(This article originally appeared in the TAU-USA Spring 2024 Digital Issue #111)
by Patrick Martin, OFS National Centenary Task Force
According to the American Museum of Natural History, two thousand years ago our planet’s population was about 170 million souls (a far cry from today’s population of about 8 billion). […]
The Father is Lover, loving the Son into being. The Son then is the Beloved of the Father, and the Spirit is the Love that binds them. It is from this love that everything else comes.
For St. Francis, living “according to the pattern of the Holy Gospel” was physical and sacramental. One of its signal characteristics would be its communal nature. Modeled on the example of Jesus and the apostles, it would be a community of brothers who would “give themselves to honest work,” living a life of poverty in the world “as pilgrims and strangers.” In this and the other ways in which the Franciscan movement would take shape—St. Clare’s cloistered Poor Ladies or the secular Brothers and Sisters of Penance—the paradigm of Franciscan life would be fraternity.
. Today, Pentecost Sunday, Easter’s 50th day, we pray for a fresh stirring of the gifts of the Spirit so that we can fulfill our mission to witness Jesus to others in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Justice, Peace, and the Integrity of Creation is meant to be more than a list of topics. It is a model to show how our life in the Rule brings about conversion, and how our actions are its fruit. We practice contemplative prayer, we reflect on our Gospel call, experience conversion, and apply it to this age and place. In our work, in our family life, in the parish and in our fraternities, we are a people of renewal.
Jesus consecrates us in truth, in God’s word, and His own word to us. We bring His Name and His Word to places where the great drama of life is played out. A new way of encounter, with the possibility of life-giving hope, for the sanctification of a wounded humanity.
Brothers and sisters, “what are you waiting for, there’s work to do.” There’s a world waiting to be made whole and holy.
We are often sad to lose the old, but we must never despair, for our Lord may prune, but he does so only to help his branch yield more fruit (Jn 15:2). In the area of ecumenism and interfaith dialogue, for example, we leave our old isolation, lose our false sense of security, and we enter a new path of discovery; we gain new friends and new wisdom. It doesn’t always happen in that order, but “joy comes with the morning!” (Ps 30:5).
Jesus stands before the Father for our sake where our new existence is rooted and grounded. The love by which we live should be the disposition and the strength in our relationships with all people, and with all creation.
Mientras escribo esto, estoy de vuelta a los Estados Unidos desde Roma después de asistir a una reunión del Secretariado de Formación Internacional de la CIOFS. Trabajar con mis hermanos y hermanas ha sido una experiencia tan positiva y enriquecedora que comencé a reflexionar sobre por qué sería así.