comunicazioni del p. ministro generale e il suo consiglio Arise, Trinitarian Family, in prayerful and sacrificial solidarity with the Persecuted Church. “Beloved, do not be surprised that a trial by fire is occurring among you, as if something strange were happening to you. But rejoice to the extent that you share in the sufferings of Christ, so that when his glory is revealed you may also rejoice exultantly. If you are insulted for the name of Christ, blessed are you, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. But let no one among you be made to suffer as a murderer, a thief, an evildoer, or as an intriguer. But whoever is made to suffer as a Christian should not be ashamed but glorify God because of the name.” (1 Peter 4, 12-16) In the last week of August of this year, as I was returning from Sudan, I received the news about the eruption of a violent persecution of the Christians in the North East State of Orissa, India. I had been already overwhelmed by my experience in Sudan, where in the company of the Mercedarian General and Procurator, our Spanish Minister Provincials and the S.I.T. Presidents of the same Provinces, I was a witness to the tragic and trying situation of misery and suffering of our Sudanese Christian brothers and sisters. What we witnessed in Sudan confirmed our belief that slavery and Christian persecution continues to exist in the world. The widespread and flagrant violence against Christian lives and property in Orissa, again made me aware of the urgent need for the Trinitarians to rise to the occasion to respond to our timely charism. Priests and religious massacred mercilessly, Christian churches and homes burnt down ruthlessly, followers of Christ who stand in solidarity with the poor and ignorant being hunted for their lives, etc. unfold the different scenes of the persecution drama before us. To make things worse, the persecution has spread to other States in India. We have sent messages of sympathy and solidarity to the Church leaders in India and we have observed a universal day of prayer and fasting. However, the cruel episodes of the violation of human and Christian dignity are repeated in India and certain other countries. How shall we respond to this reality? Storm heaven with ceaseless prayer and other sacrificial offerings! I would exhort that all our religious communities and the different groups of Trinitarian laity throughout the world make constant intercessory prayers and offer generous sacrifices towards the restoration of peace and the rebuilding of broken lives, homes and churches in India and elsewhere A practical application of these two suggestions would be to hold Eucharistic adoration during the week and observing Friday as a day of fasting and abstinence for the rest of the year. Furthermore, monetary contributions could be set aside within each local community or group for the future assistance of the Church in India which has experienced and continue to experience the consequences of this persecution. Fraternally in the Trinity, Jose Narlaly, osst. -II- Dear brothers and sisters, We are approaching the celebration of the Nativity of our Lord. The coming of our Redeemer in flesh, His incarnation, has restored to man and every man in particular, his dignity. St. Athanasius and other Fathers of the Church did not hesitate to affirm the fact that the Word of God has entirely assumed our human condition in order to make us divine. Yes, Christ coming into our midst and choosing to live among us as our Brother with all of our humanity, has returned to fallen man his primordial dignity and has introduced him into the very heart of the Blessed Trinity. However, after over 2000 years, men and women of our day continue to struggle to preserve their dignity. In December 2008, the United Nations will celebrate the 60th Anniversary of the approbation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. However, in many countries, this declaration as well as the National Constitutions is continuously violated, often by those who are responsible for their defence. Today, more than ever, human rights and the dignity of the human person are trampled upon. Let me offer a few situations as examples. In Algeria, North Korea, China, Iraq, Palestine, India and in 50 other nations, religious freedom is denied, which is contrary to article 18 of the U.N. Declaration that asserts, “Every individual has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion, such a freedom includes the liberty to change one’s religion and belief, the freedom to express individually or in common, be it publicly or privately, one’s own religion and creed, in practice, in cult and worship.” In many countries, our Christian brothers and sisters live in terror and insecurity. In fact, persecution has broken out even in countries with the reputation of being tolerant. The law of anti-conversion is always in vigor! Prayer meetings are forbidden under the pretext of maintenance of social peace and harmony. Even in the West we see that Christians are “asleep”, many people are leaving our churches and religious indifference continues to spread. In place of a certain anti-clericalism which by now is disappearing, a more dangerous tendency called “Christophobia” has made its appearance in some Western societies (Quebec, Spain, Italy, etc). This trend is marked by the removal of any Christian sign in society under the pretext of respect for other religions. On the global level, the economic crisis is affecting all social sectors. This general recession, which has only begun, provokes the expulsion of thousands of people from their homes, creating widespread loss of employment and causing a greater impoverishment of the middle class and of the poor. The rich continue to be secure while the rest have to work even harder and longer hours throughout their lives, sacrificing their meagre savings, sometimes even their family, ruining their health to better their living conditions and often winding up penniless. In cases such as these, we can see how human rights and dignity are also at stake (articles 22-25) Brothers and sisters, I could continue to cite other examples and other articles of the Declaration in order to open our eyes to the reality of today’s world and to the fact that fundamental human rights are not respected. Given this situation, how can our Order and religious family come to the rescue and relief of our fellow human beings? It seems important to remind ourselves of the teaching of our holy founder, St. John de Matha, who in the Rule invites his sons to share in the work of redemption. He proposes two ways of involvement: 1.) the ransoming of our captive brothers and sisters and 2.) performing works of mercy. We need to be sensitive to the events that impact the lives of our unfortunate brothers and sisters. I would like to remind you of my last letter regarding the situations in Sudan and India. SIT, (Trinitarian Solidarity International), on the General, Provincial and local levels, continues with the dissemination of information concerning religious persecution, the denunciation of such acts and takes various actions in favour of our suffering sisters and brothers. I encourage the members of SIT to continue this path and I invite all of you, my brother Trinitarians and members of our Trinitarian Family, to participate and collaborate, as much as possible, along this line. My contacts with the different leaders of the Churches that suffer faith constraints prompt me to ask for your urgent prayers for them and their faithful. Often, the first thing they ask of us is, “Do not abandon us. Make your solidarity with us known and keep us in prayer. We believe in the strength of the communion of saints.” This is the time to make our closeness to them felt. The time to assist them concretely through economic assistance will follow soon. In the end, I invite you, brothers and sisters, to be involved personally in those places where you live, in favor of those who are more in need than ourselves. Our meeting with Christ takes place through the different ways of support and solidarity we can offer to the marginalized. Once again, I exhort you to be mindful of what our Catholic tradition calls “the fourteen works of spiritual and corporal mercy.” Let us continue our efforts to compensate the terrible and gross injustices perpetrated in our times through our fidelity to the works of mercy we have been carrying out throughout the past eight centuries. The General Chapter reminds us of the importance of every community having its own work of mercy. But we must also find time and energy for the “spiritual works of mercy.” The poor, like all other people, need to be listened to and restored to human dignity. They not only need to be given the means to survive which in and of itself is already a valuable service, but also they need to be offered him the possibility of being reintegrated into the community of the human family. For this, they need our presence and our support. Only by this condition can human dignity be restored to every human person we encounter in our different apostolates. St. Irenaeus of Lyons reminds us that “the glory of God is man fully alive”, but we should not forget that St. Irenaeus continues as he states, “but the life of man is to see God.” We are convinced that Christ by his incarnation has restored the dignity of God’s children to every human person. During the New Year 2009 may we discover even more so such a dignity by drawing near the word of God. The example of St. Paul the Apostle, whose jubilee year we are celebrating, and the recent Synod of Bishops on the centrality of the Sacred Scripture in the life of the Church, invite us to have trust in the word of God in the midst of difficulties and obstacles. Be assured of my prayers and best wishes to you and to our entire Trinitarian Order and Family during this Holy Season. May the Babe of Bethlehem bless you, our Order and religious Family and our works of mercy. With fraternal affection,
Jose Narlaly, osst.
|
