I hope you find this as inspiring as I do. Julian Carron is the President of the Fraternity of Communion & Liberation.
Alfa and Omega
Meeting something that corresponds to our expectation
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Julián Carrón
When I think of a young person today on the threshold of life, I am seized by an infinite tenderness. How will he find his bearings in this Babel full of opportunities and challenges in which he will have to live? You just have to watch television, or visit a newsagents or a bookshop to see what he finds on offer. It is very hard to make the right choice.
But if, on the one hand, it is moving to think of a young person facing such a challenge, I am even more astounded by the fact that the One who placed us in reality had no qualms about running such a risk. He went so far as to scandalize those who would like to spare themselves and others, children, friends, and others, this risk.
The Mystery, however has not launched us into the adventure of life without providing us with a compass with which to find our bearings. This compass is the heart. In our epoch, the heart has been reduced to a feeling, a question of mood, but we can all recognize in our experience that the heart does not allow itself to be reduced, it will not be conformed to anything. “Men and women were created for something great, for infinity. Nothing else will ever be enough.” The Pope says in his Message, and we know it very well.
So whoever takes his heart seriously, made as it is for what is great, begins to have a criterion for judging the truth or the falsity of whatever proposal dawns on the horizon of his life. “You are constantly being offered easier choices, but you yourselves know that these are ultimately deceptive and cannot bring you serenity and joy.”
Is there something great enough to satisfy our deepest needs, that can answer our longing, as great as infinity? Many will answer that something like this does not exist, given the delusion they have often experienced, in putting their hope in something that was destined to disappoint them. But none of us can do without hope. Is this expectation irrational? So why do we hope? Because it is the most rational thing to do. None of us can affirm with certainty that it does not exist. We will discover that it exists only if we get the opportunity to meet something that truly corresponds to our expectation. Like the first people who met Jesus: “We have never seen anything like it.”
From the moment this fact entered history, no one who heard of it was able to ignore it. All the skepticism of the world cannot eliminate it from the face of the earth.
It will remain there, on the horizon of his life, like a promise which represents the greatest challenge he had to face. “Whoever follows me will receive a hundredfold, and will inherit eternal life.” Only those who have the courage to verify in life the promise contained in the Christian announcement will be able to discover that it is able to correspond to his expectation. Without this verification, there cannot be a faith adequate to man’s rational nature, that is, a faith able to go on being interesting for him.
Julián Carrón
President of the Fraternity of Communion and Liberation
http://clonline.ca/en/articles/alfa-and-omega
0 Comments