Patience and martyrdom

I don’t want to talk about cruel martyrdom, but the routine martyrdom of life: the clock that pushes, the commitments that follow one after another, the toil to live relationships with others patiently, without giving in to compromise or “human prudence”, the daily wear and tear… Those called to animate a Congregation or a community experience this struggle daily.

These many relations and temptations, on the one hand make us feel our inadequacy and lead to our closing in “on our interests”; on the other hand they prompt us to value the experience as an occasion of purification and sanctification and to put all our trust and hope in God. The “high degree” of holiness passes through this road that we are called to live.  The prophecy that Fr. Turoldo translated into song passes by this road, in the words: “Send prophets again, Lord, men certain of God, to tell people to hope always…”

Let’s look again at John Paul II at this time of his life. The pope gives each of us a formidable lesson of that patience and that daily martyrdom that builds communion.  He explains with his life how one lives as Christians in every season, also that of old age, even that of the highest responsibility on the earth. We must thank God for his life. What is a great life if not a continuity of enthusiasm from youth to a mature age?  The liturgy, in one of the responsories for the feast of St. Leo the Great, says:  “Like an eagle, he grasped from on high the meaning of things."  We can apply these words to John Paul II.  We all recognize that he is a man led by the hand of God.  The Lord asks much of him, but He also gives him much.

Between the two there is a deep understanding, and it is visible and tangible. And also by this understanding – which each of us experiences in life – we can look with hope to the future and believe that communion, real communion, is possible.

I am going to stop here, even though many other reflections could be added.

A reference to Mary, the mother and teacher of Jesus, is obligatory.  There is near Rome an image of Mary that seems to me particularly suited  for a concluding reflection.  It is an image of St. Mary of Equilibrium, which is in the Cistercian Abbey of Frattochie.  Perhaps each of us needs to pray to this very gentle Mother with arms upraised toward heaven, and “for whose feast there is no date because she is to be invoked from morning to evening”. May the Lord give us, through her intercession the grace to live our Diakonìa in joy and fidelity, so that in our communities no one feels like a stranger or alone; and our Koinonìa, so that each of us can be a comforting balm for many wounds:  our Martirìa, so that it will be our joy to witness and celebrate the God of life.