ACTS OF THE 7th EUROPEAN ASSEMBLY OF LAY DOMINICAN FRATERNITIES

ANNEX Vc

HOMILY BY FR. DAVID KAMMLER

(Dt 11:18;26-28 / Ro 3:21-25.28 / Mt 7:21-27)

I don’t know whether you have experienced the London Underground. When the trains start
and leave the stations, an automated voice regularly asks for attention: “MIND THE GAP!”
‘The Gap’: the distance between the train and the platform.

The voice of Jesus in our Gospel asks for our attention: “MIND THE GAP!” The gap, for
him, is the distance between what we confess in prayers expressing our faith (“Lord, Lord”)
and our actions, what we practise as a consequence of our faithful conviction (“to do the
will of our Father in heaven”). The language of the Hebrew part of the Bible calls that
distance a ‘lie’. There is therefore only one single Hebrew expression for “word” and for
“taking actions”: DAVAR. ‘Action’ is the necessary consequence of that which we express
and preach verbally, or ‘word’ as the description explaining our behaviour.

Based on the fundamentals of conviction and supported by action, our Dominican mission
becomes credible and persistent in spite of the often terrifying movements, the ‘hurricanes’
and ‘earthquakes’ (cf. Mt 7,25a) of our rapidly changing modern society. Preaching in the
storms of our secular world could be: to ‘do the Truth’, striving for unity between our words
and actions; to recover a new stability, based on the rock of God’s truth, incarnated in
Jesus Christ the “Word of God”. In him we find the spoken word and the action absolutely
identical. Following him as his disciples today does not mean reaching that same
perfection, but it does mean trying to minimize the gap between our good intentions and
our behaviour. We do not need to use or even invent new words for the classic expressions
of the essential contents of our faith, but to preach more evidently by doing.

Like the words ‘Lord, Lord’ in the Gospel, the words ‘CARE of LIFE and GOD’S CREATION
/ PEACE and JUSTICE’ are found in our written or prayed messages. How can we preach
those words by doing? In our regular meetings these should be a challenge: praying
together as well as encouraging each other to do what we pray, perhaps as obstetricians of
endangered and weakened life, as lawyers in unjust or conflicting situations. Sometimes,
looking attentively at the troubled spots in other continents, we are blind to those in our own
environment and the sometimes economical and political connection between the two. A
typical sign of preaching in our secular world can be collaboration with organisations, not
necessarily Christian-rooted, in common challenges involving human motivation.

REDEMPTION / SALVATION and RECONCILIATION: words often used by us in our

liturgical texts. Even if they are printed in genuine golden letters, they must become
‘fleshed’, become incarnate in our experiences of life. Do we really live community life so
that it is a preaching? “You are accepted not only with the strong and pleasant sides of your
personality, but also with the dark and puzzling parts of your character.” What sort of
atmosphere do our meetings have? Is there an open-minded ‘climate’, so that people can
breathe the ‘oxygen’ of liberation from the obligations which burden our civil lives in many
ways. Do we also accept people whose biographies do not allow full membership from a
juridical point of view but who can be nourished with the same biblical and spiritual food by
participating actively in our community life?

We address each other as BROTHERS and SISTERS / as FAMILY / are proud of the
DEMOCRATIC structures of our constitutions. But within the branches of our Order, sisters
and lay persons are not always regarded as equal companions in preaching; women do not
actively share in local preaching teams. Even the apostles had difficulty in accepting
women as preaching witnesses of the Lord’s Resurrection. Equality does not mean exact
imitation. There are different ‘charismas’, but one Spirit. It is not enough for the branches of
our Dominican Family to meet on St. Dominic’s Day and/or feasts of professions and
ordinations, although it is a good custom. Before real cooperation can function at all times
of the year, there must be complete conversion of heart and soul, respecting each other as
sisters and brothers in preaching in common challenges.

We are all preachers of the incarnate Love of God in Jesus Christ. Like the Word of God,
the word of our preaching also has to become flesh.“Take these words of mine into your
heart and soul. Bind them at your wrist as a sign, and let them be a pendant on your
forehead.”, these admonitions of the first reading from the book of Deuteronomy in our
Sunday’s liturgy became the origin of the Jewish custom of wearing the so-called ‘Tefillin’:
two small leather boxes, containing scrolls from the Torah, that are strapped to the left arm
and the forehead as a reminder to act in accordance with the Divine commandments.
Brain, heart and hand, thinking, praying and acting shall work together to fulfil God’s will.

Dear sisters and brothers, when we wear the black and white cross of our Order around our
neck, or the Dominican shield “VERITAS” on our jackets, this could be a Christian ‘tefillah’,
a reminder of Preaching the Truth - BY DOING. That is exactly the challenge of the Gospel
today, a provoking message for our seventh European Assembly here in Slovakia. The
results of your considerations and guidelines from the meeting should remain not only as
many copies printed on paper, but multiplied in our communities intellectually (“..with soul”),
emotionally (“..with heart”) and above all by practising (“..with hand”)! When we now
profess our faith:
− Let us pray that it will enable us to keep the gap between our words and our deeds
as narrow as possible.
− Let us hope that the extended hand of our Lord’s mercy will help us dare to take the
step permanently from the ‘platform of our convictions’ ( = of that which should be
done, of our good words, well-formulated resolutions and programmes) on to the
‘moving train’ of convincing actions, even if this begins only slowly.
− Let us mutually confirm therein that our unstable ‘house of faith’ is fundamentally
built on the basis of God’s supporting LOVE, granted us by our brother Jesus Christ.
From that ‘rock’, as Dominican sisters and brothers, let us jump together hand in
hand, entering the train going in the direction of a more effective common mission!