We Are Not Alone We Are Social Creatures
Your Success in Your Environmental Support
During World Youth Day in July 2008, Benedict XVI recalls the legacy we have received from generations past, and encourage his listeners to build their strong Christian life and a more humane society and world.
Each generation must consider what will be left for them in the future: What we should do, and how we should do it, the world of tomorrow will be better than it is now. “Faith teaches us that in Jesus Christ, the Word has become flesh, we are becoming more and more aware of how great our own humanity is, the mystery of our lives in the world and the sublime destiny that awaits us in Heaven (cf. Gaudium et Spes, no 24). Faith also teaches us that we are God's creatures, created similar and in accordance with His image, blessed with an indomitable pride and called to eternal life.” The Christian message enables us to realize true human dignity, and gives us the ability to act in accordance with the truth.
Society needs the spirit of evangelizing the truth of the Church, which sends the ever-relevant message of Christ's teaching. And our Lord, when he makes it clear to us by His example, requires us Christians to care for those around us, and to serve society. This is the secret of Christian joy; to be the messenger of Christ.
Apostleship, the manifestation of charity
The apostolate arises from our self-awareness of the mission of charity in which God calls us. Christians are living witnesses of the charity of Christ among men and women and to unite them. This is why apostleship cannot be just an ordinary tactic or strategy for bringing the soul to God; nor does it consist of a series of tasks, for it flows naturally from love. We always remember that effectiveness comes from God, even though He uses the attitude tendencies of everyone.
Charity and apostolate help each other; in fact, we can say that they are inseparable, because charity leads to creativity in discovering how we can improve our service to others. The message that St. Josemar received was also important in the relationship between charity and apostolate, and emphasized both that charity which is apostolic, and the apostolate done for loveis identified with friendship. “charity needs for us to live a friendship.”
“As a Christian, as the Son of God, friendship and charity are one and the same thing. They are divine light that spreads warmth.” The nobleness of charity enables us to understand the deepest reality about our neighbors. With the help of the Grace of God, we Christians find in every Son of God, brother or sister of Christ; we find God Himself there, who gives us His image in the person of man, so that we may treat him with respect and honor him as he ought. Apostleship, which aims to be one and the same thing as friendship, simply “glorifies”-I insist-the image of God is found in every and all human beings, and do all we can to make them contemplate on His image, so that they may learn to turn to Christ.”
True charity is not the same as natural compassion; it is further from family relationships or friendships based on common interests or entertainment; nor is it just the compassion we feel for those who feel lonely or suffer in some way. It is measured by the love that Christ expresses in “new covenant,” the love of God Himself, the Love that I have and I will always have for you, because its source is the intimate life of the Holy Trinity. It is love that is not subdued by physical or personal shortcomings; it is a desire “to be with the children of man” that neither sin, rejection, nor the Cross can withstand it. The nobleness of charity is the love that God Himself instills in every Christian heart, to take and raise all human love to the level of the Adikodrati, all our longings and aspirations.
Whoever does not love, does not know God; for God is love. We can interpret the word from Saint John, adding that those who do not love do not know their neighbors either, because they do not recognize the image of God in other human beings. A lack of charity can affect people's intellectual intelligence and other abilities in such a way that they do not become insensitive to God's demands and unforgiveness to show gratitude to others. Worse, it makes it impossible for God Himself to acknowledge such a person as His Son: as if God were prevented from reaching out to the souls of those who shut themselves off from Grace.
The most important thing for everyone
Charity has full meaning when we place ourselves fully in service to others, when we recognize that the Christian vocation consists in making ourselves a gift to others, so many men and women can meet Christ.
The real evidence of friendship is putting the interests of others first, giving them our time and attention. This is the key that Saint Josemar gives us to show Christ to others. And Jesus teaches us with His life - He always makes time to dedicate Himself to each individual, to spend time with everyone. Charity has full meaning at a time when the lives of others have become more important to me. People who meet a true Christian need to find God's own love, as they witness how they are treated, how they are so valued, how they are listened to, how their goodness counts, how they were given the opportunity to be part of the Adikodrati adventure.
We need to provide effective help to souls through spiritual direction (even if this term is not used) it is part of our apostolate. “Meditate on this: the most powerful and most effective means, if not used properly, become dents, fatigue, and useless.” In a positive sense, we should strive to help each individual to recognize the talents God has given them, and to see how they use them to serve others. We need to encourage their initiative, as Jesus did to the Apostles, to prepare them one by one, trying to draw out the best of all people. We try to figure out their situation, their family and their professional responsibilities, and put ourselves in their shoes. We share with them the cares and challenges of today's society, and the mission of the Church and His Work, in a world so desperately seeking light and salt, without even realizing it.
And always season everything with the salt of charity. Love is patient, it is generous, it is not jealous, it is not boastful and it is not arrogant; it does not do that which is disrespectful, does not seek its own benefit, it does not seek its own gain, he is not angry and harbors no faults of others, he does not rejoice at injustice but rejoices at the truth; he covers everything, believes everything, expects everything, patience to endure everything. Charity is always ready to seek what is best for everyone, where it requires a great and generous heart, learning to ignore the shortcomings of others such as our own shortcomings, such as those of ourselves, rising from anger, a bad mood or a harsh answer. The charitable person is patient, with a spirit of fortitude: they understand how to wait, never humiliate others, endure everything for love; they do not complain, they understand how to wait, or rejoice over the suffering of others or setbacks, and do not seek to stand out. They are always ready to give friendly words of understanding and peace.
Value of friendship
By his example, Saint Josemar taught us how to be friends for our friends. A friend, as the classical writers write, is another self - someone who helps make our lives more tolerable, who is always there for us in our predicament, and share our joys and sorrows. A friend is someone who can share secrets because we can trust them. We must all be able to rely on one another, so as to walk the path of life in this way, to make our aspirations fruitful, to overcome difficulties, to benefit from the results of our efforts. Because of the great importance of friendship, not only with man but also on the divine plane.
Friendship is something that is easy to notice; it is almost a real reality: we can feel that we are in harmony with a friend, that there is a relationship between us, that there is a relationship between us, that we enjoy each other's friendship. For Christians, friendship is raised on a new level by Grace, and becomes a way to communicate the life of Christ to others. Thus friendship is transformed into a real gift from God, inseparable from charity.
We all need to grow in our appreciation for the value of friendship, and widen the circle of our acquaintances. As Christians we need to build a positive dialogue with a wide variety of people, and never allow our own opinions to result in unfair discrimination, or our behavior or words that offend those who have different views. To achieve this, we need to be willing to listen and try to understand their reasons for what they are doing; otherwise there will be a true dialogue, because people will quickly realize we are not interested in what they are saying. We need to learn to see from the perspective of others.
This does not mean that we should produce things that do not depend on us—because they belong to God—or hide or twist the teachings of Christ out of fear of hurting someone. Such behavior would be akin to deceiving someone we love, covering the only path to truth that can satisfy the longing of the human heart and heal their exhaustion. Rather, the love of Christ strengthens our own point of view, while providing peace in our hearts and tenderness in the way we express ourselves. Thus we will bring the message of hope and salvation of our Lord more attractive to others: when we give advice, when we correct one's attitude, when we correct one's, our affection for our friends will lead us to use their painless words or imply that we judge them. Our words will be regarded as what they are: a sincere desire for the happiness of our friends.
Then we will experience the truth of the words of Saint Ignatius of Antioch: “Christianity is not a work of persuasion, but of greatness.” Greatness is the charity of Christ, because people will be attracted to God not by our arguments but by what they see in us, by the grace of God.
“Each generation of Christians needs to redeem, to sanctify its own time. To do this, he must understand and share the desire to others - each other - to make them known, with “gifts of tongue ,’ how they relate to the actions of the Holy Spirit, to make them known, with a permanent stream of treasure coming from the heart of our Lord. We Christians are called to announce, in our own time, to this world where we are and where we live, the message - old and new at the same time - of the Gospel.”
