April 22, 2016
THE LAST WORD: Eight centuries later, the urgency remains
BY REV. R. GABRIEL PIVARNIK, O.P.
FOR MOST PEOPLE, anniversaries are celebrated to commemorate a moment in their own life when a great event happened. We use them to signify the importance of such an event in the passage of our lives: a marriage, a beginning of sobriety, a victory over cancer — these are all things in which we can rejoice and be glad. But we also know that anniversaries can be used to memorialize the death of a loved one, or a traumatic event, or a shared tragedy like Columbine or Newtown.
What makes the 800th anniversary of the founding of the Dominican Order so significant is that it gives us a chance to remember it all: the joys and successes, the tragedies and downfalls. In our remembering and in our common celebration we have a chance to give praise and thanks to God not only for the thousands of men and women who have answered the call of St. Dominic over these eight centuries, but also for all of the challenges that we have faced in becoming “preachers of grace.” Each of these challenges has helped us to hone our charism as Dominican preachers and to rely ever more intently on God’s grace for our mission and vocation.
It is perhaps fitting that the theme for the 800th anniversary echoes very much the themes of St. Dominic as he founded the Order: “Sent to preach the Gospel.” After 800 years, there is still an urgency about our common vocation — we are ministers who are sent out into the world to meet people where they are in their relationships with God. We are called to preach from our experience of the God who has loved us. And, through it all, we must be people rooted in the Word, in the Gospel that we have received. Staying true to that charism is what has allowed the Order to remain a vibrant part of the Church for eight centuries.
As we celebrate this anniversary, we can-not help but be reminded that God has remained faithful to us. When St. Martin de Porres wondered how he might help in the healing of the infirm, God gave him the grace to respond with acts of charity. When Catherine of Siena was faced with a church in discord, God gave her the grace to speak with authority and clarity. It might be tempting to think that God was faithful only to well-known saints. But, as a Dominican family, we know that God was faithful to the entire Order. When an unknown, cloistered nun began to question whether or not her vocation of prayer made a difference in the life of the church, God gave her the grace to pray amid her doubt. And when a scared 22-year-old was asked to preach for the first time, God gave him the words to soothe the hearts of a grieving community.
This is why we celebrate our 800th anniversary — because through every circumstance, God has given us the grace to be “Sent to preach the Gospel.”
Rev. R. Gabriel Pivarnik, O.P. is vice president for mission and ministry, director of the Center for Catholic and Dominican Studies, and an assistant professor of theology.
