Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - We are called to become friends of God, conforming our desires with those of God's Spirit, as we are told by St Paul : “ f you do live in that way, you are doomed to die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the habits originating in the body, you will have life.” (Rom 8, 13-14). Living as friends of God, as we are reminded continually by the Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI, means freeing the heart of desires of the flesh and filling it with the grace of intimate communion with God, which can only be achieved by renouncing ones I and its worldly desires. The Lord says this clearly to his disciples: “You are my friends, if you do what I command you, ” (Jn 15, 14). Our faith in Jesus is credible if our we live according to the Gospel. There is nothing more effective for drawing others to Christ, as the example of a life lived as witnesses of the Gospel.
The then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, just before his election to the Chair of Peter, said in a conference given at Subiaco, on 1 April 2005,: “What we need above all at this time in history are men who render God credible in this world by means of a faith which is illuminated and lived. The negative testimony of Christians who spoke of God but lived against Him has hidden the image of God and opened the doors to incredulity. We need men who keep their eyes set on God, learning from there, authentic humanity. We need men whose intellect is illuminated by God's light and whose hearts are opened by God so that their intellect may speak to the intellects of others. Only through men touched by God, can God live once again among men”.
How an we fail at this point to recall some of the most words of the Servant of God Pope Paul VI: “the world today needs witnesses more than teachers” (cfr Evangelii nuntiandi, 41)! Francis of Assisi was not a priest because he considered himself not worthy enough, but his life spoke for itself and that life, totally conformed to the Lord Jesus, captivated countless souls during his life and after his death, drawing them to imitate his way of following the Lord. One of the most frequent temptations for all of us Christians is to live a 'double life': one which appears to belong to Christ - to which can be applied Jesus' warning “21'It is not anyone who says to me, "Lord, Lord," who will enter the kingdom of Heaven…” (Mt 7, 21) - and the other, more or less secretly, goes its own way, as if God did not exist.
The apostles knew the Lord could not be “deceived” with exterior devotion, or be “content” with simply exterior worship. He had drummed into their minds the indelible truth of the need for conversion in order to follow Him, living only one life, a life tending towards holiness: to “living for Him ”, and dying to the other life tending towards self advantage: “living for oneself”.
Of the many teachings of Christ in this regard, worth meditating is the parable of the sower. The parable teaches that it is man who decides whether to be good soil and allow himself to be fecundated and transformed by the Lord; otherwise the stones and thorns will paralyse his spiritual and human growth. We can only work our soil if we look into our heart and with the help of grace, pull out everything which is shadow; we cannot do this with the soil of another person: a mother cannot do it for her son, a husband cannot do it for his wife or vice versa.
In this fundamental striving for conversion to Christ, on which depends our eternity, we are, “tremendously” alone with our freedom before God, who steps aside so as not to condition our free will. In the parable of the talents Jesus helps us reflect on the man who entrusts his talents to his servants and the departs and “a long time afterwards” he returned “and went through his accounts with them” (cfr. 25, 14-30). It is the same with us: God created us in his image and likeness, he gave us certain talents, including the gift of freedom; but, as soon as we decide to make them bear fruit with His grace, then He comes to help us and digs the earth to make it more receptive. A person who refuses to listen to the Lord will never experience the transforming power of his grace! This is why we must never undervalue the incredible space of freedom, which He has given us, a space which is practically boundless.
If the two disciples of Emmaus, whom Jesus “recovered” for true life, on reaching their destination had not said, “stay with us Lord, the evening is near” (Lk 24, 29), He would have continued on his way. Luke the evangelist expresses this tremendous truth with a phrase which is mysterious but clear: “When they drew near to the village to which they were going, he made as if to go on” (Lk 24, 28). These words, which reveal God's attitude to our freedom, deserve to be engraved on our heart, in the awareness that the Lord is walking beside us, to form us, purify us, lead us…but this does not come about 'automatically' , because his Divine Spirit works in us to the extent that we allow Him to do so. Hence the need to renew every day with our heart and with our life, together with Our Lady that important prayer “stay with us Lord”! (Agenzia Fides 31/10/2007; righe 60, parole 958)
