Jesus warned, and in his prayer he asks: Father, I gave them your word, and the world hated them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. I do not pray that you will take them out of the world, but that you will keep them from the Evil One (Jn 17:14-15).
The heart of Jesus given for the world
It is right in the world that we have to live, a fullness to be experienced, to be received. To belong to the world would be to be in its grip, as it goes. Our hearts as men and women are so wounded, so shocked in the face of massacres, social, political, climatic dangers the difficulties of getting involved. Jesus has come, as Ignatius portrays him in his Exercises at no. 102:
The three divine Persons, contemplating the surface of the earth covered with men, and seeing that all are rushing into hell, decree, in their eternity, that the second Person of the august Trinity become man to save the human race; and how this mystery is accomplished, when in the fullness of time the Archangel Gabriel was sent to Mary.
Learning the discernment of spirits
It’s hard to hear: all men are rushing to hell! The shock is salutary. And the shifts suggested by John, and by Ignatius give us precious indications. We learn to distinguish Jesus: like Him, and at His request, we must be kept from the Evil One. It is through Him that this is possible. He is the One of the Trinity who suffered, died and rose again.
Following Christ more closely
For others, in Catholic Action, walking in the footsteps of Jesus opens up a happy, familiar perspective, which passes through the hard words of Jesus to Peter, who did not want to think that Jesus could die through the rejection of men: ‘If anyone wants to walk in my footsteps, let him renounce himself, take up his cross and follow me’. The rest is clear: ‘Whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it! Jesus knows how to find the words to make himself understood.
Find out about our Life Project&
Find out about our Life Project&
Towards an abundant life
Faced with the challenges of today’s society it’s all about moving from the survival instinct to Life in Abundance! And that means the joyful freedom to give one’s life, say these committed activists.
Paul also prayed to the Father, addressing the Christians of Ephesus: ‘may he give you the power of his Spirit, so that the inner man may be strengthened in you’. Where our heart is.
The wounded heart of Jesus
That is how Jesus is on the Cross, Wounded Heart, while a few remain with Him. I love the way Maurice Bellet sums up this whole journey in his book Incipit, in one sentence: ‘To the love between us, God does not add Himself, He manifests Himself in it, and the man of this manifestation is the One who loves to the end.’ This is how we love to receive from the Heart of Jesus the strength that otherwise fails us if we do not draw it from there :
The Heart of Jesus is the most transparent sign of God’s love for mankind. (Project for Life n°10)
A force of Love, source of Life in abundance, in all things and circumstances, our hearts beating in His to live His Word, in the midst of the world.
