|
WORD FOR MISSION Every week EUNTES.NET
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
|
|
Missionares of Life  V
Sunday in Lent Ezechiel
37:12-14
In the three Sundays there are many references to the Sacrament of Baptism, both in the biblical Readings and in other liturgical texts (antiphons, prayers, Preface...). In the young missionary Churches and elsewhere the night of Easter takes on a special solemnity that suits the conferring of the Sacraments of Christian Initiation on numerous catechumens, both adults and children. They are celebrations that fill the heart and the lives of missionaries, of the pastors of local Churches and of whole Catholic communities.
The Raising of Lazarus comes half-way through the Gospel of John (Chapter 11), and in many ways it is the central theme: it can be taken as the most outstanding manifestation of Jesus as “true God and true man”. - He is true man, moved by powerful emotions: he is a friend of Lazarus and his sisters in Bethany, he becomes deeply upset, bursts into tears, prays hard to the Father, calls out in a loud voice... Through his tears, Jesus gives us a right to cry too in similar circumstances. - And He is true God: this is shown through his love and power in giving life back to his dead friend, so that the people may believe that he is sent by the Father (v.42). Thus, the tremendous miracle highlights three values that go together: love, faith and life. Because “Life is life only where there is love” (Ghandi).
In his divine-human reality, Jesus carries out his mission as closeness, making himself a neighbour, like the Samaritan (cf. Lk.10:34) to those who suffer, bringing solutions to their probems. But it is necessary to go towards the Saviour as he approaches, as the sisters Martha and Mary did, with an open heart. Salvation comes only from this type of encounter. Because only “With the Lord there is mercy, and with him plentiful redemption” (Responsorial Psalm). Even so, there are opposing reactions: On the one side, the trusting pleas of the sisters, which obtain the amazing miracle of the return to life of Lazarus, so that many Jews believed in Jesus (v.45); and on the other, despite the evidence, there are the enemies of Jesus who withdraw into their hatred and decide to kill him (Jn.11:46-53) and Lazarus as well. “We are not on earth to keep a museum, but to to cultivate a garden full of flowers and life” (Bl. John XXIII). The first, and permanent divine project is life: “The glory of God is the living man” that is, that man should live (St. Irenaeus). Jesus came to give us life, and in abundance; not a poor, fragile, mediocre, undeveloped existence... (cf. Jn.10:10). A life for the present and for the future” In a world tormented by deaths that are unjust, premature, innocent, every believer – and even more, every missionary - is called to make a clear, definitive choice for life: a life to welcome, defend, promote, proclaim; of which to discover the tiny elements, to protect its small traces and bring it to fulness... The defence and support of life are front-line topics of the recent teaching of Popes (*) as can be seen also in the appeal of Benedict XVI to those who carry out works of charity. (**) Water, light, life... are gifts to have and, above all, to share with others.. We are all called to be Missionaries of Life!
John Paul II Address to the Diplomatic Corps, 10.01.2005
(**) “Those who work in various charitable activities must also, and above all, be witnesses to evangelical love. They will be so if their mission is not limited to being workers in social services, but in the proclamation of the Gospel of Love. In the footsteps of Christ, they are called to be witnesses to the values of life, in all its forms, defending especially the lives of the weak and the sick, following the example of Blessed Mother Theresa of Calcutta, who loved and cared for the dying, because life is not measured by its efficiency, but always had a value, and for everyone!” Benedict XVI Paraphrased from an Address to the Plenary Assembly of the Pontifical Council Cor Unum, 29.02.2008
- 9/3: St. Dominic Savio, who died aged 14 in 1857. He was educated by St. John Bosco. - 10/3: Bl. Elias Nieves del Castillo, a Mexican Augustinian priest, martyred at Cortázar (Mexico, 1928) with several companions, during the persecution. - 12/3: St. Louis Orione (1872-1940), a Piedmontese priest, Founder of the Little Work of Divine Providence and some Congregations of nuns to assist those most in need. - 15/3: St. Joseph (anticipated Feast), husband of Mary, seen as father of Jesus, and Patron of the Universal Church. - 15/3: St. Louise de Marillac (1591-1660), a widow who founded, with St. Vincent de Paul, the Daughters of Charity. - 15/3: Bl. Artemide Zatti (1880-1951), A Salesian medical missionary in Patagonia (Argentina). - 15/3: Birthday of St. Daniel Comboni (1831-1881): he was born in Limone sul Garda (Brescia) and died in Khartoum (Sudan). He was the first Vicar Apostolic of Central Africa.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Translated by Fr. J.M. Troy, mccj Website:
www.euntes.net “The Word
for Mission”
|
