St Dominic

St Dominic sensed a world and a church that was darkened by error. The error was about God, about humanity, and about salvation. This error was not only affecting faith, it was destroying the very sacramental possibility of our humanity by condemning our human flesh. When we proudly say that the preaching of St Dominic brought light to the world and to the church, it is significant to follow how he preached if we are to be the bearers of the same light of Christ.

True faith, for Dominic, was not an intellectual correctness. To understand the true ‘faith’ he preached it is good to see clearly the choices he made for his journey as a preacher. The Cathars could convince more on the struggling soul trapped in the prison of the body. Claiming to be the children of light and knowledge, the albigensians took advantage of the suffering of the time and canonized the misery of people. This ‘nice’ faith further dumped their faithful in severe austerity. They were hungry for bread, they were sick, over that they suffered the burden of being exploited.

Dominic was compassionate. He was kind and charitable. His zeal for preaching need to be placed within his compassionate heart. The true face of Truth can be seen only through compassion and charity. Justice, the other side of truth, also can be seen and brought to reality only in compassion and charity. Emphasis on our doctrinal preaching must rediscover our roots in the compassion of St Dominic. Light to the church must blind our closed eyes and open our hearts with true sense of justice. Without sincere longing for truth, the church has no authority to teach.

Dominic was a man of contemplation. Did he long for a spiritual awakening in contemplating the mysteries of God? His contemplation on the crucifix showed him the meaning of humanity even in the midst of suffering. He studied the scriptures to deepen what he learned from the crucifix. This engagement in contemplative study enabled him to touch the hearts of the people. The sermons he preached became the focus of meditative prayer for them to embrace gracefully the fact of our body. Those meditations would gradually become the prayer of the Holy Rosary.

The light he showed was of salvation and the mystery of christ. He could not see the children of God, embraced by his love being crushed under the condemnation of a lie. If Christ loved them in his humanity, that salvation must be visibly experienced in their life, in their body and in their society. Dominic preached salvation, and offered hope, not condemnation. The misery and sin pained him, but he was the ‘preacher of grace.’

It is very significant today to remember that Dominic chose the path of persuasion and discussion, not sword, though he was put in charge of a group of crusaders. It is wrong to ascribe to rosary the success over the heretics by bloody massacres done by the crusaders. The effectiveness of the rosary has been the depth the faithful began experiencing through its meditative prayers.

Dominican freedom has let us follow the spirit of Dominic to this day. It is easy and attractive to reach condemnation, but it is challenging to be a preacher of grace, and difficult to convince about the gospel of peace. Our popular preachings have done such a great harm as to the effect that many believe that condemnation is the nature of God. A condemned conscience look for reparations by torturing one’s body. A spirituality that justifies this condemnation and self inflicted misery will be exalted as being closer to God denying the world. One way or the other albigensianism is in our blood. Those heretics chose extreme poverty also to shame the luxury of the priests and bishops. The errors about God, salvation and humanity did not matter to them. The injuries the people suffered in hunger did not matter to them. So a poor life was essential for the new preaching groups of Francis and Dominic. They took upon severe austerity not with condemnation, but as a living compassion and with a sense of justice.

The light Dominic showed to the world was the light that was shining in Christ, the light of grace that flourishes in humanity. Dominic was a preacher of grace, not of condemnation. He preached the gospel of peace and chose the language of dialogue, not sword. We pray through his intercession, that following his example we may be united with the blessed.