Recalling the Spirit of Msgr. Louis Rutten.

“Go and sell what you own and give the money to the poor,

and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me” (Mark 10: 21b)

Ludovicus Hubertus Rutten was born in Maastricht, on December 8, 1809, and baptized on the following day. His father had a brewery and was quite well-to-do. He lost his mother on April 16th,1816 when he was only 7 years old, after which he was brought up, along with his seven siblings, by his grand-mother Maria Lousberchs. After having some doubts about his vocation, he finally decided to study in the seminary to become a priest.  He was ordained a priest on March 25, 1837, and then worked for the poor and neglected children in Maastricht. Later on, in November 21,1840 he founded a congregation of religious brothers to be able to continue his ideal, namely to work for the poor.  Brothers FIC are in fact the faithful followers of him.

Reflection

1) Every time I reflect on the life of Mgr. Rutten,  spontaneously  I remember what Jesus said in the Gospel of Mark when a rich young man approached him and asked him this question: “Good master, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”, and Jesus replied: “You know the commandments: you shall not kill, you shall not steal, you shall not commit adultery…etc” And the young man said that he had kept all these commandments since his earliest days. So Jesus said to him: “young man, you need to do one more thing: go and sell what you own and give the money to the poor; and you will have treasure in heaven; then come follow me”  ( Mk 10:21)

In my imagination Louis Rutten was a son of a well-to-do family, however  he did not make use of the wealth of his parents for his personal comfort but rather for the poor and neglected children in Maastricht. He spent a lot of money of his family to finance his projects for the poor. He left the luxurious life of the family to be able  to serve the Kingdom by serving people in need. Since the beginning, even before his ordination,  in fact he had a great desire to work for the church. However due to health problems he finally decided to go back to Maastricht and educate poor children instead of becoming a curate or parish priest. He wanted to have his hands free for the urgent need of the town of Maastricht, namely the forgotten groups. After his ordination and, with the blessing of  Rev. Fr. Van de Ven, the President of the major seminary at Herlaer, he went back to Maastricht and started right away to work for the poor. The obvious need at that moment was the fight against religious indifference among the poorest of the poor. 

2) From  his autobiography I can see clearly that Louis Rutten  was able to recognize the signs of the times.  In Maastricht at that time many children  were neglected by their parents because of growing modern industrialization. Most parents were working day and night, leaving their children unattended. Rutten considered this situation as a call for him to do something good for the well-being of the children. He saw the real need of the children and  took action accordingly. He recognized the call of God in  the real situation of Maastricht. We, his followers, are also challenged to have an open eye, mind, and heart, to be able to recognize the needs of the situation where we live and work, and then to take concrete action accordingly. 

3) Another aspect of Rutten’s life that strikes me very much is his strong faith in divine providence and the protection of Mother Mary.  Whatever steps he took, he relied on the divine assistance. And Rutten really experienced the divine assistance in times of difficulties and uncertainties. He founded our congregation based also on the trust he put in the divine providence and Mary’s protection. He strongly believed that God and Mother Mary never left him alone in his struggle to help the poor and needy. Hence he never gave up or lose hope whenever he encountered difficulties and hindrances. Instead he always had courage to move forward in defending the poor, for he believed that God and Mary were with him. Our Founder is really a man of God. We are proud of him.

4) We can also learn from him the way he worked for the poor. He did not work alone. He established so many contacts and collaboration with other people of good will. For him the most important thing to achieve is not his own pride and honor, but the well being of the poor. When the demands of the education of the poor kept growing, Louis Rutten asked Ursuline nuns to take care of the nursery schools for poor girls.  In working for the poor  Rutten  was not seeking his own glory but God’s.   He claimed himself as just a poor instrument, and  that “all glory and honour is due to God, and that everything good  he could have done is only the work of Providence”. Despite his success in helping the poor, he remained humble. 

5) Finally I am strongly touched by his faithfulness to his commitment. He remained faithful until the end.  From 1870 this energetic priest developed a serious mental break-down, from which he never recovered until his death in 1891. I cannot imagine the suffering and bad feelings he might have had during that period of sickness. Despite all afflictions, he kept on making correspondence with the General Superior who visited him regularly. To me this is very touching. This is an important point to learn from. We have to learn how to be faithful to our commitment, and remain faithful until the end. He died in Tienen on December 16, 1891, and was buried in Maastricht his home town.

Conclusion  

We can learn a lot from the life of our Founder, Mgr. Louis Rutten, among others: his strong faith in Divine Providence, his sensitivity to read the signs of the time, his  strong commitment to work for the poor, his humility to do the work, his availability to work together with others, and his faithfulness to the commitment he made until the end of his life. We certainly are proud of him. We thank him for his exemplary life, and we thank God for giving us a good and committed founder.

Br. Martinus Handoko