Apostolate February 11
In order to be faithful to our calling and to create a fruitful apostolate inside and outside of the community, it is absolutely essential that we be men marked by a faith that is authentic (Const. 23.1).
Chased from the Garden, the renegade man looks unceasingly for the way back in. Terribly wounded, he travels his own interior life and his environment to find healing for his body, his heart, his spirit. At a certain moment in his desperate search, he is stopped by Christ and the promise of salvation. He makes a decision. If he accepts Christ, he feels renewed to his very roots. Now he knows himself and is given vital power. With all the other rescued ones, his song becomes “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all consolation, who consoles us in all our tribulations” (2Cor 1:3). This evangelical experience, considered as the foundational event of his life, leads him to share. And he sings again “so that, by the consolation we ourselves receive from God, we may console the others in whatever their tribulation” (2Cor 1:4). This is the birth of ministry: a rescued person goes to rescue. The effectiveness of his ministerial efforts begins with the witness of his own Gospel experience.
It’s only when you have crossed the river that you can say the crocodile has a bump on its snout. (Ashanti)
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