Meeting with the nuns (USRTS) at Notre Dame
Jerusalem, November 29, 2021
Dearest Sisters,
the Lord give you peace!
(Greetings)
I am happy that meetings can be resumed physically, although the latest news are not so encouraging. I hope that another period of lockdowns and restrictions has not started again. It would really be a tragedy for our people, and I think for many of your communities as well.
We are leaving (if we manage to leave!) to meet the Pope in Cyprus this week. We also pray for this visit and for the possible fruits it will bring to the life of our small community in Cyprus.
The religious communities of the diocese have taken seriously the Pope's invitation to get involved in the synodal journey. Perhaps the religious woman more than the religious. Let's say that this is not new, however ...
We opened the diocesan phase of this Synod in Deir Rafat, and I noticed of the considerable enthusiasm and desire of everyone, lay people, religious and priests, after that meeting, to commit themselves to this journey. I find it comforting and encouraging!
Sisters (and men religious) play an important role in the life of the diocese, both from a social point of view (schools, hospitals, services to various forms of poverty), and pastoral (parishes) and spiritual (contemplative communities). Let us say that in all areas of the life of the Church, your presence is constitutive and often central. I do not say this to capture your benevolence, but to acknowledge a fact. I wonder what the diocese would be today, without your presence and without your works. Certainly, much poorer!
Having said this, however, we must also question ourselves and put questions about our own service, ask ourselves what the Lord is asking of us at this moment, about what we do and how we do it. In this world that changes so quickly, even here in TS; with the generational changes in our ecclesial communities, which also bring with them not indifferent cultural changes; with the ever more evident strengthening of religious identities in the Islamic and Jewish world which challenge us more and more; with the legislative changes ... and then from an internal point of view, with the evident and progressive decline in the number of women religious, the aging of the communities, the economic problems following the pandemic ... in short, everything seems to tell us that we cannot not to stop and ask ourselves what the Lord is telling us. Because the Lord certainly speaks to us through the Word of God and the sacraments, but also through the interpretation of the signs of the times. Woe to us to think that these questions do not concern us, that our times are the same as always, that is, that our work is always right, always here. Jesus reproaches those who thought in that way: “Jesus said to them, “My time has not yet come, but your time is always here” (John 7,6).
The first consideration I feel I can make, therefore, is to ask you to have the courage to feel inadequate, not "ready, here", but in need of listening. It is the first step to start a journey. Whoever thinks he has arrived does not set out but stops.
In fact, on this synodal journey we are asked to question ourselves about what we are and how we live, comparing ourselves with the Word of God, but also with the reality in which we are, which, I repeat, is not a secondary element. The context in which the Lord speaks to us is indeed decisive. The two reference poles are essential. If we look at reality, we cannot but be depressed, like the two disciples of Emmaus. But if our gaze is illuminated by the Word of God, then hope will also make room in our hearts. Jesus helped the two disciples of Emmaus to reread the history critically, with a new key to interpretation that they did not know before; he opened their eyes to the novelty, which was already in their midst, which was already foreseen by the Scriptures, but which they were unable to recognize.
We are therefore invited to take a critical look at the life of the world in which we find ourselves, and of the service we carry out, to ask ourselves at what stage of the journey to Emmaus we find ourselves: depressed by a glorious past which, however, has ended and never returns; misunderstood and alone in our service; confused by the many changes that we do not know how to decipher… But we must also ask ourselves where even today, in our work, do we meet the Risen one? How much our work is an announcement of a truly experience of life and salvation. In other words, how much passion is still there, in our vocation and mission?
The Gospel we have heard speaks to us of disorders in human history, the ones we see continuously. But it also tells us that history has an end and a purpose: the encounter with Christ, who is the Lord of history. And the Gospel also tells us that there are two ways of staying in this life. The way of those who wait for nothing (“... your time is always here) those who have no other reference for their lives, except the present moment, engaged by the worries of life that completely absorb them, and of those who know how to stay in the world with an attitude of vigilance, that is, of those who know that this world is not everything and awaits another. It is the attitude of those who remain open, whose life is not filled, who always leave a free place inside themselves to be able to be amazed, to receive. And it is the attitude of the those who expect a newness, and experience everything by knowing that just there newness begins.
Alongside vigilance, Jesus mentions prayer (Lk 21:35). Prayer is drawing from the Lord the strength to stay within what is happening, knowing that we are not alone. It is an important method indication.
A second and final consideration concerns the modality of this discernment that this time requires of us. As I said in my opening letter of the Synod, we are always tempted to confront ourselves within our own context (young people, religious, etc.). Which is obviously necessary. But I believe that it is also necessary to deal with those who are external to us. The two disciples of Emmaus could never have opened their eyes if the discussion had remained only between the two of them. It was the encounter with Jesus that opened their eyes, that is, the encounter with the one who came close to them on their journey.
My personal experience, after thirty years of life in TS, reminds me that the sincere and serene confrontation with those who are different from us, always brings something new in our relationships, in our gaze on the world and also on ourselves. We need to listen more. Listening to life experiences, not just conferences (si licet), but meeting people and realities of the Church but also external to it, previously unknown, and recognizing that there are many other people, communities, institutions, who give life; others who suffer no less than us, but no less in love with life and imbued with hope. And here in Hoy Land we have a lot of choice, in this context. This is also a way to meet Jesus who becomes a companion on our journey and helps us to re-read our own history in the light of the Word of God, and helps us to have a more real gaze on ourselves.
This is why I wrote in my letter of indictment of the synod to “encounter experiences, from which to learn ... Moving even physically from one's own parish hall, from one's center to meet another reality of one's own Church that is not known, I think it can make a difference in many cases”. I can assure you that this is the case. In conclusion, the synodal path that is asked of us is not only a spiritual path, but a concrete one, which truly should touch the life of each of us.
No alarmism, therefore; nor the depressions, anxieties, or hysteria that we sometimes see around us. But hope, which is what drives us to believe that Jesus who brought us here and has sustained us in our service to this day, will still become our companion on the journey today, will warm our hearts, will open our eyes and he will continue to fill our lives with His presence again.
+ Pierbattista
