The ASC Charism

There are two things within the ASC charism which speak directly to living and working in a multicultural world. How do we manage to see the world from God's perspective and respond to that world from the heart of God? I think that the ASC charism of adoration speaks especially to that capacity to be a presence.

There are two dimensions to that presence. One is coming into the presence of God. The other is being a presence of God in the world. The second flows from the first. We cannot be a presence of God unless we are a presence in God. Coming to be ever more fully in the presence of God arises out of contemplative prayer, a form of prayer developed especially in the practice of adoration.

In dealing with the complexities and the frustrations of a multicultural world, we are constantly reminded how inadequate our perspective is. There is so much that we do not understand. The differences are too many. It is only by moving ever more deeply into the presence of God that we can hope to see the world with God's eyes, and feel the world with God's heart. Adoration reminds us in the first instance of the difference between ourselves and God. God is so much greter than ourselves. But acknowledgement of that difference need not separate us from God. It is, rather, an invitation to move out of ourselves and allow ourselves to be drawn into the unfathomable love and mercy of God. It is God who leads us; we do not achieve this of ourselves. It is only in that ever deepening presence of God that we can come to see and feel the world as God does it, at least in some measure.

The contemplative practice of adoration brings us into the more profound union with God, which, in turn, allows us to be a presence of God in the world. As we gain greater transparency so that the glory of God, God's great love and unfathomable mercy, shines through, the world experiences a little more of the healing and reconciliation with the blood of Christ has brought to us. The adoration which is part of the ASC charism is not an end in intself, as your Constitution implies, but rather the source of your apostolic mission in the world. The adoration makes the ASC community "a living image of that divine charity with which that blood was shed" to cite the 1857 Constitution.

Adoration, then, is the entryway into becoming a presence of tenderness and compassion in a multicultural world. Ultimately, that world can only be understood from the perspective of God. It is God who alone can truly embrace all the differences. And it is God who heals the divisions. To echo those famous words of [Saint] Maria, it is adoration through which we will come under "that beautiful order of things which the Great Son of God came to establish through his blood."

With that brief reflection on the important role adoration plays being a presence in a multicultural world, I would like to turn to the second aspect of ASC charism which is important for living and working in a multicultural world. That aspect is living the Paschal Mystery. This is central to ASC spirituality, and indeed to the spiritualities of all the Precious Blood family. Living so as to conform to the pattern of Christ's death so that we might come to know the power of the resurrection (to paraphrase Paul's description of the Paschal Mystry in Philippians 3:20) is at the hert of our vocation. To die with Christ so that we might be raised with him is fundamental to our discipleship. Out of the many rich possibilities from which we can enter the Paschal Mystery, I would like to hold up just one which illumines our response to a multicultural world.

Multicultural living requires this kine of dying to ourselves, letting go of those things we think are essential to our identities, so that God can create something new for us. For the ASC community, as an international religious institute, that entry into the Paschal Mystery begins with how you live together amid the many cultures you represent. This is one of the single greatest challenges that all international religious institutes now face, and it will have a profound effect on how we are able to be a living presence of tenderness and compassion to the multicultural world. We have to move out of ourselves and our familiar ways to make room for new manifestations of grace amongst us. It is only in that being conformed to the suffering of Christ that we will be able, in some measure, to experience the power of his resurrection. It is from that experience that we can hope to be that manifestation of God's great love and tender mercy for the world.

Central for all of us in the Precious Blood family is the vision of the redeeming blood of Christ effecting this new creation. The images of the redeemed coming together, out of every tibe and tongue, people and nation, washed in the blood of the Lamb, stands as a powerful source of hope that the confusion that we may now experience, the suffering which we now undergo, and the disappointments which now cloud our dreams will be washed away in the blood of the Lamb. Peace and reconciliation will come to the world through the blood of Christ's cross. (cf. Col. 1:20). That blood will do this reminds us of the struggle of the forces of life and death which now make up our wounded world. That we have a God of such unbounded love and mercy to shed blood for us will help us to find a way through this multicultural world we now live in, marked as it is by convergence and dislocations, by suffering and by hope.

{An excerpt from a paper delivered by Robert Schreiter CPPS at the ASC International Symposium held at Newman University in Wichita, Kansas, June 25-26, 2003}

1. How have you experienced multiculturalism in daily living?
2. What challenges have come to you regarding multicultural living in your places of work and social interaction?
3. How does adoration and living out the Paschal Mystery help you address what you have experienced regarding multiculturalism?