Father, into your hands I commend my spirit (Lk 23, 46)<\/i><\/p>\n
We suffer.\u00a0 We are injured and we get hurt.\u00a0 We are not exempt from afflictions and infirmities.\u00a0 We are old enough to die the day we are born.<\/p>\n
With all this, the missionaries of God\u2019s kingdom and healing are promised that nothing will harm them.\u00a0 Those sent by Jesus\u2014even those not belonging to the \u201chierarchy\u201d\u2014receive from him the power to resist Satan.<\/p>\n
Jesus does not tell them to go and hunt for serpents, so they can later show them being handled alive.\u00a0 To foster peace is part of their mission, but the perfect harmony prophesied in Is 11, 6-9 does not reign yet.<\/p>\n
For now, then, one is better off staying away from cobras and adders.\u00a0 And watch out, they are still predators, the wolves, the leopards and the lions.\u00a0 Lambs still face harm and ruin.<\/p>\n
Reality remaining so, then there must be this other meaning to Jesus\u2019 promise:\u00a0 no harm is done to those who suffer harm but are not vanquished by it.\u00a0 The disciples who imitate the Teacher will make and see Satan fall from the sky.<\/p>\n
Jesus, subjected to the punishment of the cross, affirms his trust of the Father.\u00a0 He cries out to him from the depth of his heart, intoning, \u201cMy God, my God, why have you forsaken me?\u201d<\/p>\n
As the Suffering Servant, he is the fulfillment of what the people of Israel should be:\u00a0 totally submissive to the Lord and relying on him, anointed with the Spirit and sent to evangelize the poor, the light of the nations, justice and praise before them.\u00a0 His faithfulness in the midst of tribulations will not be without recompense; the Lord will comfort him.<\/p>\n
Indeed, we have to be like Jesus.\u00a0 We shall persevere in running the missionary race, our eyes fixed on the one who endured the cross and is now seated at the right of God\u2019s throne.\u00a0 We will despise the shame of suffering and not let ourselves be brought down.\u00a0 We shall encourage ourselves by thinking of the countless martyrs, more numerous today than yesterday (Pope Francis).<\/p>\n
Our trust in God will be such that, grounded in love, we can be sure\u2014as St. Vincent de Paul teaches\u2014that no evil will happen to us and everything will work for our good, even if it seems we are headed to ruin (Rules of the C.M.<\/i> II, 2; Coste XI, 39-40).<\/p>\n
And we will pray to the master of the harvest, without fretting too much about laborers being few and even scandalous at times.\u00a0 We alarmists, inclined to harshness, shall remember St. Vincent\u2019s advice about God showing himself not in commotion but in calm (Coste II, 69-74).\u00a0 Maybe the master already sends us reapers, only we do not recognize them, madly rigid have we become (Pope Francis) and drunk with our usual expectations.<\/p>\n
We will rely, moreover, on Jesus\u2019 missionary instructions.\u00a0 Collaboration and sharing are important to him.\u00a0 He asks us co-workers to be poor, eating and drinking what is offered us, simple, resolute, and so selfless that we even avoid every appearance of opportunism.\u00a0 He wants us to be always available to go to our mission promptly and with a sense of urgency, not weighed down by too much baggage.<\/p>\n
Finally, we will boast of the marks of suffering and will devote ourselves to proclaiming the death of the Lord until he comes.\u00a0 It will indicate that we have Satan vanquished, yes.\u00a0 But above all, it will be our living confession that the miraculous that matters and makes us rejoice is not that nothing harms us, but rather that we endure harm, so that we become like the Wounded Healer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"