.

2. More research needs to be done on Father Chevalier's idea of a three branch Society, particularly on some details; however I feel confident that sufficient evidence is already available to draw some definite conclusions.

3. Two approaches seem open to me. One is simply to present the historical facts. This is certainly interesting and even enlightening. The other approach is to concentrate on some basic principles that seem to me to underlay and emerge from those facts.

4. I have decided to follow the second approach, since I presume that most are aware already of the facts, at least in a general way. Furthermore, experience of other discussions has convinced me that unless there is clarity about the underlying principles, discussions easily become more confused than necessary.

5. Therefore, I shall attempt to clarify, even at some length, the three main elements in the title of this paper: the nature of a charism our Founder's and finally what he meant by the involvement of laity in that mission. For me, these three points are inseparably connected. 

CHARISM
6. A charism is not merely a thing; for example, an attitude, an approach to life or to mission; it is the Spirit of God himself active in us. Studying and discussing a charism is useful, but it will remain simply words unless we are open to the creative power of the Spirit. This involves humble, earnest prayer and a radical openness to be converted to a life according  to the Gospel.

7. Paul VI's Mutuae Relationes, following Evangelica Testificatio, refers to the beginning of a religious congregation as 'an experience of the Spirit. This experience comes as a grace to a Founder; its continuance and renewal in us is also a grace for which we must pray, often from a frustrating experience of our own powerlessness and poverty. Ibis process is evident also throughout the life of our Founder.

8. In order to share today in the 'experience of the Spirit' that gave birth to Our Society we need to do more than simply return to Father Chevalier; we need to be open, as he was in his time, to the Spirit speaking to us through the Scriptures, through the Church and through world of our time. Mutuae Relationes expresses very well this integrated approach to the charism of founders: The very charism of Founders appears as 'an experience of the Spirit, transmitted to their disciples to be lived safeguarded, deepened and constantly developed by them, in harmony with the Body of Christ continually in the process of growth. Mutuae Relationes 11

9. Consequently, research into the past would be fruitless, unless it prepared us for the same 'experience of the Spirit' that moved our Founder. Ibis does not mean that we are asked to imitate every detail about Father Chevalier; our task is to discover his essential concerns. The creative power of the Spirit can bring these to life again in us today in new ways and help us contribute to the Church's mission as Missionaries of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

10. This integrated approach to charism has to be applied also to Father Chevalier's plan to found a lay Third Order of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart We have a few examples of rules and structures he drew up or had drawn up for him. Sharing in our Founder's 'experience of the Spirit' does not involve accepting all the details he described. In fact some of them are not consistent with each other. Much less is it a matter of working out a consensus based on a lowest common denominator of details he mentions. It is more a matter of examining these documents to discover his basic purpose in rounding a Third Order. In this way too our minds may become more open to what the Spirit could be inviting us to do today.

11. Enthusiasm is one sign that we have really heard what the Spirit is saying to us. The Greek etymology of the word 'enthusiasm' means to be possessed by a god, possessed by a power greater than our own limitations and frailty. To share in Father Chevalier's own 'experience of the Spirit' is to be given the gift to rediscover today his enthusiasm, an enthusiasm capable of carrying him through extraordinary difficulties and disappointments. If that initial enthusiasm, which will be greater than our own strengths and weaknesses, is not found, Provinces, and even the Society as a whole, will die, or what is worse, stagnate. One of the dynamic elements in the Church since Vatican 11 has been a growing realization of the importance of the laity. Perhaps contact with that powerful movement of the Spirit in the Church is one way in which our own vitality will be increased. 

THE MISSION OF JULES CHEVALIER
12. Father Chevalier did not work out a structure for his Society from some theoretical principles. Nor did he merely imitate others. He was very much a pragmatist. He was a man with an urgent sense of mission and any structure he gave to his organization was essentially for the purpose of carrying out that mission. Ibis must remain for us today an indispensable touchstone in evaluating relationships between ourselves and the laity. If we enter this sort of relationship for self‑advancement or for assurance of survival, we are on the wrong track. We were founded for mission; that too has to characterize our relationship with laity.

13. Our Founder saw his mission in very concrete terms: the regeneration of society in accordance with the Gospel. There can be no doubt about that point from his writings. It was one of his essential, consistent concerns and not merely incidental or transitory. His basic 'experience of the Spirit' was that society was rotten within (the 'mal modeme') and that this social sickness had to be set right by a counterforce. We need not enter into the details of his political convictions; to some extent they are irrelevant; nor should we try to read history backwards and turn him into a liberation theologian or even a Father Dehon, the socially minded founder of the Priests of the Sacred Heart. Father Chevalier was neither of these; his basic concern was that if people took the Gospel seriously and lived accordingly, society would be changed for the better and only in this way would it be so changed.

14. Father Chevalier's insistence that 'devotion to the Sacred Heart' was the social force that could counteract the evils of society probably appears to us today a bit embarrassing and even hopelessly out of touch with reality. But since, on the other hand, he was an essentially practical and down‑to‑earth pastor, we have to suppose that his understanding of the devotion was more comprehensive than we had come to expect.

15. In the early days of the Society, Father Chevalier worked very closely with Father Henry Ramiere SJ. At a later date, conflicts would emerge between the two, but their basic aims and motivations remained the same. In July 1863, the Jesuit wrote in the Messager du Sacre‑Coeur (the emphasis in the following texts is mine): Are some individual practices or even some confraternities for public homage of the Heart sufficient? No, evidently not. These practices are excellent, but they would not suffice to regenerate society. To produce such a result; it is necessary first of all that devotion to the Sacred Heart penetrate right into the deepest depths of souls who have adopted it; that it form them entirely into the image of that divine Heart, and that it make of these souls so many perfectly docile instruments, through whom he will be able to realize the plans of his love to their fullest extent. op.cit. p.12

16. This same aim would be expressed also in Father Chevalier's Formula Instituti (1869). In order therefore that this true and most salutary devotion towards the Heart of Christ might be widely spread, both amongst the laity and especially amongst priests, and so might bring forth rich fruits in christian society, it has seemed good to establish a religious Society which would set before itself this special aim and would pursue it by all possible means. To it has been given the name of Missionaries of the Sacred Heart of Jesus because they accept the glorious mission of glorifying the Heart of Jesus, of making manifest the treasures of grace with which it is filled and of repairing the outrages wrought against it.Formula Instituti I, De opportunitate Instituti

17. The Formula Instituti added a brief description of two associations (one of diocesan priests, the other of lay people) through which the Society would more effectively achieve its aim. The rules governing these two associations were not part of Formula Instituti but were to be presented in a separate document. What was sought was approval of the idea of the associations in principle. We shall first set out the formula of the aforementioned Society and shall add to it a brief conspectus of the two associations, priestly and lay by which this religious Society chiefly attains its aim.Formula Instituti I, De Opportunitate Instituti

18. When the Formula Instituti was approved on March 8, 1869, the two associations were clearly mentioned in the text itself. In this way, at least in principle, the three branch concept of Father Chevalier's organization was recognized by Rome. 4. As regards the laity, there are not a few who, moved by divine grace towards greater perfection. and desirous of defending the Church in these times, would be helped most effectively in the attainment of both these aims if they were to form an intimate society whose bond would be the love of the Heart of Christ. 5. Likewise secular priests can befitted to attain the perfection of their sublime calling and to fulfill its duties by no better means than this to strive, with common endeavour, to honour and imitate the Heart of Christ the High Priest These two associations will be mentioned also in the Founder's 1877 Constitutions, but there they are placed explicitly, within the very purpose of the Society. Later in that same text a fuller description is given of them. (1877 Constitutions, Chapter 11, Article 3)

19. Clearly Father Chevalier had no intention of founding a religious Society for its own sake; he did not want an inward looking institute that would be concerned primarily with itself; or that considered that it could carry out its mission on its own. For him, the Society of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart of Jesus was not an end but a means; it was founded to continue Jesus' own mission and in this way counteract the evils that were destroying society.

20. Furthermore, the texts quoted from the Formula Instituti show that Father Chevalier considered that his Society could not achieve its mission without the active cooperation of a group of secular priests and of laity; two groups by which this Society chiefly attains its aim (Formula Instituti). Those strong words, taken from the first approval of Father Chevalier's project by the Holy See, and later incorporated into his first Constitutions have long been forgotten, but through a renewed 'experience of the Spirit' they are coming to life once more in our own time. 

DEVOTION TO THE SACRED HEART
21. One cannot understand properly the mission Jules Chevalier had in mind for his Congregation unless we see what he understood by the practice of devotion to the Sacred Heart; particularly in so far as be saw it as an answer to the evils of his time. His writings show clearly that he understood the devotion not merely as a collection of pious exercises, but as a comprehensive and effective way of living the Gospel, following what we may call a way of the heart; the heart being understood in the full biblical meaning of the word.

22. It may be useful before going further to mention a few things about the heart as symbol. A symbol is not merely a cipher, like ‘x’ in an equation. Once the meaning of ‘x’ is known, the cipher is no longer needed. A symbol, on the contrary, does not have one exclusive meaning. It can be seen from a variety of aspects; and because it suggests various trains of thought, it is not replaceable by one or other concept.

23. Biologically the heart is a central, essential organ for pumping blood. For this reason, it has taken on in most languages and cultures the wider significance of centre, essence, interior life, basic dispositions, the deeper aspects of a person etc. Because it symbolizes the depths of a person, it also symbolizes the deeper functions of the senses, and also of mind, will and spirit. Today in western culture the heart is taken almost exclusively as a symbol of Love, but the meaning in the Bible is far wider; this is true also of Father Founder's use of the word heart.

24. Father Chevalier found a rich symbolism of heart in the Scriptures, in the Fathers of the Church and in a mystical tradition that placed a special emphasis on the humanity of Jesus. This form of mysticism, concentrating on the heart or dispositions of Jesus as a way to the Father and to others, blossomed in the Middle Ages and had a marked influence, for example, even within Benedictine and Franciscan spirituality. It would influence also the Jesuits (e.g, Peter Canisius) even before their acceptance of their special commission concerning the devotion that came to them through St Margaret Mary.

25. This same tradition, emphasizing the dispositions of heart of Jesus, had a deep influence also on what has been called the French School of Spirituality as expounded by Cardinal de Berulle and his followers; a spirituality in which Father Chevalier was formed during his seminary days; a spirituality that was given an even sharper missionary thrust through his own 'experience of the Spirit' when he contemplated the evils of his time. In fact, I would suggest, this bringing together of the Heart of Christ (and our hearts too) in response to the evils of society constitutes an essential aspect of Father Chevalier's 'experience of the Spirit' and hence also of our charism.

26. It should be added that the tradition stemming from Cardinal de Berulle linked inseparably the Heart of Jesus and the Heart of Mary. Though we shall not be dealing with this subject here, we should not forget that Father Chevalier's charism or 'experience of the Spirit' had an essential Marian aspect.

27. Understood in the light of this long heart tradition, therefore, the devotion was for Father Chevalier a way of life, even a way of understanding God's revelation; it was a way also for transforming society by introducing into it, as effectively as possible, the dispositions, the heart, of Jesus. It was also a way for understanding God's plan for the universe.

28. Consequently, from the beginning, Father Chevalier understood this way of the heart to be essentially missionary, so much so that the distinction between his mission and his spirituality is, it seems to me, artificial, if not indeed misleading. In other words, he saw himself sharing fully in the mission of Christ by living and helping to spread this way of the heart that for him summed up the whole of the Gospel. Ibis joining together of mission and life is typical of the writings of St Paul and St John, sources to which Father Chevalier frequently returned.

29. Understandably, therefore, because the Founder understood 'devotion to the Sacred Heart' in this comprehensive way he agreed with Henry Ramiere SJ in a letter he wrote to him on December 1862: You are doing what I have always thought: You make the Heart of the divine Master the centre on which everything in the Old and New Testament converges, the pivot around which everything in Catholicism turns …the salvation of our world, the remedy of all our ills. That is how I understand devotion to the Sacred Heart: it embraces everything, it is the answer to everything.

30. Father Founder did not change this early understanding of the comprehensive nature of devotion to the Sacred Heart; nor did he cease to stress its social dimension. Later in life he would write: This remedy in which gentleness mingles with effectiveness, has a new aspect and an attractive form. It contains the quintessence of all that can quickly bring back to social life nations that no longer have it. The remedy is Devotion to the Sacred Heart. In itself alone it is a whole world of theology.            This devotion has so much fascination; it is so well put together to attract us that as a result to know it is to love it. It's range is enormous; we have already been able to convince you of that. It embraces everything; dogma and moral; the past, the present and the future. When one practises it, its religious influence penetrates irresistibly. That is why this devotion is essentially social restoring all things.(Le Sacre‑Coeur de Jesus p.280)

31. From the above quotations, it is clear that Father Chevalier's mission, even when he expresses it in terms of 'devotion to the Sacred Heart' is identical with the mission of Christ and the Church even though expressed in the language of the heart.

32. At times it is said that 'devotion to the Sacred Heart' was bypassed by Vatican Council II. Certainly the expression does not appear, but as Father Jan Bovenmars has shown, the biblical language of the heart had an important part to play in the documents of the Council and even in that crucial document Gaudium et Spes that is concerned with the mission of the Church in our time (Biblical Spirituality of the Heart, Jan G. Bovenmars MSC, New York, Alba House, 181ff). The same is equally true of practically all the major encyclicals of Pope John Paul II and can be verified also in the New Catechism. Mission according to a way of the heart is a basic assumption of all these documents that harmonize, in my opinion, with the basic intuitions of Father Chevalier concerning 'devotion to the Sacred Heart'

33. Admittedly today much confusion is avoided by using the expression 'spirituality of the Heart' instead of 'devotion to the Sacred Heart'. But even the expression 'spirituality of the Heart' does not do full justice to what Father Chevalier was speaking about.

34. Some today distinguish various elements in what is meant by this 'heart tradition' within the Church:

34.1 Liturgical worship: In its liturgical worship the Church celebrates the one mystery of Christ under various aspects. One of these aspects centres on the Heart of Christ. The Scriptural texts and prayers used in the Church's liturgy are very important For an understanding of the significance of the Heart of Christ.

34.2 Devotion: Devotional practices and iconography have also an important part in expressing and keeping alive this tradition. They are obviously relative to different times, peoples and places, but it remains always true that a spirituality needs to be expressed and nourished by various forms of prayer suited to particular individuals and groups.

34.3 Spirituality: That is, a way of living the Gospel. Some prefer the expression 'way of the heart' rather than 'spirituality of the heart'

34.4 Theology: If a spirituality has genuine and deep roots in the bible and in the Church's tradition, it will also provide an approach for understanding God and the world; it will provide also a basic principle or principles for morality, even though not providing automatic answers to particular problems. 

ONE MISSION A VARIETY OF WORKS
35. The Church has only one mission and that is the mission of Christ. Our mission is to share in that one mission. As I have tried to indicate, we need not fear that Father Chevalier's insistence that the spread of devotion to the Sacred Heart was the mission of our Society trivialized the biblical presentation of the mission of Christ and his Church. On the contrary, the symbol of the Heart summed up very effectively and comprehensively the heart of the mission of Christ and continues to do so. This can be easily shown from Father Chevalier's writings.

36. As mentioned already, this approach has a special foundation in the Gospel and Epistles of St. John. To spread devotion to the Sacred Heart, as Father Chevalier understood it, was in fact to share in the one mission of Christ even if seen from a particular aspect: the aspect of communion and interiority. Pope John Paul II's description in Redemptoris Missio repeats what can be found also in the writings of Father Chevalier. These same sentiments were repeated daily by all early Missionaries of the Sacred Heart in a prayer based on Chapter 17 of John's Gospel. The text from Redemptoris Missio deserves to be quoted and reflected on: John is the only Evangelist to speak explicitly of a 'mandate', a word equivalent to 'mission' He directly links the mission which Jesus entrusts to his disciples with the mission that he himself has received from the Father: "As the Father has sent me, even so 1 send you" (Jn 20:21).Addressing the Father, Jesus says: `As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world".  (John 17:18)  The entire missionary sense of John's Gospel is expressed in the Priestly prayer'.. "This is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent".                                      

(John 17:3) The ultimate purpose of mission is to enable people to share in the communion which exists between the Father and the Son. The disciples are to live in unity with one another, remaining in the Father and the Son, so that the world may know and believe (cf Jn 1:21‑23). This is a very important missionary text. It makes us understand that we are missionaries above all because of what we are as a Church whose innermost life is unity in love., even before we become missionaries in word or deed. op.cit. n.23

37. Taking up the rich traditional view of the Church as communion, Vatican Council II states that: The Church, in Christ, is in the nature of a sacrament ‑ a sign and instrument that is, of intimate union with God and of the unity of the whole human race. Lumen Gentium No. 1 This same text, together also with Ad Gentes, No 3, gives this union and unity an essential missionary aspect. A similar vision of the Church and its mission as communion was held by Father Chevalier: Do you hear the cry that comes to us from over eighteen hundred years? It is a testament of love: I want all to be no longer anything but one in love (Jn 17:11); to have but one heart and one soul (Acts 4.32); to form but one and the same single family; to be united among themselves and with us as much as possible, just as we ourselves are in the Godhead (John 17:21) From where comes this call this programme of love? From the Heart of Jesus.  Le Sacre Coeur de Jesus, p.241

38. No one, I suspect, would want to express our mission today under the title 'devotion to the Sacred Heart' It would be completely inadequate and misleading. Perhaps, however, we might have something to learn from Father Chevalier's practice. There is a risk sometimes that generalized talking about the 'mission of Christ. ' or the 'mission of the Church' can reduce itto the proclamation of a message or merely social transformation. It is that. of course, but it is above all a way of living: a missionary spirituality, if one prefers that expression. Father Chevalier did not have an abstract, theoretical idea of mission. He was a pastor involved in meeting the demands of parish life. For him, the presentation of the mission of Christ involved very concretely an integral way of living the gospel that could be usefully expressed and helped even through simple prayers that appealed to people. Jesus lived close to ordinary people; the continuance of his mission is no different. 

THE CONTEMPLATIVE DIMENSION OF OUR MISSION
39. Even though we would not describe our mission today using the expression 'devotion to the Sacred Heart, we still have to remain creatively faithful to Father Chevalier's basic intuition. In doing this seriously, I am of the opinion that we shall retain a more integrated view of mission than otherwise, because, unfortunately, mission is often described almost exclusively in terms of doing things and not sufficiently in terms of being. It would seem to me that the text of Father Chevalier cited above (No 37) indicates that the renewed presentation of the Kingdom of God and. of the Church in terms of communion can help us understand a basis on which he linked together mission and devotion to the Sacred Heart.

40. The post-synodal apostolic exhortation Christifideles Laici on the vocation and the mission of the lay faithful in the Church and in the world (December 30, 1988) has much to say about the Church as communion recalling the words of the 1985 Extraordinary Synod. The connection between mission and communion is particularly noteworthy. Communion and mission are profoundly connected with each other, they interpenetrate and mutually imply each other, to the point that communion is to be considered both the source and the fruit of mission: communion is missionary and mission aims at communion.  No 32

41. According to Father Chevalier, the 'cry from the heart of Christ' that comes to us across the centuries is a cry for communion. This is not merely a call to practise devotions; it is a call to be church in the full significance of that word. The reality of the church as communion is, then the integrating aspect, indeed the central content of the mystery, or rather, the divine plan for the salvation of humanity. No 19

42. Our particular spirituality in other words by no means puts us on the periphery, concerned with something accidental to the life of the Church and its mission. It identifies us with it. It should hardly need mentioning that it is in communion that the various ministries of the Church find their origin and purpose. For religious to live this communion, calls essentially for the communion of priests, religious, laity.

43. When we think of mission we often enough think primarily of service of others, particularly the poor and marginalized. This is good for it is an essential element of our mission. However, it might be helpful to remember that Father Chevalier usually spoke of our mission to others in terms of their sanctification: that is, helping them to live in union with Christ. This for him was also the purpose of 'devotion to the Sacred Heart'.

44. We accept also that if we are to be evangelizers, we must be ‑ be ourselves evangelized: that is, if we are going to get others to take the Gospel seriously, we have to take it seriously also. Father Chevalier described this in terms of making our own the dispositions (heart) of Christ. This too, was an essential element of 'devotion to the Sacred Heart'.

45. Many of us would probably feel that these two aims (to evangelize and be evangelized) sum up sufficiently the aim of a missionary congregation. Father Chevalier however gave a threefold purpose for his Society of missionaries both in the Formula (Paragraphus Primus, lff) and later, using the same words, in the 1877 Constitutions (Ch II No 5ff). These three aims were not to be considered in isolation; each could be understood properly only in the light of the others.

46. Perhaps the most surprising point for most of us is that Father Founder puts worship as the first purpose of the Society. He does this deliberately; for it is characteristic of his understanding not only of religious life but of life in general. God is God; we are his creatures; therefore our basic attitude has to be adoration, worship. A spirituality of the heart should have no difficulty in seeing that genuine worship involves also complete readiness to serve both God and others, particularly those in need. The God we worship is a God who is concerned for the poor and oppressed. This is the biblical tradition of the prophets concerning worship, a tradition which culminates in Jesus and continues in the risen Christ.

47. If we are not actively concerned for others, our worship is an aberration, and clearly contrary to the teaching of Jesus. Today however there is perhaps a greater danger of the opposite; namely, we tend to value the worship of God only in so far as we feel it may promote or support concern for others; that is, as a means to an end. God, on the contrary, is to be worshipped because he is God. To subordinate him to other ends is a form of idolatry, for it presumes that those ends are more important and greater than he. Worship of God needs no other reason than God himself. It is true that authentic worship of the triune God revealed by Jesus should strengthen our commitment to the service of others, but this cannot be the ultimate reason for our worship.

48. Father Founder's theocentric understanding of the first end of religious life was not in accordance with the usual Thomistic formulation that emphasized personal sanctification through the practice of the evangelical counsels as the first general aim 'of religious institutes. Father Chevalier did not follow this common formulation, though he obviously accepted that personal sanctification was essential. In fact he was asked to change the wording of his constitutions to fit in with the more usual Roman formulation of the ends of a religious institute.

49. The Founder's theocentric approach was influenced by the Sulpician tradition of spirituality in which he had been formed, and also by the Ignatian Ad maiorem Dei gloriam, For the greater glory of God, often abbreviated as AMDG. In fact, Father Chevalier often writes  AMSCG on his letters: For the greater glory of the Sacred Heart. To seek the glory of God is a central theme in the Exercises of St Ignatius. From the beginning of the first week, the retreatant is required to meditate on the 'Principle and Foundation', the first words being:             Man is created to praise, reverence, and serve God our Lord and by this means to save his soul. Father Chevalier took the necessity of adoration and praise of God with utmost seriousness; he took also the mission to bring others to worship God with utmost seriousness also. This was a feature of his rule for religious and also laity. 

MISSION AND WORKS
50. Though there is only one mission of Christ, there exists a vast variety of works by which this one mission can be carried out. Characteristically, Father Chevalier did not limit our Society to any one particular work, though in our history there has often been a tendency to do this. For him, our identity was not to be found in our works, but in our mission. And our mission was to continue the mission of Christ following what 1 have been calling a way of the heart understood in the full biblical meaning of that word.

51. This distinction of mission and works will be most important when we come to examine the laity. When some speak of laity sharing in our mission, they immediately think of ways in which laity can share in our works, not making any distinction between the two. Laity of course can share in our works and often times do, but that is not to be the starting point for understanding how they share in our specific mission. The essential and specific point we are dealing with here is their sharing with us in the one and the same mission, but doing this specifically as lay people immersed in the world. In stressing this point, I do not want to rule out new experiments being made with lay people sharing not only in our works but even in our communities; but it would seem to me that we would be on the wrong track if we limited the way laity can share in our mission to this, at times contentious, point. 

LAITY AND OUR MISSION
52. It may appear that I have spent too much time on Father Founder's idea of mission, but it is essential if we are to understand the importance for him of the laity. Reading his early publications about the nature and mission of his Society, 1 have the strong impression that he would have found it unthinkable, or perhaps even impractical, to speak of changing the world and its values without involving laity, for they were the ones more intimately immersed in that world. Religious priests, brothers and sisters, together with secular priests, had an essential role to play, and Father Chevalier stressed that; but if Christ's mission was to be continued in the world on all levels of society, the role of the laity was at least equally as essential and at times even more essential.

53. This applied not only to the Church's mission, but also to the mission of the Society; for the Society's mission was simply the Church's mission seen from a particular point of view.

54. Father Chevalier's first publications about the Society (leaving aside the Rules which were never published) speak at length about the secular priests of the Sacred Heart and a third order of laity; less was written about what we today consider to be, in an almost exclusive way, the Society. Thiis helped give rise to a doubt in the second generation of MSC, and also later, that in fact he did not intend to found a religious congregation at all. Father Piperon and the Founder's own letters from the time prove the contrary beyond any doubt.

55. This emphasis on the two other branches of the Society that he had in mind (secular priests and laity) did not indicate that he was vague or ambiguous about the branch of religious priests and brothers. He clearly wanted a group of religious, in the usual understanding of that word, modelled, at least in principle, on the Company of Jesus.

56. He was attracted to the Jesuits it seems to me, mainly because of St Ignatius' complete commitment to mission. Moreover they had been given a special role in spreading devotion to the Sacred Heart. He was attracted to them also because of their missionary obedience; that is, obedience modelled on Christ's own complete obedience to his mission, even unto death. Philippians 1:5ff plays a central part in Father Chevalier's idea of a missionary spirituality. Contemplation of Jesus, pierced on the Cross, was for him essentially a missionary experience just as it was also for St Ignatius.

57. However Father Chevalier was also convinced that a religious congregation on its own was insufficient as a missionary force; for that reason he came back frequently to the three branch structure of his society in his early writings. For example, in a brochure published in 1866, Les Missionnaires du Sacre‑Coeur de Jesus. he wrote: They (Missionaries of the Sacred Heart of Jesus) must be truly religious in order to resemble Him more closely whose Kingdom they want to spread. At the same time. they must keep as close contact as possible with the clergy, in order to spread everywhere the divine influence of the Sacred Heart ... And finally, a lay third order will penetrate where the priest would not be able. In this way, if it is possible., nothing will be allowed to escape the rebirth that comes through the influence of the Heart of Jesus.  (op.cit p.8)

58. Consequently Father Chevalier accepted that the one mission (summed up in devotion to the Sacred Heart) that he was giving to his Society had, of necessity, to be carried out by a variety of groups if it was to be effective: religious priests and brothers; religious sisters; diocesan priests and laity.

59. Unfortunately, after the thoroughgoing re‑writing of Founder's Constitutions in 1907, it seems to me that we have grown used to thinking of the Society exclusively as us religious priests and brothers. As a result the only way many of us can give an MSC identity to a group of laity is by associating them either with one of our communities or with one of our works; we may feel that the only way open for them is to actually live in one of our communities and share in its work. Father Chevalier's statements seem to me. to indicate clearly that a group of laity obtains an MSC identity primarily by becoming identified precisely as lay people, with our mission, and not principally by community life, though that is not excluded.

60. For Father Chevalier, religious (priests, brothers and sisters) had their part to play, so did secular priests and laity. No one group had a monopoly on the one mission he had in mind. Nor was the distinction between these groups to be diminished or abolished; it was not a matter of laity and secular priests trying to be religious, or religious and secular priests to live like laity, or religious priests like secular priests and vice versa. Each had their way of carrying out the one and same mission. Their very difference was their source of strength, for it spread the mission further within the world that our Founder wanted to 'regenerate' through the Gospel, in other words, to evangelize. Consequently for the sake of its mission, the Society had to answer the needs of each group. In order to fulfil its mission the Society must spread as much as possible; but it will spread only in so far as it answers the various things that people are looking for. Les Missionnaires du Sacre Coeur de Jesus, p.10

61.  Father Chevalier was convinced, from his own experience as a priest rather than from theory, that secular priests and lay people in the world could live in their way evangelical perfection: It is not only inside a religious house that privileged graces come into being. They are found too in the world. The Spirit blows where he will. The power of the Sacred Heart shines forth in proportion to the difficulties that it meets. In this society, there is a place for all degrees of calling and of virtue.  op.cit. 19f

62. Though Father Chevalier held that a vowed life was in itself preferable if possible, he readily accepted that one could live the counsels without vows, and that for some people that could well be the better way because of their particular circumstances. It is better for them to keep their freedom and to join only by a commitment based on honour and good will with the liberty to withdraw from the Society without fear of offending God, even venially. And it is precisely because of this freedom that they will be devoted more faithfully to the Congregation and serve it with greater generosity. Would it not be unfortunate to deprive them of the valuable helps in religious life and deprive the Society of their service and merits, merely because they do not dare or do not want to bind themselves by vow? They believe they are sufficiently committed by the vow of their baptism by concern for their salvation, by the obligation of the commandments of God and the Church, by the vows of the priesthood if they are priests. A word given seriously is sufficient for them to believe they are bound to observe faithfully the rules of the Society. op.cit. p.18f

63. Personally my study of the early documentation has convinced me that this three branch vision of the Society was an essential part of Father Chevalier's 'experience ' of the Spirit' as Founder; in other words, part of his missionary charism, and also, at least in principle, part of our charism also. In this regard, it may be of interest to note that Henry Ramiere SJ considered that the lay Third Order and the associated group of diocesan priests were essential aspects of Father Chevalier's project. The Jesuit's observation as an outsider is valuable. When Father Chevalier was having some trouble in having his three branch theory accepted in his Formula Instituti, the Jesuit wrote to Blessed Louise Therese de Montaignac on August 18, 1868: I am ill at ease about the result of the examination to which the Archbishop of Bourges has submitted the Plan of the three Societies of the Sacred Heart, before seeking the Holy Father's approval of it. The few words that Father Chevalier has written to me about the matter lead me to believe that the examiners tend to make the Society of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart a work similar to the hundred and one associations established in various dioceses. The Plan of a third order is turned down as too complicated; that of an association of priests as calculated to arouse hostilities with the bishops.If these two important means of action which alone distinguish the Society of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart from other Societies rounded upto this time are taken away from it, what will be left to it of a specific nature?  op. cit. p.18f 

THE NATURE OF A THIRD ORDER
64. Before developing more at length the relationship between Father Chevalier's concept of the mission of his Society and the laity, some distinctions may be necessary. A failure to make these distinctions has, I would suggest, caused confusion among some Missionaries of the Sacred Heart when discussing this topic.

65. Father Chevalier was actively engaged in parish work throughout the whole of his priesthood, despite the fact that he was also the Superior General of a rapidly expanding international religious congregation. I do not know whether this is unique for a founder, but it is certainly extraordinary. Involvement and cooperation with lay people, therefore, took up a lot, even at times the major part, of his time. He realized also the effectiveness of associations and sodalities that could support lay people in carrying out the duties of their faith and help them live effectively as Christians in the world. He was responsible for founding and promoting a variety of these associations.

66. His experience in this would not differ, in principle at least, from the experience of priests working in parishes today. They are necessarily involved with a variety of lay associations: for example, basic ecclesial communities youth groups, Marriage Encounter, St Vincent de Paul Society, etc. For this reason, it is common enough in a number of parts of the Society to find MSC engaged in parish life to be not very enthusiastic about what are sometimes called 'associate members', because it would seem to force them to give some priority to our MSC organization in relationship to other groups that have every right to exist in a parish, particularly if they are promoted by the diocese.

67. Father Chevalier does not seem to have experienced this as a difficulty, mainly because he did not see the identity of his Third Order to be based on its involvement with a particular MSC community, work or parish. It was a specifically lay branch of the Society that functioned from the basis of its own statutes and structure, with its own identity.

68. One of the most successful associations founded by Father Chevalier was what became eventually the Archconfraternity of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart. Its statutes were approved on January 29, 1864, and promulgated on April 6 of the same year. It was destined to spread throughout the world. Although Father Chevalier was uncharacteristically slow in acting upon this idea of an association in honour of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, proposed by his Archbishop, (a slowness that puzzled Father Piperon), he nevertheless prized it very highly indeed, when after a few months delay, he set to work on the project.

69. The Third Order envisaged by Father Chevalier differed from the association of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, at least as understood at that time. The Third Order was not so much a work of the Society as an extension of it into the laity. From his own experience the Founder knew what a Third Order meant for he had been a member of the Third Order of St. Dominic. His involvement with the groups founded by Blessed Louise Therese de Montaignac and Blessed Caterina Volpicelli (both of which for a time formed a Third Order of our Society) made him well aware of the aims and methods of such a movement.

70. As we have seen, he wanted to incorporate laity into the specific life and mission of the Society. As we have also seen, but it may bear repeating, this did not mean that they had to take part in any works of the Society or be involved with a particular MSC community. It was an attempt to help laity live in their way the life of Missionaries of the Sacred Heart and in their way carry out its mission: that is, practise devotion to the Sacred Heart in the comprehensive way our Founder understood that word and in this way actively counteract the evils of society and help transform it.

71. An introductory explanation in the Rules for the Third Order, approved by the bishop of Bourges in 1865 helps us understand the sort of thing Father Chevalier had in mind. At the same time, it would not be correct to limit the Founder's ideas to these rules. Because of the particular situation, for example, these rules deal exclusively with women, because they had in mind particularly Blessed Louise Therese de Montaignac's group. In other Rules for the Third Order he mentions explicitly that members can be either men or women.

72. On some points we would express ourselves differently today; the important thing is the essential message; and it is quite clear:This association is not a simple confraternity, nor a sodality, similar to those whose aim is to provide people who belong to them extra means to gain their salvation in the midst of the world. Nor is it a religious Society strictly so called, where one could attain perfection only by renouncing the world. The members of this Association desire to steer a middle course between people who lead a Christian life in the world satisfied with the observance of the commandments, and those who leave the world to lead a more perfect life. In as much as from an external point of view they resemble the first group, they have to resemble the second group by their interior dispositions. The sort of life to. which members of the Third Order of the Sacred Heart of Jesus devote themselves is this: to remain in their families, to carry out the duties of their state of life, to retain freedom of activity in the world and nevertheless to aim at perfection to put no limit to their devotion to Our Lord, and to carry out in society an apostolate which is all the more useful in that it does not give rise to mistrust.            General Idea of the Third Order of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, p. 5f

73. As I mentioned when dealing with the meaning of charism, it would be a mistake to think we are bound today to the details of this Rule, but an examination of it can be useful in giving us an idea of the sort of thing the Founder had in mind. It comprised three groups: novices, associates and professed. Through the associates could take vows, these were not modelled on the practices and traditions of religious congregations: a way of life not feasible for people living in the world. The aim was to live, in the world, the virtues of the evangelical counsels free of the formalities usually followed by religious.

74. Since it would be very useful to have centres in various places which could act as a uniting point for members, two or three unmarried members might live together in community. However a strict warning was given that this should not develop into the sort of model found in religious communities: The Associates will be able to live in their families and occupy, any sod of position in society. Community life will not therefore be obligatory for any of them However, it is desirable that those who are single live together; in order to experience among themselves the delights of family life and in order to carry out good works. The houses formed in this way, in various localities, should serve naturally as centres for the Association and facilitate considerably the advancement and spread of the work But anything which gives the appearance of a religious house strictly so called is to be avoided, as being against our aim and harmful to the sort of good that this work is called to do.op.cit. p.8

75. The Superior of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart was to be at the same time the Superior (also called Director General) of the Third Order. He was allowed, however, to choose one of his confreres to be Director General. In each diocese there was to be a Diocesan Director who would be, where possible, one of the Priests of the Sacred Heart associated with the Missionaries‑ Where numbers required it, there would also be local Directors. The Directors were more or less chaplains of the Tertiaries.

76. However the Third Order was by no means to be governed completely from outside. Within it there were to be members who carried out the task of Superior General, Diocesan Superiors and, where required, local Superiors. From the evidence we have Father Chevalier left the group very much to govern itself and intervened mainly by advice and encouragement when presented with problems. In fact, if anything, he was probably too little involved in the early years mainly because of ill health, but also because of trust in what Father Ramiere was doing. This trust would in time lead to serious problems.

77. The Superiors of the Third Order were primarily what are called at times today 'animators of groups'. In the spirit of the organization, they were to avoid anything that looked like superiority: The Third Order of the Sacred Heart of Jesus is an Association based on humility and bound together by love. It keeps as far from itself as possible any suggestion of haughty commands or ambitious intrigue. There is no place in it for any inequality of rank In it there are only sisters (Ed. The particular group in mind were women followers of Louise‑Therese de Montaignac) intent on helping one another as much as they can. In place of honours, the Third Order offers to those who are put in charge of others only greater care for others and a more complete sacrifice of self. op. cit. p.14

78. Every six years at least, the professed of the Third Order were to meet to elect from their number a Superior General and deal with matters of common interest. The meeting was called a Council. Decisions were to be made by majority vote. In the case of changes to the rule, the majority had to be two‑thirds. However, the decisions had to be submitted to the Director General (the Superior General of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart); if he was not opposed to them, they became law. Once a fortnight or once a month depending on circumstances, the members of the Third Order were bound to regular meetings. The general format of these meetings was also described in the Rules.

79. Even granted the heavy involvement of the Jesuits in Montlucon, even granted that the Rules were mainly written by Jesuits, there is no doubt in my mind that Father Chevalier saw in the Montlucon Third Order and its Rules at least one way in which his vision for a lay branch of the Society of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart could be realized. The important thing for us today, it seems to me, is that it helps us realize the possibilities Father Chevalier's 'experience of the Spirit' was opening for him. From this point of view, these 1865 Rules are not for slavish imitation today, but they can help us realize what can be done in order to carry out in our time this basic concern of our Founder. 

CONCLUSION
80. What I have been saying could be filled out by more historical detail. But more importantly than research in archives, things are happening throughout the whole society. At the French Chapter in 1993, two full days were given to a joint meeting with the variety of groups that are striving to live according to our spirit and mission. All were agreed that it was the most inspiring part of the whole Chapter. Recently in Rome, the de la Salle Brothers had several days with associated lay people during their General Chapter. According to reports this was also a highlight of their chapter, reinforcing, at the same time, their own specific vocation as religious. The matter was discussed at our 1993 General. Chapter and one of the outcomes of that was the decision to have an international meeting.