Pope Benedict XVI invited us on October 2012 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the II Vatican Council. What better than to live together the Year of Faith and recover our passion and devotion for what is at the heart of the church: Jesus.
To be happy is one thing; buy to be full of joy is another. It does not require that you have a perfect material situation or a problemless emotional life. Those things are useful when you face your everyday life. But is not enough. Joy comes from our inner being. It is incorruptible. It is one of the sure signs of the presence of God. Joy is the calm enjoyment of those who feel transformed by Christ. It is a faith full of delight, due to the ineffable joy of feeling complete. An infinite presence satisfies our nostalgic well that is in the heart of every human being. And that infinite presence is God.
This is a year to renew our heart. To work towards the greatest of revolutions: to be devoted to joy. Our backs are safe. Christ has resurrected and due to this there is no time to be discouraged or despondent.
Faith in the Resurrected Christ and joy go hand in hand. A man, or a woman, who is committed to Christ is a joyful person, sure of her or himself: she/he lives in the certainty that Jesus is by his side. This person lives with the urgency of not keeping his joyfulness to himself.
We can face adversity, hard times, situations which seemingly are disastrous, but if Jesus is within us, our heart will never grow old. Bitterness and pessimism can’t take hold. An invaluable treasure prevents us from feeling in ruin: there is no failure for he who surrenders himself to the all-powerful and all loving hands of God.
Only prayer sustains faith and the desire to imitate the attitude of Christ. From those intimate encounters with the Almighty new indestructible energies emerge. One accepts with peace, to change what can be changed. And with the knowledge that God is not responsible for our impatience, we desire to imitate the humble heart of Jesus, as it was in Gethsemane. Our resistances disperse before those things that we cannot change.
To believe in God is to give ourselves to Him. A continuous return to our first love. We know that with Jesus, everything is easier, because by being close to Him we can remove from our vocabulary and from our mind hurtful thoughts. By finding the courage to live our life like the movements of our heart: diastole and systole. We gather and extend ourselves.
We have been invited that throughout this Year of Faith, to care for the love that runs through us, that it be ever fresh and pure like the rain. A love that announces to all, that God wants them to feel his warm mercy and love. That we are custodians of all creations of God. And that the first commandment of creation is the nothing is wasted. Accept all, with gratefulness and wonder.
Faith is an impetuous wind that pressures us to share all the wonders that God has done in our heart. To evangelize is to teach others the art of living. Without impatience. In God´s kingdom the mustard seed always grows. To evangelize today is not to move great masses of people with new methods but with humility of the mustard seed to let God take the initiative regarding when and how much each one will grow. Ours and the churches strength is hidden in those every day and heart felt encounters with our Lord. He who whispers “Do not be afraid I am and will be with you”.
(Based on the message of Pope Francis and the Circular Letters and the book “Brother Francis of Assisi” written by Father Larrañaga)
