MSC Magazine | Issue 4 | Summer 2020
Page 40| Missionaries of the Sacred Heart Dear Confrères, Certainly this 166th anniversary of the Founda- tion of our "Little Society" will be celebrated in a very different way from other years. We are still restricted to small groups without being able to crowd together in a big celebration. We should not be disconnected but keep a deep sense of unity with the whole Congrega- tion and the whole world. At the last celebration of this Feast on Decem- ber 8, 2019, we still did not know what was to come; a pandemic that, besides claiming more than 1,300,000 lives so far - 12 of them our confrères - has completely changed our way of living. After a year, and especially on this day when we celebrate the birth of our Con- gregation, we need to look to the future with hope and learning. To look affectionately to- ward our MSC religious communities as well as the world to which we have been called to be witnesses of the Resurrection. This year has much to teach us and our inten- tion in writing this letter is to make sure that we do not miss the lessons that, even in the midst of suffering and difficulties, we must welcome in order to generate what is emerging. Either we make this time of suffering a time of learn- ing or we will continue in the same way. "From the great trials of humanity - among them this pandemic - one emerges better or worse. You don't emerge the same. I ask this of you: how do you want to come out of it? Better or worse?" questioned Pope Francis. The word of the year, chosen by Collins Dic- tionary, was “lockdown”, a word of the English language, but one that was incorporated by most other languages to refer to that time of severe restrictions on our freedom of move- ment. We had to gather ourselves into our homes, close our doors, meet with each other less, close our churches, stop most of our activi- ties to take care of ourselves and each other. We had to refrain from hugs, handshakes and so many other gestures that symbolize and en- courage unity. With the prohibitions of crowding and the emptiness of the streets we were discovering again the beauty of silence that forces us to get in touch with our own feelings. The Word of God already taught us that from time to time the earth needs rest and human beings need liberation (cf. Lev. 25:10-12). This Biblical time was called a Jubilee, where the farmer gave the land the opportunity to lay fallow a year without producing anything, and those in debt were forgiven. With the intense economic ac- tivity of nations, we have forgotten that rest is sacred, forgiveness is necessary, and silence is urgent. The land cries out and is telling us that it will not endure such an exploratory and preda- tory activity for long without a collapse. In the same way, the human heart - which also needs forgiveness, rest, and silence - will not be able to withstand so much noise, interiorly and exteriorly, without a heart attack. What this time asks of us is calm, soul, and lis- tening. Not a listening we are accustomed to, listening only to what interests us, but an em- pathetic listening where one frees oneself from prejudices and puts oneself in the place of the other. It is the attitude of the one who puts on the shoes of the other, to listen from the place where the other speaks and expresses his way of seeing life. The present time asks of us the ability to listen to the other side, the other ver- sion, the other point of view, and to see the history that has marked the life of the one with whom I speak, in order to find ways that lead us together to a common place that includes everyone. Listening empathically is a way of loving. The spirituality of the heart handed down to us by Father Jules Chevalier, our Founder, is summed up in imitating Jesus who loved with a human heart. Our Founder saw a new heart for a new world and proposed to us not only a devotion, but a transformation of one's own life and the life of the world. We urgently need open hearts for lockdown times, or rather open hearts and incarnate hearts to face the challenges of a new world that will arise before us. We need hearts of flesh that are not confined in their egos. The breath of the Spirit that gives life does not en- ter into hearts closed by ignorance, prejudice, cynicism or fear. The Missionary of the Sacred AN OPEN HEART for a lockdown time A letter from the MSC General Team
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