Christocentrism of Charism – Buggert - CarmelStream

hermits were to live out the universal Christian vocation of "a life of allegiance to Jesus Christ". vi
This Christocentric project is certainly not unique to those original Carmelites or their followers.
Yet it is this project which must inform the precise modality of Christian living spelled out in the
eighteen chapters and even the Epilogue of the Rule. In all aspects of their lives, the hermits are to
"in obsequio Jesu Christi vivere." This obsequium becomes their "supreme and fundamental
norm." vii Thus I fully concur with Valabek's position:
St. Albert immediately seizes on the essential: religious are not in the first place
bound to a well-described, scheduled way of life, but they are bound to a person:
Christ Jesus. In fact, the Rule is pervaded by this presence of the person of Christ
both in word and in sacrament. viii
Whatever else Carmelites may or may not be, they must in the first instance be Christians,
followers of Christ. Walking in the footsteps of Christ becomes, therefore, the underlying
hermeneutic of the Rule and not just an incidental adjunct. As hermeneutic it not only informs the
whole of the Rule; it also provides its interpretive key. Furthermore, precisely as interpretative key,
walking in the footsteps of Christ must function along the lines of a hermeneutic of suspicion, that is
a hermeneutic which stands in judgement of and corrects every past and present interpretation of the
Rule and provides direction for its ongoing rearticulation.
I have claimed that the underlying project and hence hermeneutic of Albert's Rule is
expressed in the Prologue itself, namely, walking in the footsteps of Jesus Christ (in obsequio Jesu
Christi vivere). As underlying hermeneutic, one would expect that this Christocentric project
informs the whole of the Rule. And indeed it does. To appreciate the Christocentricity of the Rule
one must first step back behind the text to its author and ecclesial context.
Prior to Albert's appointment as bishop of Bobbio in 1184, he had been a Canon Regular of
the Holy Cross in Mortara. His formation as a Canon Regular entailed the constant reading of the
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