There are some events that make such an impact that we remember the details. Claret remembers the date when he understood some mysterious words that were going round his head, a vision from the Apocalypse that was keeping him awake. Understanding the Word is one of the steps for the Bible to become the Word of Life. Claret was not satisfied with just reading the Scripture, which he did a lot of since he was young. He turned it over, he pondered it, as Mary did, until it became ‘incarnate’ in him.
It was the Lord that made him understand the passage from the Apocalypse. He didn’t stop living off the grace of being a disciple. He is listening, and the Lord, as with the disciples of Emmaus, opened the eyes of his heart so he could understand the Scriptures. But, what was it that the Lord made him understand? Claret knew that the Lord spoke to him and promised that he would send him to the whole world. In the vision of the valiant angel he saw and understood the Congregation of Missionaries that he had founded. He and the Congregation must be messengers of God, ‘angels’, which is what the term means, should arm themselves with bravery and flexibility.
He has in his hands an open book, the Word that illumines history that it be transformed into the Kingdom of God. The feet of the messenger points to the universal spirit that those who share in the charism of Claret must have, it straddles the sea and the land, the place where he is and the missionary impulse to go to the whole world.
The Sons of the Immaculate Heart of Mary are: missionaries, itinerants, available, in the sense of universal. His word ought to resound with the force of the roar of a lion and the seven thunders. He makes it heard, it doesn’t go unnoticed. It wakes and questions those who hear it. Those who share in the Claretian spirituality are servants of the Word that, like the rain, fertilizes the earth, produces fruit, transforms and revitalizes. Claret nourishes his missionary being by listening to the Word. To understand it is to model yourself on it, to put yourself into the will of God.
How do I read the Word? Can I say that the Lord helps me understand it? In what keys do I interpret the Word? Does it come to make its home in me?