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Inspiring Christian Lives
Charles de Foucauld, 1858-1916
Winter 1886, Paris: A young cavalry officer and playboy stands in a Parisian Church. He is an atheist – he doesn’t believe in God. He has just returned from fighting with the French army in the North African desert. The experience has shown up his debauched pleasure seeking lifestyle of drinking, gambling and womanising for the futility that it ultimately is. He enters the confession box of the great Parisian church. Leaning towards the grille, ‘Father’, he said, ‘I haven’t got the faith. I have come to ask you to instruct me.’ The priest in the box replies: ‘Kneel down and make your confession to God. You will believe’. Startled and nervous, Foucauld replies, ‘but I didn’t come for that’. ‘Make your confession’ came the gruff response. Foucauld did – he offloaded all of the areas where he had failed to be fully human, where he had used and abused others in leading a selfish lifestyle. And so it was that Charles Foucauld began his extraordinary life, and the living out of an extremely powerful spiritual vision that led him into the deserts of Arabia. Shortly after his conversion, Charles went out to the Middle East in search of his religious vocation. Later, he went to Africa where he intended to bring Christ to the Arabs by the example of a good and holy life. Dressed as a desert Arab, and living as a hermit in a small hut, Charles rejoiced that he could give it all up to have the happiness of contemplating God without distraction. But, during a raid on his hut, this peaceful man was murdered.
The hidden life of Charles de Foucauld has produced abundant fruit in the twentieth century. The Little Brothers of Jesus and the Little Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus were established in 1933 and are flourishing throughout the world. In 1939 another congregation inspired by Charles de Foucauld was founded -- The Little Sisters of Jesus -- and they exercise an apostolate among non-Christians and among the abandoned masses. Finally, there are several fraternities that follow the spirit of Brother Charles. The spirit and mission of the Little Brothers of Jesus was described by Charles de Foucauld:
‘The Little Brothers of the Sacred Heart have a special call, first, to imitate our Lord Jesus Christ in his hidden life at Nazareth; secondly, to live in mission countries, there to practise perpetual adoration of the Blessed Sacrament exposed .... By taking the altar and its tabernacle into the midst of unbelieving peoples, they sanctify those peoples without speaking a word, as Jesus silently sanctified the world for thirty years at Nazareth .... It is true that we do not take part in the glorifying of God, the work of our Lord the saving of souls, by preaching the Gospel; but we do so effectively by taking to people the Eucharistic presence of Jesus, Jesus offered in the holy Sacrifice, and the evangelical virtues, the charity of Christ's heart which we do our best to practise. We have not received a call from God to the ministry of the word; so we bless and preach by silence.’
He and his followers wanted to bring Christ to "those who are spiritually the poorest, the most crippled, the blindest, the non-Christian peoples of missionary countries; those who know not the Good News; who have no tabernacle, nor priest; the most abandoned souls, those who are most sick, the sheep that are indeed lost”. His was nothing less than a vocation of presence among the people he wished to lead to Christ. It was not so much about social service, as about sharing the same sufferings of the poor and giving witness of the Gospel teaching. Contemporary followers of the ideal of Charles de Foucauld have gone into the "desert" of the slums and the factories to bring the "presence of Christ" through the example of virtue and contemplative prayer.
Task
What impact did opening up to God have on the life of Charles Foucauld? How has his change of heart lived on today and what fruits has it borne?
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