Intentions of the Holy Father for April

Ecology and Justice. That governments may foster the protection of creation and the just distribution of natural resources.
Hope for the Sick. That the Risen Lord may fill with hope the hearts of those who are being tested by pain and sickness.

The Meaning of Charitable Work


A charism is a gift that God gives to a person or group so that they can give it to the Church and the world. Part of Communion and Liberation's charism is apostolate. Apostolate is a work of evangelization or service in the world coordinated under the authority of the Church, however loosely, for the purpose of showing Christ's love to the world. Some twenty odd years ago the Holy Father asked Communion and Liberation (CL) to direct its members to focus their apostolic work toward educational endeavors. CL's founder, Fr. Luigi Giussani (1922-2005), wrote a brief tract called The Meaning of Charitable Work. Here is an excerpt:


"Hoping in Christ, everything has a meaning: Christ. I discover this, finally, in the place where I do charitable work, precisely by means of the final powerlessness of my love; it is the experience in which the intelligence discovers wisdom, true culture."


It has been in doing my very best to serve someone, to improve their condition, to help them grow or heal, when those best efforts fail, that I have realized these three things: (1) my work must not be to save the world, because I cannot do that, and thanks be to God the job is already taken by Someone much better qualified than me; (2) my work must be about serving Jesus, because that I can do in my own weak little way; (3) my work will be magnified in its effect if I look to Jesus for help in firm awareness of #1 and #2.

2 comments:

Ojus98 said...

Ryan
Congrats!
Very nice blog!

Eduardo
from Paraguay, South America.

Unknown said...

Thanks, Ojus!