Читать книгу He Leads, I Follow - P. Lothar Hardick O.F.M. - Страница 7

Chapter I

The Years of Childhood

Whoever sees the life and works of an individual disseminated before him naturally endeavors to discover the guidelines that gave direction to that life and its accomplishments. He searches for events, words, and deeds that stand out as signs revealing the deeper and inner motives of action. Such signs can knowingly be determined by the respective person himself as clear expressions of his will. But it can also be that subsequent reverential reflections reveal the coming together of events, not by chance, but as an indication of God’s management and providence.

Mother Maria Theresia Bonzel’s day of birth can be considered such a sign. She herself never considered it mere chance that she was born in 1830 on September 17, the day on which the church celebrates the Stigmata of St. Francis. Although she often mentioned in jest that she had crawled “from the wounds of St. Francis,” this jest nevertheless expressed her joy that her first day of life bore the sign of St. Francis. Many an occurrence, many a severe struggle, and many a bitter sorrow in her life can be understood, in fact, only if one knows of her desire to attain the Franciscan ideal in its fullness. It is as one of her spiritual daughters said of the Mother foundress: “Her deep love of St. Francis motivated her to follow in the footsteps of the great Franciscan founder.” Thus the very first day of her existence illumined her whole life and work.

She was born in Olpe, a small town in southern Sauerland, Germany. In baptism she received the name of Regina Christine Wilhelmine. Her first or Christian name was Wilhelmine, abbreviated to “Aline.” Up to the time of her religious investiture she signed her name as “Aline.” This she also did in all her official correspondence. The fact that her name sometimes appeared as “Adelina” shows that her Christian name Wilhelmine was scarcely or never used.

Aline’s father was Frederick Edmund Bonzel, a merchant, and one of the wealthiest citizens of Olpe. Her mother was Maria Anna, surnamed Liese. The families of both the father and the mother were of long-resident stock. Documentary evidence shows the Bonzel family was established in Olpe in 1625. Even at that time a family possessed great wealth. The Liese family settled in Olpe in mid-sixteenth century according to authentic records. After Aline a second daughter, Emilie, was born to the family. She later married Dr. Lorenz Kaufmann of Olpe.

Not only because of their wealth were the Bonzels highly respected in Olpe. Their excellent reputation was due in large measure to Aline’s paternal grandfather, Franz Joseph Bonzel. That he was commander of the militia and also town councilor shows the great confidence the citizens placed in him. Only a man of great integrity, with ample evidence that his power would be used for the welfare of the people, could have been chosen for such offices. Born in 1783, during his later years he experienced turbulent times caused by the French domination and the Wars of Liberation. He had many good opportunities for using his great influence for the good of his fatherland and the benefit of the citizens. Possessing an energetic spirit of enterprise, he founded a new rolling mill at the beginning of the industrialization of the Sauerland. From this industry came the great wealth of the Bonzel family. From the first marriage of the grandfather to Maria Wilhelmine Gummerbach three sons were born, Arnold, Xavier (who died in childhood), and Edmund, Aline’s father, who was born in 1808. In his second marriage to Maria Josepha Liese, he was further blessed with four sons and five daughters.

To characterize adequately the family into which Aline was born, one must give consideration to Arnold, her paternal uncle. It is important that a family leave economic status and security to the oncoming generation, but of greater importance is its spiritual legacy. A righteous family pride centered in Arnold because of his great spirituality, for the Bonzel family considered it a matter of honor to remain true to the ideals of its forefathers. Although Arnold did not enter a religious order, he worked in his surroundings as a religious in secular garb. Nearly all of his chief traits of character are found again in essence in his niece Aline.

Uncle Arnold was in very good financial circumstances, but he was not concerned in keeping a close watch over his possessions. The word of God, “Give to the poor” (Mt 19:21), he fulfilled with great liberality. Since he remained unmarried, he was under no obligation to lay money aside. He did not exercise his generosity as many another man of wealth, who holds himself at a distance and supports charitable projects of others with money. Arnold assisted personally in cases of emergency. It happened at one time as he was making a pilgrimage, he met two unhappy and weeping children abandoned by their parents. He took them with him, provided for their keeping, and cared for their future. Whether or not this happened on the pilgrimage to Werl is not known. Uncle Arnold made the pilgrimage to Werl fifty times; still he did not disregard the smaller shrines in his vicinity.

An outstanding trait of his piety was his extraordinary love and veneration for the Holy Eucharist. To accompany the Blessed Sacrament in solemn procession only on the feast of Corpus Christi was not enough for him. Every Thursday evening for the entire year he prayerfully retraced the Corpus Christi procession route. It was his method of keeping the Thursday Holy Hour. A simple, homelike, and devout piety has its own norm which is not easily influenced by a general although legitimate norm, and above all, not by a rigid one. The Eucharistic piety of Arnold had special consideration for the house of God. Whatever was needed for decoration or otherwise he supplied from his own means. It is no wonder that the sacristan maintained a good friendship with such a generous helper. The Poor Souls held a special place in his heart. Even in the last days of his life, he collected money in their behalf for Mass stipends. Up to his last day, bowed with age, he took his customary walks, in his right hand a supporting cane, in his left hand a rosary. He was no longer interested in events occurring about him. He no longer cared. He prayed.

To withhold nothing from the poor and the ornamentation of the church, he saved on his own clothing. Often and justly so, his relatives severely reproached him and tried to persuade him to buy new clothes for himself. Serene as he otherwise was, he became quite angry with them for their prodigality in the use of money. That it was not stinginess of age, but his personal unpretentiousness is proved by his otherwise exceptionally great meekness. Although not formulated in the following manner, he lived according to the principle: One should give with warm hands what otherwise would fall from cold hands. When he died in 1879, his entire wealth had been expended for the poor. In his death he was serene and resigned. His last words were: “Praised be Jesus Christ forever and ever. Amen.” His eyes then closed in death.

Since Aline’s father died in 1837 before he was thirty years of age, her eyes turned toward her Uncle Arnold in a special way. In the fullest sense, he was the only surviving brother of her father; the others were only half-brothers. Perhaps the daughter sought in this uncle the image of her deceased father. It is singular that the chief characteristics of the uncle found expression in her life also; love of the poor and orphans, deep veneration for the Holy Eucharist, a personal unpretentious modesty, and a firmness to follow with implicit fidelity a way of life considered as right without permitting any interference from others.

Since she lost her father at the age of seven, her memories of him were not especially clear. The mother who pursued the development of her eldest daughter, wielded the greater influence in her life. Mother Maria Theresia writing the following letter to one of her sisters seems to have been reminded of the death of her own father:

I have received your letters telling us of the death of your good father. You have the Sisters’ and my deepest sympathy. We shall pray with you, dear Sister Viridiana, that our dear Lord may grant eternal rest to his beloved soul soon. Offer the next six weeks for your dear father. Since you can no longer meet him in life, may his blessings rest upon you from above. The loss of parents is always a great sacrifice and tears flow justly. Still through our total surrender to God we have detached our hearts and thus — as brides of Christ — we can through prayer be of greater assistance to our loved ones. (III 22)

In these lines definite reference is made to detachment of heart and total surrender to God. The meaning here is entirely different from that of a cold turning away from our relatives. In certain religious communities there are directives of piety which understand surrender to God as a radical thrusting aside of parents, brothers, and sisters. The foundress of the Olpe Franciscans was never in harmony with this idea. Her Sisters should attend their own parents in serious illness and endeavor to be with them at the hour of death. She considered that God himself implanted the love of parents in the hearts of children. The grief of a child over the loss of a father was sacred to her. But she also realized that a religious in this grief, when everything reminded her of the love and warmth of her own parental home, must remain true to her total surrender to God. For her, grief at the death of parents may not become an occasion for a flight back into the past. In a situation of this nature, the dedicated bride of Christ can, through faithful perseverance on the way of love, obtain ever greater graces for her dear ones.

Such beautiful adjustment God grants to a Sister who shows such love for her parents. Certainly there exists — exteriorly — a separation, as also the married daughter must go her own way in the new unity of marriage. But the religious should not only preserve the love of parents but should know that God wishes to bless her parents in a special way through her religious vocation. Mother Maria Theresia in making it possible for her Sisters to show their love and gratitude to their parents by actually assisting them in their last illness and in death, gave clear evidence of how truly human her guidance of the Sisters was and what she herself felt toward her own parents.

In touching warmth this rings out from the letter she wrote to Sister Eustella in 1902:

The news of the bitter sufferings of your dear mother has saddened me deeply. Let me trust in God, dear Sister Eustella, and beg him fervently to alleviate her pain and grant her great patience to persevere in resignation. The consolation of having you, dear child, at her bed of suffering to care for her, I gladly permit the dear sick one and you also, that you may lighten her suffering as much as possible and support her in her last hour. We shall pray with you, dear Sister Eustella, and also for you. I am certain that your comforting and assisting love will be a source of many blessings for your loved ones. Sister Casilda will gladly take care of your little ones. Fulfill your filial duties loyally and lovingly to your good sick mother. Please assure her and also your good father of our prayers and many greetings. We are with you in sympathy and in prayer. If you are able, keep us informed. I greet you in the love of Jesus and Mary. (III 52)

Does not the sympathy with the sorrows of the sisters resound as an echo of the wholehearted love and fidelity that she as a child offered her own parents? Unfortunately, we have but few instances of Aline’s childhood in her parental home. The way she saw the sisters’ relations to their parents reveals much of the atmosphere in the Bonzel home.

The family home was in the immediate vicinity of the parish church. Aline grew up under the influence and in the shadow of the House of God. Did the nearness to the church leave its impress on the lives of the children? The mother took the children to church with her at an early age. At one time during the so-called “Perpetual Prayer,” she took Aline with her into the festively flowing church. Most likely at home and again at the church door came the motherly warning that in church one must be good and quiet. But as the little one saw the numerous brilliantly lighted candles on the altar, silence was flung to the winds. Joyously her spirited child voice rang out clear and loud with the silent church, “Oh, how many lights!” Immediately her jubilant outcry was smothered by the mother: “Here you may not talk; you must be very quiet; God is there upon the altar.” One wonders what went on in the mind of the child that often prayed with its mother to God and now was told distinctly: “There before us on the altar is God.”

Aline said of herself later that she joyfully joined all childish pranks. Was it the Bigge River flowing past the motherhouse, constructed in after years, that kept her memory alive as to her youthful frolic in skating? Many girls are able to recall a period of life in which they loved to imitate boys, yet, better even excel them. This was also true in regard to Aline; in retrospect she considered herself a vivacious girl. Olpe offers children many possibilities for play and adventures. There are the hills of the Sauerland with their extensive woods to allure youth; the Bigge and the smaller streams to offer them the whole romance of running waters. Winter with its ice and snow gives children the liberty to romp about joyously in the invigorating air. All this one can project into the childhood and youth of Aline. Unfortunately but few incidents of this period of her life are available. The smaller and the greater joys, the smaller disappointments and the real sorrows of the child have not been recorded as research into the life of Mother Theresia revealed. Today, unfortunately, the possibilities of obtaining particulars of Aline’s childhood are irretrievably lost.

The exact year of Aline’s First Holy Communion cannot be ascertained. Most likely it followed the universal custom of the time, namely, at the completion of the elementary school. She was then fourteen years of age. It was only through the endeavors of Pius X that children were permitted to approach the Table of the Lord at an earlier age. It was not impossible that, in exceptional instances, children were permitted to receive Holy Communion earlier. If such an exception had been Aline’s, she would certainly have registered her joy, since she preserved an animated and exact account of the day of her First Holy Communion.

To judge correctly what she later told a Sister, one must take Aline’s age into consideration:

On the day of my first Holy Communion I was unspeakably happy. Before that I was a vivacious child, ready to take part in every prank. But after I received the Lord into my heart and returned to my place in the church an indescribable feeling came over me. In the joy I experienced, but one thought filled my whole being. As Jesus had given himself entirely to me, I must give myself entirely to him. Without really knowing what I was saying I repeated over and over again, ‘O Lord, I am your victim, accept me as your victim; do not reject me.’ This prayer silenced every other thought and raised me to a state of indescribable blessedness.

Nearly all whom God calls in a special way know very precisely at what time God’s will was first consciously experienced by them. Was this the hour in Aline’s life that opened to her the path of her life? That she later remembered so exactly her prayer at that time makes one surmise it was. She spoke of the experience of that hour: “One thought filled my whole being, as Jesus had given himself entirely to me, I must give myself entirely to him.” This in a noticeable way reminds us of the words of St. Francis of Assisi: “Keep nothing of yourself for yourself that he may accept you completely who gave himself to you completely.” Whoever comprehends God’s great gift of himself, must in answer give him a mutual love of surrender. Thus the youthful heart answers in readiness: “O Lord, I am your victim; accept me completely as your victim; do not reject me.”

Eucharistic piety at that time was characterized chiefly by adoration of our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. Only on special occasions were the faithful granted the great grace of union with our Lord in Holy Communion. In the piety of all, Communion was considered as the “coming of the soul’s sweet Guest to dwell in the human heart.” Undoubtedly, one believed the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass was the sacrifice of Christ and also our sacrifice. Faith also recognized Holy Communion as the banquet of the soul. But to the individual these thoughts remained ineffective. Thus it is rather surprising that Aline, also a product of the times, in reference to the grace of the Eucharist should understand and speak out so clearly of the idea of sacrifice. Is this not evident: He who gives himself completely to God, to him God grants the fullness of his mysteries?