Thoughts on MJ Customs —Why Keep Them?

By Scott Ferrier, MJ • Phoenix, AZ

Aristotle in his Nichomachean Ethics warns that a society cannot survive, nor the moral life be sustained, if everyone becomes a law unto himself. Happiness, according to Aristotle, was called eudaimonia—life lived according to virtue. This life cannot be lived in solitude but among friends who share a common life in the growth of virtue. “Each wishes the good of the friend for the sake of the friend”. This was the answer of Aristotle to the barbarians “who live as they please.” Today, those who have eyes may see that the barbarians have entered the gates and even communities have been influenced. Our “domi”, or houses, should be “schools of virtue” and “schools of fraternal charity” based on our communion and friendship with the Triune God, the divine source of our concern for each one of our brothers and sisters.

The document of the Congregation of Institutes of Consecrated Life, Fraternal Life in Community, has stated that “a one-sided and exaggerated stress on freedom has contributed to the spread of a culture of individualism throughout the West, thus weakening the ideal of life in common.” (4b.) The social impact of the Internet, television, consumerism, and hedonism upon each of us, upon our personal habits, creates barriers which can weaken and destroy the unity in our Institute that God is calling us to. He calls us as consecrated persons to be set apart from the excesses of secularism—“a living sign of the primacy of the love of God who works wonders, and of the love for God and for one’s brothers and sisters, as manifested and practiced by Jesus Christ” (Fraternal Life in Community, 1).

So in addition to our Constitutions, daily schedule, and formation program, the regular practice of our customs unites us and ‘incarnates’ us in communion with one another and is a distinctive expression of the charism received from our founders. Customs have a spiritual dimension and are a constant reminder and sign that we no longer live for ourselves but for the things of God. They regulate, enhance, and give order to daily life, promoting the life of grace in the Holy Spirit. Customs oppose our fallen nature, which will always reign in the absence of virtue.