Parable and Conscience Meditation January 25

Apostolate  January 25

(The Crosier) prepares himself well for ministry (Profile of the Congolese Crosier).

All of us are prepared by the Spirit for a mission.  Life in the family, our schooling, our religious education, our participation in the Paschal Mystery in the highs and lows of life--all that becomes a body of formative experiences in view of a personal call from God.  We should reflect, nonetheless, about the seriousness of the commitment to God.  Is it not better to not begin at all than to finish badly?  We expect a lot with regard to the personal life of the ministers of the Church.  They should be persons of faith and high integrity, qualities recognized by everyone.   They need to be proven people.  They should have wide religious and secular knowledge to direct pastoral work well.  In short, they should be worthy and capable representatives of Christ.  That is a great challenge for us.  We do not live any longer for ourselves, but for him who calls and sends us.  We are on mission and every aspect of our life participates in it, whether hidden in the interiority of our spirit or visible in the external world of our behavior.  We must accept responsibility very well for this.

The hen that doesn’t know how to scratch the ground always loses her chicks.  (Shi)

Parable and Conscience Meditation January 24

Apostolate  January 24

In choosing his (Augustine’s) rule, the first brethren of the Cross also joined life in community to an apostolic life of prayer and work (Const. 20.3).

Their unhappiness was no secret.  No, the others guessed their discomfort with every intonation of  “O God, come to my assistance.”  A bit rebellious, they often found themselves together to express their anxiety and to share their inspirations.  They lived in a disorder incompatible with the Gospel.  Their witness to the Crucified was no longer credible.  They hungered for more fraternal collaboration.  The formal recitation of the Psalms together was not very satisfying.  Their prayer had lost its vital relationship with those living around the cathedral.  No, at the date agreed upon, they would leave their choir stalls in the cathedral and never return again.  It was better to leave for a calmer place in order to give themselves to truer evangelical living.  Thus it was that Theodore de Celles, founder of the Crosiers, and his companions began the reform of their canonical life under the Rule of St. Augustine.  It was their hope that the anxiety and inspiration, the hunger and determination for a more balanced Gospel life, would characterize the Brethren of the Holy Cross down through the ages.

It’s the elephant’s muscles that get him out of the swamp where he is stuck.  (Shi)

Parable and Conscience Meditation January 23

Apostolate  January 23

This consecrated life helps us commit totally to the Kingdom of God.  In the service of others in the Spirit, we consecrate ourselves to the liberation of every person and the whole person through an integrated ministry (Congolese Regional Statutes, Intro. 3.1).

The encyclicals of Popes Paul VI and John Paul II asked for a “new evangelization” that goes further than the mere conversion of persons.  Such an evangelization looks for the birth of a new society comprised of a new humanity.  It invites first to an experience of God in Christ, promoting personal salvation.  But the will of God for “a new heaven and a new earth” promotes also a transformation of society, brought about by the work of justice that liberates from every kind of human misery.  In the end, in order to arrive at the cosmic identity of Christ, the “new evangelization” engages in a dialogue with pluralistic culture.  Religious life is well place to become a new evangelizer.   It follows a style of life centered in the experience of Jesus Christ as Savior.  It has a history and an inspiration of solidarity with the poor.  It lives with wide and diverse cultural horizons that equip it for sensitive and effective conversation with the peoples of the world.

A single spark can set fire to a whole mountain.  (Lendu-Hema)

Parable and Conscience Meditation January 22

Apostolate  January 22

Since the Lord has called us as part of the Church to serve him in our fellow men and women, we look upon our whole life as a following of Christ, who spent himself, even unto death, for the salvation of others (Const. 20.2).

A missionary bishop who had been a simple religious served many years in the missions.  As an old man he returned to his abbey to retire.  A short time afterwards, he died.  During his wake, some of his confreres, looking at his body, were astonished.  They said, “But he looks so worn out!”  Another confrere standing close by, a bit wiser, remarked, “Why are your so surprised?  Certainly he looks worn out!  What would you expect for a man who gave everything for the Gospel?”  What joy for the good servant to return to his Creator at the end of his earthly life completely empty.  Every gift used, every strength spent, every resource employed, nothing remains but to be embraced as comrade by him who already passed by that way and who lives eternally, Christ, who died and rose.

Fighting with a leopard will mean getting clawed.  (Yaka)

Parable and Conscience Meditation January 21

Apostolate  January 21

If our communities are to reflect upon their work and life effectively – to test themselves by the Gospel and contemporary social developments – regular personal and communal study and reflection are necessary (Const. 19.7).

One of the principle objectives of community hospitality is to bring people close in order to guide them to Christ.  In a truly welcoming environment, the community wants to help people review their lives by the light of the Gospel.  By word or example, the confreres invite people to ask themselves about the significance of Christ for all dimensions of their lives.  The hungry person looking for food is welcome, the sinner who has lost heart, the sick person who wants healing, the young person who is searching for good direction, the couple that is struggling for the integrity of their marriage.  Deep inside, all these people, indeed all human beings, are thirsting finally for Christ.  He alone is bread, pardon, healing, life, love.  What a service the community performs to gradually reveal Christ to others and sensitively help them decide for him.  How does one prepare oneself to give this great spiritual news to others, while not neglecting to meet their physical needs also?

It is thanks to the chicken that the lizard finds water in the puddle and drinks  (African proverb)

Parable and Conscience Meditation January 20

Apostolate  January 20

(The Crosier) commits himself to the work of the inculturation of the Gospel and Crosier life in Africa, proclaiming the Gospel in the values of the culture and setting aside all cultural elements which do not build up the human person in the image of God (Profile of the Congolese Crosier).

That Christ should become African in the Africans is the dream of inculturation.  It was already the plan of God that Christ should assume the identity of every human person and so come to his full cosmic stature.  That is the reason why Christians are sent to make disciples of all nations.  In some sense, Christ is already “pre-announced” in a culture to which missionary Christians go because Christ’s spirit was poured out on the whole world.  Thus, the words and signs of Christ revealed in the Bible can find authentic cultural expression in the believing Christians there.  The emergence of the image of Christ in a culture requires a dialogue between the members of that young Church and the universal Church.  In such a dialogue, new Christians affirm the values of their culture that are consonant with the Gospel and promote the dignity and vocation of humanity.  They are critical, as well, of the values of their culture that contradict the Gospel, dehumanizing people.  Little by little, the Spirit of Christ works toward the transformation of the whole culture into the Body of Christ.  And that is to be a new epiphany.  That is why you, the African, must express yourself!

You don’t dress a woman:  she dresses herself.  (Burundi)

Parable and Conscience Meditation January 19

Apostolate   January 19

A religious fellowship of life and work is a special sign and instrument in the Church for true unity among people, a unity that is rooted and brought to completion in Christ, in whom, through whom, and for whom all things were created (Const. 15.2).

Crosier life models the Church of the New Testament in a striking way.  Because of their encounter with the Risen Christ, the first Christians immediately knew themselves to be brothers and sisters (community).  This fraternity was strongly characterized by a spirit of gratitude for Jesus, which was regularly expressed in their community prayer (liturgy).  Profoundly touched by their Gospel experience, they felt impelled to share the Good News with others everywhere by word and loving deed (ministry).  So, there we see the three pillars of the Church of the New Testament.  These three pillars form the heart of the charism of Canons Regular.  By their liturgical prayer, their fraternal life and their pastoral service, the Crosiers as Canons Regular attract the attention of the world to Christ and to the reality of his salvation.  But even more, the community advances in the world the Kingdom of Christ, of which its religious life is the sign.  All Christian communities--ecclesial, familial, educational, fraternal and apostolic--conform themselves to this model.  Our charism, shaped by this model, instructs the Church and world in Christ's salvation.

Those with the same roots will drink the same water.  (Luba)