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I was glad when they said to me... Preparing ARC for Pilgrimage
Paul Molinari, SJ | Mary Elaine Tarpy, SND DE N

To write about the late Reverend Cornelis Rijk's rich contribution to and positive influence on ARC, we find it necessary first of all to give a bit of background about the Program itself.

ARC is a Program designed for religious women through which each is enabled to come to a deeper understanding and appreciation of the nature of consecrated life for mission in an apostolic community. It was offered for the first time in Rome between October 1970 and June 1971. Every year since then a different group of thirty-six Sisters has come together for the Program.

In a climate which encourages prayer and reflection, ARC offers high level input in scripture and theology. In this atmosphere the Sisters through intense personal involvement in the things of the Spirit strive to become more keenly sensitive to the demands of God and the needs of man. Very important factors in this process are the experience of living in an international/intercongregational community in the center of Christianity, as well as making two pilgrimages — to Assisi in the fall and to the Holy Land in the spring. The latter has been placed at a time when the process of entering into God's ways in view of mission has reached a deeper intensity.

Preparation for Pilgrimage

It was in view of the preparation for the pilgrimage to the Holy Land, which plays such an important part for growth in Christ on the part of the participants, that we asked Cornelis to collaborate with us, and he did it so well. During the seven academic years between October 1972 and June 1978, he lectured on "Themes Related to the Pilgrimage to the Holy Land" to the various ARC groups. The series was developed every year by progression through these topics in order: Pilgrimage, Desert, Covenant, Jerusalem, Galilee, Passover and The Political and Religious Situation of Israel Today. In addition to the lectures, he offered once a Program to anyone interested the opportunity of climbing prayerfully with him on a Sunday, Mount Gennaro, a peak not too far east of Rome.

To assess fully the impact of Cornelis' presence and contribution to the participants of ARC over the years it would be necessary to cite the many responses received to the communication telling of his last critical days and death which was sent to over three hundred Sisters. As this is not possible, we have selected two, to which we add our own vivid moving recollection of our last meeting with him as well as a concluding reflection.

Sister Patricia Atkins, Sister of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary, ARC VII (1976-77), now living in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, wrote on October 2, 1979: "Thank you for your letter telling about Cornelis. Just two days before receiving it I had taken out a copy of an office I had prepared using as 'resource' notes I had taken from Cornelis' talk on the theme of pilgrimage. I thought you might appreciate a copy." The following remarks are verbatim extracts from his lecture of November 4, 1976.

To go on a pilgrimage is to go to places where a special religious event took place. A pilgrimage is a sacramental reality which gives grace. These places do something to you. They become a kind of meeting place with God.

There are in the Bible many people who have had very deep experiences of God (e.g. Abraham, Jacob, Elijah), and many places are marked by this experience of God. It became a custom to visit these places. Jews had to go up to Jerusalem three times a year — or at least once a lifetime. We Christians have joined that tradition of pilgrimage.

What do we do when we go to these places? We remember — Zikkaron. The Lord remembers His covenant and man remembers to be faithful to the covenant. We remember the event that has happened . . . and at the same time, re-enact the event so that it becomes a reality today. It becomes in a way, an experience of God (i.e. one renews one's faith).

Pilgrimage means to be en route . . . not to be settled. The apostles, Abraham and Moses had to go. They began an enormous adventure with God... Where are we going? We don't know.

I Have Gone Through the Desert

To be en route . . . to go . . . to begin an enormous adventure with God. These often mean to go through a desert, and this fact re-echoes for the two of us the first words Cornelis used when he spoke with us in Apeldoorn, Holland, where he was convalescing after surgery. We had gone there on April 12, 1979, to pay him a visit and show him our grateful affection. "I used to speak about desert. I have gone through the desert, but it was good. One really meets God there."

At the end of his final class of the ARC VIII Program, June 1, 1978, (which indeed was his last class at ARC), Sister Helen O'Connell, Daughter of Charity, ARC VIII (1977-78), now on mission in Port Harcourt, Nigeria, West Africa, had been asked just before entering the lecture hall to express appreciation on the part of the group. As she said in her letter of October 18, 1979, she could only speak from her heart.

Father Cornelis . . . Now we are at new crossroads, and again we are folding our tents and going on our pilgrim ways. As we go and journey back to our homelands we are carrying with us memories that are rich and ever growing — en route those memories will be a re-remembering and a sharing with others on our way. We carry deep gratitude in our hearts for your graciousness and dedication in imparting to us your own richness of insight into the Bible you so deeply love.

You have beautifully shared with us your own memory and remembering of your own family story, through the recent event of your mother's departure to God. Our prayer is, that she may be with you on your own pilgrimage, as you carry out your important work of building up and bonding the family of God.

Biblical Spirituality

In concluding we would like to add our own personal reflections of Cornelis. Throughout the years and circumstances of his life, it seemed to us that the Lord revealed to Cornelis in an ever-unfolding mannet intimate knowledge of Himself, the Father's infinite love, and the Holy Spirit's work of unification. What we and others benefited from contact with him was a privileged glimpse into the life of one whose relationship with God emanated from the Scriptures and, therefore, from the whole of the creation/redemption mystery. Now that he enjoys "unveiled", we believe, the face of him whom he loved, whom he pursued through study and whom he communicated so well in his ministry, we hope that we too may "grasp the breadth and the length, the height and the depth of the love of Christ which is beyond all knowledge and be filled with the utter fulness of God." (Eph. 3:19)