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WORD FOR MISSION Every week CIAM offers
to lay, religious people and priests an itinerary of reflections on the
Sunday Liturgy in a missionary prespective. These are elements for a
missionary meditation, individual or in community, on the Word of God ,
which constantly and surprisingly continues to enlighten, strengthen
and sustain the missionary journey of the Church, for the life of the
World
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For a Lent of Sharing
I Sunday
of Lent Deuteronomy
26:4-10 Reflections “In the desert of the world”, nourished with the Word and fortified by the Spirit, we have set out once more to celebrate the period of Lent, the “sacramental sign of our conversion” in order to overcome the constant seductions of the evil one through the invincible weapons of fasting, prayer and almsgiving. Lent lays out before us once again, and with power, the fundamental themes of Salvation, and therefore of Mission: the primacy of God and His loving plan for humankind, the Redemption that is offered to us freely through the sacrifice of Christ, the constant struggle against sin, the relationship of brotherhood and respect we have to sustain with our fellows and with all creation... These are topics and values that belong to the desert-period of Lent, understood as a theological locus of conversion and salvation. Indeed, “in the desert a man understands his own worth and the worth of his gods” (A. de Saint-Exupéry), that is, his ideals and his interior resources. The Temptations (Gospel) were not 'let's pretend' for Jesus; they were real tests, as they are for each believer and the Church. "If Christ had not experienced the temptations as real temptations, if temptation had no meaning for him, the man and the Messiah, his reactions could not be an example for us” (C. Duquoc). It is precisely because he was tested that he is an example for us, and is able to come to the aid of anyone in time of trial (cfr. Heb. 2:18; 4:15). Jesus really clashed with Satan over the options for possible methods and procedures in carrying out His mission as Messiah. The three temptations are a meaningful synthesis of a long period of struggle against evil, sustained by Jesus during the 40 days in the desert, and throughout his whole life, including the Cross, when the devil returned (v.13). The temptations represent different 'models' of the Messiah - so also of us and of mission too! For Jesus the temptations were “three shortcuts to avoid going through the Cross” (Fulton Sheen). They overturned relationships with material things, with other persons and with God himself. They were temptations to become (a) a social reformer: turning stones into bread for himself and for others would have guaranteed public success and acclaim; (b) “a messiah of power”: a power based on dominion over people and over the world would have satisfied both personal and collective pride; (c) a “messiah of miracles”: such a spectacular gesture would have made him famous. Jesus overcomes the temptations and opts to respect the primacy of God; he trusts in his Father and His plan for the salvation of the world. He refuses to twist material things to make a profit (in more ways than one!) by changing stones into bread; he refuses to dominate other people, opting to continue to serve them; he adheres to his son-Father relationship with God, trusting in His faithfulness. He accepts the Cross out of love, and pardons as he dies: this is the only way to break the spiral of violence and to take from death its 'sting”: death is overcome by Life. Jesus faces and overcomes the temptations in the power of the Holy Spirit, that fills him (v.1). It is the Spirit of his Baptism (Lk.3:22), of Easter and Pentecost. It is also the Spirit of Mission. At various times it was thought that power, money, dominance, a feeling of superiority, hyper-activism .... were paths to follow in the Apostolate. The missionary is often tempted by such illusions, and so needs the Spirit of Jesus, the main power behind evangelisation (EN 75), the first agent of mission (RMi 21). The Spirit makes us understand that the desert of Lent is a time of grace (kairós): the time of essential things, the time to fill with things of real value, the gift of living in silence, far from the pollution of noise, haste, futility... And a time for missionary sharing! (*) Lent
is a time of salvation, centred on faith in Christ who died and
rose
again (2nd Reading): He is the Lord of all peoples, who
offers
Salvation abundantly to all those who call upon His name, without any
distinction (v.12-13). This primacy of God, who is at the beginning of
Creation
and is good to all, is seen in the offering of the first-fruits (1st.
Reading). It is a rite found in other cultures too, even those
remote from
the world of the Bible; it is a gesture of submission and propitiation.
But it
is also a form of sharing with those in need, as
indicated in the
verses that come after today's reading: the offering of first fruits is
destined for the foreigner, the Levite, the orphan and the widow, “so
that, in
your towns, they may eat to their heart's content” (v.10-12). There is
a
precious sign here of spiritual and missionary progression: those who
approach
God and live in tune with Him discover “others”, both far and near. And
learn solidarity
and generosity! The Pope's words (*) “Let us live Lent, as a ‘Eucharistic’ time in which, welcoming the love of Jesus, we learn to spread it around us with every word and deed. Contemplating ‘Him whom they have pierced’ (cfr Jn 19,37) moves us in this way to open our hearts to others, recognising the wounds inflicted upon the dignity of the human person; it moves us, in particular, to fight every form of contempt for life and human exploitation and to alleviate the tragedies of loneliness and abandonment of so many people. May Lent be for every Christian a renewed experience of God’s love given to us in Christ, a love that each day we, in turn, must ‘re-give’ to our neighbour, especially to the one who suffers most and is in need. Only in this way will we be able to participate fully in the joy of Easter”. Benedict
XVI
In the footsteps of Missionaries -
25/2: St. Walburga (710ca.-779), English in origin, and sister of two
other
saints: Willibald and Winebald. She was part of a group of monks and
nuns who
helped St. Boniface in the evangelisation of Germany. She was Abbess of
two
monasteries at Heidenheim.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Compiled by Fr. Romeo Ballan, mcci - former Director of CIAM, Rome Translated by Fr. J.M. Troy, mccj Website: www.ciam.org “The Word for Mission” ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ |
