102 cles – who are meant just to enjoy life. In exchange for relative obedience, a congregation- institution is supposed to take over an obligation to care for a passive, mediocre, but always loyal individual. In the times of our Father Stanislaus Papczyński, most probably some kind of a feudal agreement which best reflects this mentality was still in use. This agreement was in the form of a rather original commitment made by peasants to their lord (not to be confused with the text of a renewal of profession!!!): “I (name/family name), lacking the means of sustenance and clothing, place myself in your care and promise throughout the course of my life to serve you and be obedient to you as a free man with no power to remove myself from your custody and care until the end of my days.” Our Father Founder had an entirely different opinion about these feudal dependencies as the testimony of his life would suggest. His life was full of efforts and sacrifices in the name of goals far beyond his capabilities which he chose to face from early on because he recognised God’s will in them. Father Stanislaus shaped his personality in a deep sense of duty and responsibility towards others; especially towards God and the Church The attitude of Father Papczyński, as well as many other Fathers of our Congregation, to name just a few – Kazimierz Wyszyński, Józef Szwernicki, Wincenty Sękowski, Franciszek Buczys, Blessed George Matulaitis, Blessed Andrzej Leszczewic and Jerzy Kaszyra, missionaries from Harbin, Siberia, and today’s ones in the newly established jurisdictions, can be successfully contrasted with the progressing secularization, a significant manifestation of which, is extreme safety and prosperity. These two phenomena promote a decline in responsibility, especially when the sinful nature is not taken up by asceticism, which teaches us renunciation, discipline, empathy for those who are less fortunate, or outright badly off, and constructive involvement in their lives. Another sign of this erosive process is breaking a correlation between rights and obligations. We expect that our needs will be met but we become more and more oblivious to situations evidently requiring sacrifice. On my part, others have to do with what I have been forced to perform, anyway, by an institution under some increasingly incomprehensible power. Meanwhile, it is the willingness to sacrifice that glues a community together. Unfortunately, we don’t inherit it in our genes and that is why we need to work it out in an ascetic effort with eyes fixed on the promise of a reward. We have left our homes, brothers, sisters, parents… to receive much more here and, in the future, to inherit eternal life to which our saintly fathers bear witness. Christ is their reward. It was possible because over the centuries and in various ways, they accepted
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjI2Mw==