THE MESSAGE OF THE RECTOR MAJOR
Fr. Angel Fernandez
Artime, SDB
THERE’S MUCH MORE “THIRST
FOR GOD”
THAN WE THINK
Today,
there is a great need to listen, to dialog freely and candidly, to have
personal encounters which are free of judgment and condemnation, as well as a
great need for silence and presence in
God.
Dear
friends of Don Bosco and readers of Salesian
media,
In harmony and communion with Don Bosco himself, I’m writing both to those who already feel at home with his charism and also to those who want to get to know St. John Bosco and learn more about what’s done in Jesus’ name, in the style of this great “Father and Teacher of Youth.”
By
Divine Providence, it happens that just an hour ago I attended the funeral of
Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI. One year after beginning his service as Pontiff, he
wrote the magnificent encyclical Deus
Caritas Est. In it, there’s this statement that seems to me to be the very essence
of the magnificent fragrance of Christian thought: “Being Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a
lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new
horizon and a decisive direction.”[1]
Certainly, that Person is Jesus Christ.
Benedict
XVI elaborates further on this thought, with other statements like these[2]:
·
Jesus Christ is the
Personified Truth who attracts the world to himself.
·
The light that shines
out from Jesus is the splendor of the truth. Every other truth is a fragment of
the Truth that he is, and refers to him.
·
Jesus is the Pole
Star of human freedom: without him freedom loses its sense of direction, for
without the knowledge of the truth, freedom degenerates, becomes isolated, and
is reduced to sterile arbitration.
·
With him, freedom is
rediscovered, it’s recognized to have been created for our good and is
expressed in charitable actions and behavior.
·
Therefore, Jesus
gives men and women total familiarity with the truth and continuously invites
them to live in it.
·
And nothing succeeds
as well as love for the truth in impelling the human mind toward unexplored
horizons.
·
Jesus Christ, who is
the fullness of the truth, draws to himself the heart of each person, enlarges
it, and fills it with joy.
In
a few solid, profound sentences, there is an entire Christian teaching that’s far
from being “moralism,” i.e., cold and rigid rules devoid of life. Christian
life is above all a true encounter with
God.
That
is why I stated in the title of this essay that, in my opinion, a deeply-held
conviction, there is much more “thirst for God” than we imagine or seems to
exist. Certainly, I don’t intend to alter the statistics found in sociological
studies or create a fictitious scenario. I do, however, want to make it clear that
in the face-to-face encounter with the real life of so many people – fathers, mothers,
families, adolescents, and young adults – what one very often finds is a life
that isn’t easy and must be tended to daily. Human relationships in which love is both desired
and necessary must be cultivated in every little gesture, every little detail, and
every action. Face to face like that, there’s a great need to listen, to dialog
freely and candidly, to have personal encounters free of judgment and
condemnation, as well as a great need for silence
and presence in God.
I
say this with great conviction. Right here in Valdocco, where I am now, I’m
surprised and filled with joy when a group of young people takes the initiative
to invite others for an hour of presence, silence, and prayer before Jesus in the
Blessed Sacrament, i.e., for an hour of Eucharistic adoration, and a hundred – so
many of them young – respond to the appointment. At Sacro Cuore in Rome, we’d
meet on Thursday nights, and young people, young marrieds – some with their
babies – and other couples would also be present because they felt that their
lives needed this encounter with a Person who gives meaning to our lives.
What
I’ve cited here in one or two examples, I’ve experienced in very many places
and countries. For this reason, I’m inviting us in this essay to do exactly
what Don Bosco would do. He didn’t hesitate for a moment to offer his boys the
experience of encountering Jesus. That God who is Presence, who is God-with-us,
as we just celebrated at Christmas, remains the same One who calls, who
invites, who gives peace in each personal encounter, in each moment of rest in him.
It’s still Jesus who wants to meet all of us, and many others, today. Could we be
ashamed and afraid to walk this path? Is it perhaps the case that many of us don’t
dare to invite others to experience what we live and what has been so freely given
to us and offered to us? Isn’t it the case that since people say this isn’t fashionable,
or is old-fashioned and obsolete, that we believe these negative messages and
lack the courage to give witness that some of us, or perhaps many of us,
continue to enjoy each personal encounter with him who is the Lord of Life?
Pope
Emeritus Benedict, who has left us, was convinced that his life and his faith
were precisely for the grand purpose of encountering his Lord. This is how Pope
Francis said farewell to him, with these final words of his homily: “Benedict,
faithful friend of the Bridegroom, may your joy be complete as you hear his voice,
now and forever!”
Friends,
let’s continue promoting these encounters with him who is Life, who gives us profound
life – since there is more “thirst for God” than what’s spoken of, than what people
would have us believe.
No comments:
Post a Comment