In convoking the Ordinary Jubilee of 2025, with the Bull Spes non confundit, Pope Francis wished to recall the anthropological-spiritual meaning of the pilgrimage that characterizes this ecclesial event: “Setting out on a journey is traditionally associated with our human quest for meaning in life” (n. 5). Certainly, the event of a pilgrimage is one of the most significant metaphors of human existence that best expresses its dynamism, its demands, and its ups and downs. It was already affirmed by the restless Augustine of Hippo when he stated that “we are all wayfarers, pilgrims on a journey”.
We will now take a look at the journies of two pilgrims, St. Vincent de Paul and St. Louise de Marillac. The point of convergence between them is none other than the following of Jesus Christ, … a following that was undertaken with conviction and passion and that involved all the dynamism of love for God and neighbor, under the guidance of the Spirit, through a continuous process of conversion. By the witness of their lives, St. Vincent and St. Louise remind us of the Church’s traditional teaching, that is, that the Christian pilgrimage is a gradual path of purification of the heart, of configuration with Christ and of deeper union with the Trinity.
St. Vincent’s spiritual journey led him out of the narrow sphere of self-referentiality and pushed him toward the path of total adherence to Jesus Christ, contemplated and followed as the one sent by the Father to evangelize the poor. Opening Vincent’s heart and widening his gaze with the impetus of charity, Christ made him go on pilgrimage toward God and toward the least of his brothers and sisters. Thus, the person of Jesus Christ became the mirror before which the contours of Vincent de Paul’s life were gradually shaped and perfected, particularly his constant search for the will of the Father and his generous dedication to the most despised of his time. We can say that St. Vincent’s pilgrimage took shape over the year through the penetrating gaze of faith, the invincible strength of love and the encouraging horizon that hope opened up to him.
Indeed, as a pilgrim of missionary charity and hope that does not disappoint, Vincent de Paul spread the seeds of the Kingdom, reaching out to the weakest of his time and inspiring countless people to proclaim the saving love of God who comes to meet his people, to comfort, strengthen and rejoice with them. He did this with the depth and sanity of a life freely and passionately dedicated to the welfare of his brothers and sisters. Furthermore, this involved a process of conversion and continued development, becoming ever more clearly aware that faithful love is the love that rests on hope and thus grows and renews itself without ceasing.
St. Vincent considered himself unworthy of the vocation he received and recognized himself as “inconsequential” when compared to the greatness of the mission. Nevertheless, the awareness of the preciousness of the gift spurred him to be ever more grateful, hopeful and persevering. He knew that Jesus Christ could ve nothings less than the dynamic center of his whole existence, the fundamental content of his message, the rule of his mission, the perfect model of charity. For this reason, among the poor and among all those who were part of his history, he “judged that he knew nothing but Jesus Christ, and him crucified” (1Cor 2:2). Indeed, it was the loving dedication of the Son of God that he found the wisdom for his discernment, the holiness that framed his existence, the vigor of his actions, and the thrust of his pilgrimage. Here is what he said to his Missionaries:
“Let’s look at the Son of God; what a heart of charity He had; what a fire of love! (…) O Messieurs, if we had only a little of that love, would we stand around with our arms folded? Would we let those we could assist perish? Oh, no! Charity can’t remain idle; it impels us to work for the salvation and consolation of others” (CCD:XII:216).
If we wanted to know the attitudes that maintained the pilgrim, Vincent de Paul, attuned with the humanity of Jesus Christ, the pilgrim of the Father, it would be enough to return to the Beatitudes (cf. Mt 5:1-12). According to Pope Francis, these constitute a perfect synthesis of the conduct of Christ’s disciples, “the Christian’s identity card” (Gaudete et exsultate, n. 63). Vincent himself spoke about the Beatitudes to the Daughters of Charity and stated: “Those, dear Sisters, are the maxims of the Son of God and the ones He practiced and taught most often when He was in the world. Now, you have to embrace them ardently because you must love what Our Lord loves and hate what He hates” (CCD:X:122). Walking in the footsteps of Jesus, St. Vincent lived and shared the beatitudes in an exemplary way, and they were etched upon his heart as the traits of a pilgrim of the Gospel of hope:
The whole existence of Vincent de Paul was a wonderful update of the beatitudes that we are called to live, clothing ourselves in the spirit of Jesus Christ in order to enter into the dynamic of unconditional love for God and neighbor, axis of charity that identifies us, charity that is sustained by the hope that impels us on our pilgrimage to the heart of the Trinity.
Inspired by the message that Pope Francis addressed to the whole Church on World Migrant and Refugee Day, we may be able to assume, in six pairs of verbs, a very attuned attitude to the pilgrimage we make ourselves as evangelizers and servants of the poor in the footsteps of Saint Vincent: knowing to understand, not simply the numbers of statistics, but people, their stories, their dramas; to become one with others in order to serve with love, courage and gratuitousness, overcoming the distances imposed by fears and prejudices; to listen attentively and respectfully to reconcile ourselves with those whom we often despise and reject because of their condition and origin; to share what we have in order to grow together as brothers, without leaving anyone out; to involve and to promote, valuing the human wealth of the poorest, stimulating their potential, encouraging their protagonism, opening paths of hospitality, fraternity and solidarity; collaborate to build, overcoming discord and divisions to work together in the vineyard of the Kingdom, preserving the Common House and promoting those who experience precariousness and abandonment as they journey in search of security, work, bread and peace.
If we were still lacking some other stimulus to continue in the pilgrimage that Saint Vincent points out to us, his words would remain filled with the freshness of his wisdom and the ardor of his charity, words that invite us to walk together on the paths by which the Lord himself wants to lead us:
“How happy we shall be if He grants us the grace of abandoning ourselves fully to His guidance, and if the difficulties along the path by which He leads us please instead of disheartening us and, instead of distancing us from our Sovereign Good, draw us closer to Him! To this end, we should help and support one another and strive for peace and union among ourselves. This is the wine that cheers and strengthens travelers along this narrow path of Jesus Christ. I recommend this to you with all the tenderness of my heart” (CCD:IV:265).
In the person of Saint Louise, we discover another pilgrim vocation, the exodus itinerary of one who, leaving the sphere of herself and her world, set out on a journey ever more permeable to the touch of the Spirit and the cries of the poor. By the fruitfulness of her life and the creativity of her genius, we can easily see that this woman of evangelical strength knew to preserve, until the last breath, the joviality of her soul, fruit of the hope that does not disappoint. In the Apostolic Exhortation Christus vivit, addressed specifically to young people, Pope Francis recalls that the “healthy restlessness typical of youth continues to dwell in every heart that remains young, open and generous” (n. 138). Here is a beautiful portrait of Louise de Marillac, who always remained young, open and generous.
Formed in the school of the Gospel and accompanied by Father Vincent, (with whom she will become a collaborator), Louise never tires of keeping her gaze fixed on the Lord who identifies himself unequivocally with the hungry, thirsty, strangers, naked, sick and imprisoned, with all who suffer and are neglected, with those who are not respected in their lives or whose dignity is not recognized, that is, the poor of all times and places. Even more, the Lord assures us that everything we do or fail to do for the least of our brothers and sisters, we do or fail do to for him (cf. Mt 25:31-46).
From her personal encounter with Christ, whom she called “a traveler here on earth” (SWLM:281 [L.245]), Louise de Marillac intuited that she was being impelled to follow Jesus, captivated by his humanity and identified with his mission, loving him without reserve and loving her neighbor with the intensity with which he loved them. In the mystery of the saving kenosis of the incarnate Word, her only hope (spes unica), Luisa contemplates the apex of the unitive love of God (religion) and of the oblative love of others (charity), as had also done Vincent de Paul, who had already been joined in the discernment of God’s will, in service to the poor and in the gestation of what will be the Company of the Daughters of Charity. Thus, Louise would be able to experience in herself freedom and happiness of one who had discovered, in the holy humanity of Jesus of Nazareth, the source of meaning, a path of holiness and an impulse of charity (cf. SWLM:714 [A. 5], 717 [A.8], 786 [A.23]). Docile to the spirit of Christ and always having before his eyes the mystery of the Incarnation, she will recall that, in order to reconcile ourselves with the Father,
“the Son of God came in person as a pilgrim, His life being one unending pilgrimage. This should be the example for our lives. Therefore, I have resolved to meditate profoundly on His life and to try to imitate it. I spent a great deal of time reflecting on the title of Christian which we bear, and I came to the conclusion that we must, indeed, truly conform our lives to the life of Our Lord Jesus Christ” (SWLM:777 [A. 36]).
In this exciting journey in conformity with our Lord in his pure love, it was not difficult for Louise de Marillac to approach the poorest, recognizing them as “members of Jesus Christ” (SWLM:113 [L.104b]), serving them corporally and spiritually (cf. SWLM:514-515 [L.531b), with gestures of tenderness and compassion (cf. SWLM:434 [L.383]), as she had learned from the pilgrim of the Father and traveler of the Kingdom. Thus, the ever-young Louise updates for us the teaching of the Gospel: in the light of faith, we see those who suffer and are in need as sacraments of Jesus Christ. From them, their pains and hopes, the Lord challenges our conscience, awakens our youth, inviting us to leave indifference and comfort, prompting us to rediscover the beauty of life in the joy of loving and serving. When we accept this invitation, when we leave our comfort zones and let ourselves be rejuvenated by charity, then we become sacraments of Christ’s compassionate love and open ourselves to the hope of the Kingdom that has been prepared for us, certain that, as Pope Francis says, “our life on earth reaches full stature when it becomes an offering” (Christus vivit, n. 254).
Like Vincent de Paul and Louise de Marillac, we also carry in our hearts worries, concerns, longings and hopes. Like them, we also walk alongside other people equally called and willing to travel the same paths. We will always have reason to thank those who taught us to walk, who walks with us and who helps us to keep the desire to continue walking. We are pilgrims because we follow Jesus Christ, seeking the face of the Father and discerning the inspirations of the Spirit. We are pilgrims because we know ourselves as companions of humanity, particularly the poor. The strength of the pilgrims resides in their heart, where their deepest convictions are nested; in their feet, which represent their willingness to continue, even at night; in their open hands, which share what they have received. Let us ask the Lord for the grace never to forget what we are, in order to walk in the direction of what he calls us to be, supported by the certainty that he himself sustains and guides us, because, as the psalmist says, “if the Lord does not build the house, in vain the builders get tired” (Ps 126.1). That is the reason for our hope of pilgrims!
Lord Jesus Christ,
you who made of Saint Vincent and Saint Louise pilgrims of hope
and led them on the roads of charity,
teaching them to seek the Father’s will
and to serve the poor with an upright and generous heart,
clothe us with your Spirit of love
and instill in us the hope that does not disappoint.
Following the example of Saint Vincent and Saint Louise,
grant that we may go on pilgrimage through history
enlightened by the Meaning of life,
comforted by your companionship
and solicitous towards the tired and wounded.
May we be able to communicate to all
the hope that springs from faith and is nourished by charity,
for a peaceful and reconciled world.
Pilgrims in hope,
learning from life’s lessons,
we will grow in patience and perseverance,
we will radiate confidence, serenity and enthusiasm
and walk happily towards you,
you who are the reason for our hope
and the fullness of the love for which our hearts yearn.
Vinícius Augusto Teixeira, CM
