Attentive to the appeals of the world
5. Attentive to the appeals of the world
The life of oblation stirred up in our hearts [35]
by the freely-given love of the Lord
conforms us to the oblation
of Him, who, through love,
is totally given to the Father
and totally given to people.
This life leads us to search
ever more faithfully
with the poor and obedient Lord
for the will of the Father for us and the world.
This life makes us attentive
to the appeals He makes to us
through small and great events,
and in human expectations and achievements.
We know that today's world [36]
is in the throes
of an intense struggle for liberation:
liberation from all that harms
the dignity of people
and threatens the realization
of their most profound aspirations:
truth, justice,
love, freedom (cf. GS 26-27).
"Beneath all these demands
lies a deeper and more widespread longing.
Persons and societies thirst
for a full and free life worthy of man ...
The modern world shows itself
at once powerful and weak,
capable of the noblest deeds or the foulest.
Before it lies the path to freedom or to slavery,
to progress or retreat, to brotherhood or hatred.
Moreover, man is becoming aware
that it is his responsibility to guide aright
the forces which he has unleashed
and which can enslave him or minister to him.
That's why he is putting questions to himself" (GS 9).
Through all these questions and searching [37]
we perceive the expectation
of a response
that people hope for,
without succeeding in fully formulating it.
We share these aspirations of our contemporaries,
as the possible opening
to the coming of a more human world,
even if they may also include the risk
of failure and degradation.
In faith,
in fidelity to the Church's teaching,
we associate them with the coming of the Kingdom
that God promised and actualized in His Son.
Far from making us strangers to people, [38]
our profession of the evangelical counsels
puts us into greater solidarity with their life.
In our manner of being and acting
by participating in constructing the earthly city
and building up the Body of Christ,
we should be an effective sign
that it is the Kingdom of God and His justice
which should be sought
above all and in all (cf. Matt. 6:33).
"Let no one think that by their consecration
religious have become strangers to their fellow men
or useless citizens of this earthly city.
Even though in some instances
religious do not directly
mingle with their contemporaries,
yet in a more profound sense
these same religious are united with them
in the Heart of Christ
and cooperate with them spiritually,
In this way the work of building up the earthly city
can always have its foundation in the Lord
and can tend toward Him.
Otherwise, those who build this city
will perhaps have labored in vain" (LG 46).
With the grace of God [39]
we would like to bear prophetic witness
by our religious life:
by involving ourselves without reserve
for the coming of the new humanity
in Jesus Christ.