true. i think thats whats lacking even for the people in our faith today. we always suspect a grand evil scheme behind almost anything. we can’t accept something for what it is and always believe in conspiracy. i fully, totally agree that obedience is lacking today, and the sad thing is that its not only happening in secular society, its happening within our Church as well. the Pope’s hand has been forced to allow abuses, the Pope authorized pedophelia, the Pope did this and did that, etc. why can’t people just believe what is being said and submit themselves fully and humbly to the person the Holy Spirit has chosen to lead us in our faith?
It is true that we live in a world of conspiracies, some real and others imagined. However, human beings have the right to their good name and to the gift of life. To get back to the topic of this thread, to denounce someone is to attack their good name. This is contrary to the law of justice. Therefore, it constitutes of grave act of disobedience to the Will of God.
As I always tell our Franciscan Brothers of Life, “Never forget Christ’s last prayer for humanity. ‘Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.’ “ Christ’s last dying act was not to denounce, but to pray for forgiveness on behalf of those who do not ask for forgiveness on their own. Only when we learn to pray for those whom we believe have sinned or for those who have actually sinned, will we be one step closer to becoming like the Crucified Christ.
I tell the Franciscan Brothers of Life that the object of their life as brothers is not to complain and condemn, but to achieve sanctity by embracing the cross, as our Holy Father Francis embraced it. When a Brother of Life looks at the cross, he does not see condemnation on the faces of Jesus and Mary. He sees compassion. We have in our chapel the icon of San Damiano, which is a copy of the one that spoke to St. Francis. I often sit there for hours and look at its face. There is something wonderful about it.
Jesus is not hanging his head with his eyes closed. Instead he is looking straight at me with his eyes wide open, almost as if to say, “I’m here for you. This is my life that I give so that you may bring life to others.” Condemnation always precedes execution, not life. As a Brother of Life, Christ has called me to share the life that he has given up for me, not to condemn those for whom that life is intended.
To go about condemning, judging, criticizing, comparing what need not be compared, is contrary to the cross. The cross was the site of great compassion, forgiveness, generosity, understanding, and hope for humanity. Jesus gives his mother a fallen humanity as her children, because he trusts that humanity will rise to the occasion. There is no way that he would give his mother dead children. He gives her children that have great potential. He makes her the mother of children who are gifted with life, his life, the life that pours out of his side shortly after he says, “It is finished.”
As a Brother of Life, my obedience must shine through by complying with the will of the Father at Calvary. It was the Father’s will that all may have life and have it in abundance. The only way that could happen was to pour it upon humanity from the side of Christ. That’s why we see water and blood. Water and blood are life sustaining forces. When we transmit that life to others, rather than condemn them, when he hope and pray for that life to become visible in others, rather than hold them suspect of every malevolent thing that happens in the world or the Church, then we are obeying the Will of the Father. It is the Father’s will that all may live, even those who have sinned. We should Will nothing else for our brothers and sisters, except Life.
Fraternally,
Br. JR, OSF
