Joy, Mercy, Liberation, Truth. On the footsteps of Pope Francis

Manila Retreat 2nd talk

Orionine in the Church of Pope Francis

We are called to evangelize today’s society. In the past the word evangelization was a synonym of conversion, now the meaning has changed, it has gone back to its original root: , give the good news.

For us missionaries, evangelization has two main tasks:

1. To witness God’s love for the world because this is the good news. Today’s world, no matter which religion it follows, does not understand God’s presence because is distracted by so many worries and plans, and is deceived by so many false hopes.
2. To help people to learn and understand the values of the Gospel, which today seem to be lost. We have to teach our Christian brothers and sisters to use the Gospel as an instrument to analyse and understand their situation. It is useless to say I am a Christian, I pray, and as soon as a problem comes I look for human solutions as if the Gospel has nothing to say.

Pope Francis on many occasions has reminded us that Christianity spreads through attraction not through preaching, so he has indicated many attitudes we should embrace in order to become true witnesses. I would like to quote a passage from Evangelii Gaudium that we should keep as background of all the meditations of these 5 days.

“93. Spiritual worldliness, which hides behind the appearance of piety and even love for the Church, consists in seeking not the Lord’s glory but human glory and personal well-being. It is what the Lord reprimanded the Pharisees for: “How can you believe, who receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?” (Jn 5:44). It is a subtle way of seeking one’s “own interests, not those of Jesus Christ” (Phil 2:21). It takes on many forms, depending on the kinds of persons and groups into which it seeps. Since it is based on carefully cultivated appearances, it is not always linked to outward sin; from without, everything appears as it should be. But if it were to seep into the Church, “it would be infinitely more disastrous than any other worldliness which is simply moral”

94. This worldliness can be fuelled in two deeply interrelated ways. One is the attraction of gnosticism, a purely subjective faith whose only interest is a certain experience or a set of ideas and bits of information which are meant to console and enlighten, but which ultimately keep one imprisoned in his or her own thoughts and feelings. The other is the self-absorbed promethean neopelagianism of those who ultimately trust only in their own powers and feel superior to others because they observe certain rules or remain intransigently faithful to a particular Catholic style from the past. A supposed soundness of doctrine or discipline leads instead to a narcissistic and authoritarian elitism, whereby instead of evangelizing, one analyzes and classifies others, and instead of opening the door to grace, one exhausts his or her energies in inspecting and verifying. In neither case is one really concerned about Jesus Christ or others. These are manifestations of an anthropocentric immanentism. It is impossible to think that a genuine evangelizing thrust could emerge from these adulterated forms of Christianity.

...

97. Those who have fallen into this worldliness look on from above and afar, they reject the prophecy of their brothers and sisters, they discredit those who raise questions, they constantly point out the mistakes of others and they are obsessed by appearances. Their hearts are open only to the limited horizon of their own immanence and interests, and as a consequence they neither learn from their sins nor are they genuinely open to forgiveness. This is a tremendous corruption disguised as a good. We need to avoid it by making the Church constantly go out from herself, keeping her mission focused on Jesus Christ, and her commitment to the poor. God save us from a worldly Church with superficial spiritual and pastoral trappings! This stifling worldliness can only be healed by breathing in the pure air of the Holy Spirit who frees us from self-centredness cloaked in an outward religiosity bereft of God. Let us not allow ourselves to be robbed of the Gospel!”

Among the many words recurrent in Francis vocabulary I have chosen 4.

• JOY. It is not by chance that this word makes the title of his first apostolic exhortation. Joy is not an exterior pose but an attitude that comes from deep inside. It is based on the knowledge of what we are, where we come from, where we are going. We are children of God, come from Him and are destined to go to Him. We have a vocation from Him and perhaps what is happening has a part in his plan. Religious who are always negative, pessimistic, grumbling, always pointing to the mistakes, the problems, are not attractive, do not serve God’s kingdom. Joy is the opposite of slut, spiritual coldness, but also opposite to comfort, quiet living, lack of desire because joy must be an engine running inside us, which does not allow us to remain asleep.
  Joy is also the opposite of another attitude with which it is often confused: the engine of protagonism, arrivism, the tendency of wanting all and now. These things are attractive but do not bring true lasting joy, and so do not spread joy. You can distinguish the two attitudes because a joyful person makes you feel immediately happy inside, while a smiling selfish person makes you feel unsettled, afraid.
  Don Orione has an inspiring page about joy:

“Perfect happiness cannot but be perfect dedication of self to God and men, to all men, to the most wretched as to the most morally and physically deformed, to the most distant, the guiltiest and the most adverse.”(v57t50)

“Make all your intentions straight in the Lord; offer all your sufferings to the Lord Crucified, through the hands of Blessed Virgin, be happy that you have to toil and suffer for the love of God, bearing in silence, or better, in perfect happiness, any mortification or contrariety.” (v69t158)

And so many more.

• MERCY. This word is at the core of Christian message. We find it all through the Gospel from the Magnificat to the beatitudes, to the final judgement up to Calvary. It is also the core of Francis’ message who has even called for a special jubilee year of mercy
  To be merciful does not mean to be careless or to allow everything pass unchecked. Mercy is to put all things in the right place, under the great umbrella of God’s love.

Francis wants us to become merciful as the Father in heaven is merciful; to become really followers of Jesus in whatever we do, because he is the meek and humble of heart. He wants us to live as communities of love because each one of us (from the first to the least) are temples of the Holy Spirit, bearers of God’s gifts. How can we reject, condemn, judge, somebody who is a chosen receptacle of God’s grace?
Rules, regulations, constitutions, time tables are very important, necessary tools, and should never be neglected, but we should not forget the difference between applying these to ourselves and, instead using them to judge our brothers. We have to be strict and demanding with ourselves but patient and merciful towards others. Usually the opposite happens.
Nothing should become more important than the love for our brothers, simply because our brothers should not be accused but loved: this is mercy. If I look at my brother and I find him guilty of something, rather than feeling the anger for his fault and stubbornness, I should feel the passion for what he is missing, the desire to help him. A person can be helped and changed with mercy and compassion; our judgement and rigidity will only discourage him. Do you remember the attitude of the Father in the parable of the prodigal son? Mercy is the only medicine that can cure the wounds created by our faults.
If we put together the two mottos of Don Orione: “Restore all things in Christ” and “Do good always, good to all, evil to none”, comes out the desire of Francis who wants that whatever we do be done with the merciful attitude of Jesus.
Let us read together the passage of Don Orione, which is the theme of our next General Chapter.

“. . . Being able to see and love nothing in the world but the souls of our brothers.

The souls of the small, the souls of the poor, the souls of sinners, the souls of the just, the souls of those astray, the souls of the penitent, the souls of those who rebel against God's will, the souls of those who rebel against Christ's Church, the souls of degenerate sons, the souls of unfortunate and perfidious priests, the souls that submit to grief, souls white as doves, the simple, pure and angelic souls of virgins, souls which have fallen into the darkness of the senses and the low bestiality of the flesh, souls proud of evil, souls greedy for power and gold, souls full of themselves, souls that only see themselves, lost souls, looking for the way, grieving souls that seek shelter or a word of pity, souls that cry out in the desperation of condemnation, or souls intoxicated in their elation at the truth they have lived out: all these souls are loved by Christ, Christ died for all of them and Christ wants them all safe in his arms and his wounded heart.

Our lives and our entire Congregation must be a song and a holocaust of universal brotherhood in Christ. Seeing and feeling Christ in man. We must have in us the profound music of charity. For us the central point of the universe is Christ's Church, and that on which the Christian drama turns, the soul.

I feel nothing but an infinite, a divine symphony of spirits palpitating around the cross, and the cross exudes, drop by drop, across the centuries, the divine blood spilled for every human soul.

Christ cries out from the Cross 'I am thirsty'. It is a terrible sultry cry, not of the flesh, but the cry of thirst for souls, and it is for this thirst for our souls that Christ died.

I can see nothing but heaven, a truly divine heaven, because it is the heaven of salvation and true peace: I can see nothing but a kingdom of God, the kingdom of charity and pardon, where the whole crowd of peoples are the inheritance of Christ and the kingdom of Christ.”

• LIBERATION. Liberation is a lengthy, slow and complicated process. Liberation from what? From all those structures that prevent us from fulfilling God’s plan. They cover all areas of our life, though, of course, not all have the same importance. We have Physical impediments (sickness, old age, handicaps), social impediments (poverty, ignorance, racism), moral impediments (sins, vices), psychological impediments (fear, excessive guilt, traumas), and spiritual impediments (selfishness, egocentrism, protagonism). From this list we see that some like old age cannot be solved, or some like a sickness do not depend on us. They are actually not impediments in themselves but may cause situations which can be of impediment; in this case what we have to remove (as much as possible) are the consequences of those limitations, and this is what we do in our houses where we provide assistance, medical care, etc.
  But we have all the other impediments which are sinful or cause us to sin. We have to remove these and to change our attitudes, our lifestyle.
  These structures of slavery create lesser gods and give us the illusion of power, freedom, satisfaction; they are not at the service of God or of the poor but they serve our pride. Often they present themselves masked with works of charity, apostolate but little by little I reach a point in which an apostolate is good as long as it keeps me at the centre, it fulfils my ideas, it attracts people to me. If this doesn’t happen I find an excuse to close it and jump on something else. Prayer, rules, congregation structures, and even people become either tools in my hands or obstacles to be avoided. Our life becomes full of compromises. We think we work for God but actually, those attitudes do not allow us to have a real relationship with God, we are no more available for his plan, which, often, presents itself in a strange, weak, foolish way. Our plans are about power and satisfaction, God’s plan are about service, humility. We look for well organized, successful projects, God asks us to go to the poorest areas, without tools, trusting in Providence. Our plans create false relationships because they are self-centred and tie people to us, dependent on us; God’s plans create relationships because they are centred on the poor, and on God, they make people free.
  Let us hear what Don Orione says:

“In following the world, if you follow it, you will have great freedom of mind, you will not have the disturbing thoughts of the soul. You will have great freedom in life; you will not have the inconvenience of the many duties imposed by religion. You will have great freedom of satisfaction; while Jesus Christ on the one hand tells us that whoever does something wrong, commits a sin, the world assures us that even in doing that we can achieve this happiness and this freedom? Ah, no, my children, no!

You see, I have known many young people! They were good and they loved me, and in the Lord I loved them, and they were happy. Then, like an arid breeze, and they went their different ways, lost in the crowd, in search of a vague and very different happiness, poor children! Now, occasionally, one of them, disillusioned and repentant, remembers the happy times and writes . . . and they are letters that make you weep, my poor, dear old boys.”

“0 Lord, put me in the jaws of hell, so that I, by your mercy, may close them. May my secret martyrdom for the salvation of souls, of all souls, be my paradise, my supreme bliss. Love of souls, souls souls! I shall write my life in tears and blood.

May the injustices of men never weaken our full faith in God's goodness.

I am nourished and led forward by the breath of immortal and renewing hope.

Our charity is the sweetest folly of love for God and men, which is not of the earth.

Christ's charity is of such a sweetness and so unspeakable that the heart cannot think nor say, the eye not see, and the ear not hear.

Words ever aflame.

Suffering, silence, prayer, love, crucifixion and adoration.

Light and peace of heart

I shall climb my Calvary like the meek lamb.

Apostolate and martyrdom; martyrdom and apostolate.

Our souls and our words must be white, chaste, almost infantile, and they must bring to all men a breath of faith, goodness and comfort, which uplifts us towards heaven.

Let us keep our eyes and our hearts still in divine goodness. Building Christ! Building always!”

• TRUTH. It is the process of putting things, people, ourselves and God in the right order and position. To act according to truth means to search for the vocation God has given to each one of us. We are religious and Sons of Divine Providence. This is his vocation so he cannot ask us to do something which is opposite to this. Our being religious, our living in community, our vows, cannot be a shirt that at a certain point becomes tight so I have to dispose of it and replace with something else. Our vocation is part of our nature so if something goes wrong I have to act from the inside, changing what is wrong, resetting things according to the original plan.
  As Pope Francis says, Bishops and priests are not people of power, managers of big funds, who impose their ideas, who decide things to be done, the way of doing them etc. They are first of all servants of the community, experts in listening, expert in recognising people’s gifts and valuing them. They must be free to go here and there to work remembering that the Church already lives there where children of God live. Payatas Church is not Oreste’s church which eventually becomes Angelo’s church then Orlando’s church, with the poor people who have to change mind every time they change shepherd. There is the Church of Christ, the Church of the Gospel, the Church of the people of God who grows around the Gospel, so the fact that the shepherd today is Oreste and tomorrow Angelo or Orlando does not make much difference because we are co-ordinators, facilitators of a journey which has been prepared by God, by the Gospel, by the inspirations of the Holy Spirit who, by the way, speaks to every member of the Church.

Again Don Orione says:

“The great souls, the great and magnanimous hearts, the strong and free Christian consciences, that feel their mission of truth, faith and great hope, of holy love of God and man, walk in the light of a great, great faith, 'that faith' in divine providence. They walk without stain, without fear, per ignem et acquam, through the filth of so much hypocrisy, so much perversity and dissolution.”