Faithful Servant: Fr. Jean Marie Vincent
Fr. Donald Macdonald, SMM
Faithful Servant
T he Company of Mary was asked to pray particularly for their brothers and their people in Haiti.
Soon afterwards news came that one of their number, Father Mean-Marie Vincent, had been murdered. “He was hit with a burst of gunfire which immediately took his life. Again prayer was asked, “given the climate of fear and tension that will surround the funeral.”
One’s heart goes out to people who have gone through so much. They live in a country with no rule of law. This means that the poorest suffer most. A succession of regimes from Papa Doc Duvalier, whose climate of evil terror was captured by Graham Greene in The Comedians, to the latest military coup, must make it so difficult to preach resurrection to people whose life appears to be one long crucifixion. One feels so helpless. Does God care? Does anyone?
In the three days before Father Jean-Marie’s funeral, I was struck by the Pauline readings at each day’s Mass. They helped, as Scripture should, interpret what was happening in terms of faith. The readings were from I Corinthians 3:1-4:5. Perhaps they can offer some perspective.
DAY 1—1 CORINTHIANS 3:1-9
Given the parties, divisions and personality cults in the Corinthian Church, St. Paul felt he was speaking to ‘babes in Christ.’ One group favored Apollos, another Paul, a third Cephas . . .
This behavior was infantile since Apollos and himself are just “servants through whom you believed . . . I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth . . . For we are God’s fellow workers . . .”.
Consider Father Jean-Marie’s murder in that context, “It is a terrible blow for the Province. His brutal disappearance was an enormous loss for us. He was a man of great good humor, an optimist without equal. He always encouraged the young confreres to go forward, to take responsibility for what was happening in the Province of Haiti . . . His different assignments demonstrate so well his availability for the mission.
In the climate of fear and hopelessness such a man will be missed. Priests are not readily replaced today, especially men like that. Yet, who are Father Jean-Marie and his colleagues, but servants of God graced to encourage the faith among the Haitian people? They plant and water – in Father Jean-Marie’s case with his life – but it is the underlying presence of God who makes things grow. That presence is there still.
As ‘God’s fellow workers’ they are called to the intimacy of a joint enterprise, God is engaged with and in them, In that lies perspective and hope.
Fr. Jean-Marie Vincent, SMM
One’s heart goes out to people who have gone through so much. They live in a country with no rule of law. This means that the poorest suffer most. A succession of regimes . . . must make it so difficult to preach resurrection to people whose life appears to be one long crucifixion. One feels so helpless. Does God care? Does anyone?
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