Indeed, Passionists do not stop. They seek new marshlands by vigilantly listening to Christ’s present groaning—with the planet, immigrants and refugees, human trafficking victims, stressed workaholic populace, young people thirsty of relationship and meaning. Pope Francis challenged the Passionists: “…the strength and simplicity of your message…can (very well) speak to today’s society, which has learnt to no longer trust mere words, or let itself be convinced only by facts. In 1988, Fr. Carl Schmitz, a Passionist working with the B’laan tribes in southern Philippines, was gunned down on the stairs of his mission. Months before that, Fr. Carl received anonymous advices telling him to leave the mountain and go down to the parishes in the city. A priest’s daily job is to be in a church not in houses and farms of rebels, one advice went. Fr. Carl could answer only in his masses. He would say that the daily work of a Passionist is to deliver God’s love—not only in the church but more in those far from church: farms, lakes, copra ovens, and mountain shacks.
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Revised October 2021
Khalil Gibran’s ‘Prophet’, when asked to speak about pain, says: “Pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding. Even as the stone of the fruit must break so that its heart may stand in the sun, so must you know pain” Awakening to the terrible reality of human suffering breaks open our heart. Then love and action in the service of justice becomes possible. Appreciating and trying to live our first vow as Passionists to keep alive the Memoria Passionis should offer a clue as to how that shell may be broken. It should also give us some tools for critical reflection on our contemporary experience Paul of the Cross began his great work in a world in transition. The Peace of Westphalia in 1648, less than 50 years before his birth, marked the waning of the political influence of papacy and empire, the two major medieval powers. ‘Enlightenment’ ideas began to make themselves felt. The church would no longer set the agenda; religious communities, dislodged from the center, would find themselves ‘at the edge’. In this world Paul found the drawing force of his life in contemplating the Crucified God. From here came his passion for life. The Crucified One led Paul to the ones he saw as the poorest, those who did not know God’s love and had no hope. Paul saw the name of Jesus on their foreheads. We are called to continue the great work in a world still rocked by massive change. At the start of the 3rd millennium, "to see reality in our time is to see the world as crucifixion." [1] [1] The Nonviolent Cross, Jim Douglass, first published 1968; republished by Wipf & Stock, Eugene, Ore. 2006 (Photo: iStock) On Human Rights and Responsibilities By Fr. Ronan Newbold, CP and John Gonzalez Rev. 2021 Excerpt: As in sacred scripture, the exact words “human rights” and “human dignity” are difficult terms to find in the rules of Religious Men and Women. However, in our Passionist Rule and Constitutions of 1984, Article # 72, we read the following: “Guided by the teaching of the Church and our own consecration to the Passion of Christ, we strive to make our lives and apostolate an authentic and credible witness on behalf of justice and human dignity. “Accordingly, our life-style must stand out as a prophetic condemnation of the injustices among which we live; it should be a continual witness against the abuses of a consumer society.” In the sentence above “human dignity” appears describing how we are to live and what we are to preach Read the full PDF fileRevised October 2021 Jesus’ public witness to truth, and unconditional and inclusive love, was for Him not to return evil for evil. Through the three years of public life in the face of rejection, abandonment, threats, disappointment, betrayal, torture and death he would not return evil for evil. The Paschal Mystery of Jesus Christ is the basis for a nonviolent response to the causes of suffering in the world. There is no compromising the essential nature of the Eucharist as the celebration of the Lord’s death reconciling us to God and to one another. We worship a nonviolent God whose unconditional love seeks to unite all enemies. The vows of religious life are the underpinnings for a non-violent stance to that which is counter to the plan of God – living justly, creating the beloved community, and service for the sake of the dignity of all.. We vow to live simply. In the face of the powers that threaten the loss of everything, we stand with nothing to lose. We vow to love wholesomely with honesty. In the face of the threatened loss of human love we stand with an affectionate love for the dignity of others, even the enemy. We vow obedience to the will of God. In the face of the popularity of approval from the masses, we respond to the voice within, affirmed by the voice of leadership, which moves us toward the most abandoned. And, a non-violent response to all forms of violence is promoting devotion to the suffering love of Jesus Christ crucified. |
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