We share an excerpt from the meditation that was offered by our facilitator, Brother Hervé Zamor, on September 6th.
Caring, like the Good Samaritan, is our vocation and our mission. It is the way to love the Gospel and make others love it. And it requires us to have a clear vision of our situation, which is to accept that we are both that wounded man on the side of the road and the Good Samaritan. In fact, we find it easier to accept our Good Samaritan mission than our wounded and fragile state.
Luke's parable (cf. Luke 10:29-37) uses eight verbs (outlined below) to show us the attitudes we are called to cultivate if we want to –
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renew our way of being and serving in the Church;
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renew ourselves at the service of authority at all levels of the Congregation;
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renew our vocation and our mission;
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experience a new fruitfulness in our following of Christ;
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knowing how to pitch our tent and go somewhere else to flourish wherever God sends us;
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return to the path and be pilgrims with the Lord;
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be prophets of fraternity and missionary disciples;
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collaborate in the restorative love of God, revealed in the hearts of Jesus and Mary;
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expand the space of our tent (Is 54,2).
1. Know how to look
When I manage to welcome what is good in each person that the Lord places in my path, I become that "sentinel" who knows how to anticipate, how to prevent with the warmth of my presence and with my friendship and my brotherhood, what may hinder the encounter with the other.
2. Sharing
Learning to be compassionate, or welcoming another person's compassion for me, means practicing every day this cordial, affectionate and respectful attitude that cares, heals, reassures and accompanies; that allows us to offer others the presence they need to grow and walk at their pace. This is the secret to move from the globalization of indifference to the revolution of compassion.
3. Approach
Getting closer or letting oneself be drawn near is to live the methodology of closeness daily. Let us learn to become neighbours to those who are wounded on the side of the road and ask for help. This is where the Lord invites us to serve him and love him.
4. Bandaging wounds
Healing the wounds or letting myself be healed is striving to live the compassion that allows us to care for the most fragile and to find global and creative responses to the fragilities of those who knock on our doors.
5. Pouring the oil and wine
To pour oil and wine, or to accept being served, is to live daily this Eucharistic tenderness in which the love of God is poured into our hearts by the Spirit that becomes a source of abundant life for those who cross my path. It means offering this anointing of tenderness that heals and cures to all it touches; that makes fruitful all that is sterile; that softens all that is rigid; that warms all that is cold; that strengthens all that is fragile.
6. Carrying on its own support
Riding or letting yourself be carried by the other, means opting for positive solidarity, which consists of lending mutual support to build a brotherhood in which we learn to join hands and move forward together. It also means allowing the still-burning wick to become a light that provides warmth and hope to those who approach it. Lastly, it means offering the other person the help they need to continue growing.
7. Leading
When I accompany the growth of my brothers and sisters, of children and young people, of people close to me, I become that "pedagogue" who puts us back on our feet for a new exodus, a new page, a new beginning.
8. Caring
Caring means promoting the ecology of others, which implies respect, protection and fraternity.
Jesus said to the doctor of the law: "Go and do the same" (Luke 10:37). It is this same mission that the Lord entrusts to each of us and to our Congregations today: to take care of others and to let ourselves be helped.
09/09/2024