Bruno Cadoré

French Dominican friar, Master of the Order of Preachers from 5 September 2010 to 13 July 2019, after having been Prior Provincial of the Dominican Province of France

8 juin 2024

Interview

A time for gratitude

What they say about any jubilee is that you have to forgive the debts. That’s all you have to do. The debts must be forgiven. That may sound like a dilatory response, but it says a lot. If it’s the favorable time of grace, it’s the favorable time of forgiveness, of reparation, of trust restored, of esteem won anew. It’s a time of gratuitousness and gratitude.

In the biblical tradition, Jubilee is the equivalent of shabbat. It’s the moment when we hand over all things to their Creator. It’s a time of grace and joy. It’s important because our institutions, yours and mine, ancient or not, have long -or recently- been threatened by a false sense of self-overestimation. We are always burdened by ourselves. The jubilee is precisely the moment when we say that it’s very beautiful and we give thanks: « It’s Yours anyway, it’s Yours! » This puts our self-esteem in its rightful place. We have the right to esteem ourselves, of course. But the Jubilee is the moment when we can do so in truth, because we are doing it on behalf of God. And suddenly it’s very liberating. We’re not proud of ourselves for what we’ve achieved. The Order has been in existence for eight centuries: it has made a lot of mistakes and done a lot of beautiful things. Not the Order as such, but within the Order, there have been many mistakes.

Because in eight centuries, we have time to be human. And, if we have time to be human, that’s what’s happening. But we also have many reasons to be proud of this Order. But the first reason is that the good Lord wanted it to exist. That’s the first reason. That’s what makes it worthwhile.

A few years ago, we celebrated the 800th anniversary of the Order. It was magnificent! My favorite part of the celebration was that just before the General Chapter, we organised a 15-day journey with 100 young student brothers from all over the world, from Caleruega, where Dominic was born, to Bologna, where he died. During these 15 days, we walked, sailed, took the bus, all with these young people. They were just starting out, entering the Order, receiving it and onto whom we were passing it.

Only God can do that. He’s even the one who makes it possible for us to pass on the tradition we’ve received. We’re often clumsy. But we saw young vocations being born, emerging, loving the Order, discovering it, loving it even before they had discovered it. For some, despite the discoveries they were making. It was magnificent! So for me, the Jubilee is the equivalent of the Shabbat.

■ Interview by C. Nouschi and P. Paté

Cet article fait partie du numéro 078 de la revue FOI

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