Ascension of The Lord
"Go out to the whole world; proclaim the Good News!"
He lives in our midst!
Mark 16:15-20

1. Opening prayer

Lord Jesus, send Your Spirit to help us to read the Scriptures with the same mind that You read them to the disciples on the way to Emmaus. In the light of the Word, written in the Bible, You helped them to discover the presence of God in the disturbing events of Your sentence and death. Thus, the cross that seemed to be the end of all hope became for them the source of life and of resurrection.

Create in us silence so that we may listen to Your voice in Creation and in the Scriptures, in events and in people, above all in the poor and suffering. May Your word guide us so that we too, like the two disciples from Emmaus, may experience the force of Your resurrection and witness to others that You are alive in our midst as source of fraternity, justice and peace. We ask this of You, Jesus, son of Mary, who revealed to us the Father and sent us Your Spirit. Amen.

2. Reading

a) A key to the reading:

The liturgy of the feast of the Ascension presents us with a scene where Jesus appears to the disciples and confers on them the mission of going to the whole world to proclaim the Good News. The text of Mark's Gospel (Mk 16:9-20) is the final section of the appendix of that Gospel (Mk 16:15-20). We expand the brief commentary to include the whole of the appendix. During the reading we need to pay attention to the following point: "To whom does Jesus appear, what are the various aspects of the mission and what are the signs of His presence in the community?"

b) A division of the text as an aid to the reading:

Mark 16:9-11: Jesus appears to Mary Magdalene.

Mark 16:12-13: Jesus appears to two disciples.

Mark 16:14-18: Jesus appears to the eleven and gives them a mission.

Mark 16:19-20: Jesus ascends into heaven in the presence of the disciples.

c) The text:

Jesus said to his disciples: “Go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved; whoever does not believe will be condemned. These signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will drive out demons, they will speak new languages. They will pick up serpents with their hands, and if they drink any deadly thing, it will not harm them. They will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”

So then the Lord Jesus, after he spoke to them, was taken up into heaven and took his seat at the right hand of God. But they went forth and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the word through accompanying signs.

3. A moment of prayerful silence

so that the Word of God may penetrate and enlighten our life.

4. Some questions

to help us in our personal reflection.

a) How do we handle discerning and verifying the news we hear today? What news today would be able to make us change our lives completely as news of the Resurrection did back then?

b) To whom does Jesus manifest Himself alive and how do they react (Mk 16:9-20)?

c) In this text, who has the greatest difficulty in believing in the resurrection?

d) As Paul says, "God brought us to life with Christ…and gave us a place with Him in heaven" (Eph 2:6). How does this affirmation help us to understand the meaning of the Ascension?

e) What are the signs of Jesus' presence within the community? What is the meaning of each sign? What is our personal involvement, reaction and response to each?

f) What signs best convince people today of the presence of Jesus in our midst?

5. A key to the reading

to enter deeper into the theme.

i) The context:

The appendix of Mark's Gospel offers a list of Jesus' appearances (Mk 16:9-20). There are other lists but they do not always coincide. The list given by Paul in his letter to the Corinthians is quite different (1Cor 15:3-8). These differences show that, in the beginning, Christians were not concerned about describing or proving the resurrection. For them, faith in the resurrection was so vivid and evident that there was no need to prove it. The communities themselves, living and persevering among so many challenges and persecutions from the Roman Empire, were living proof of the truth of the resurrection.

The people of that time were not easily convinced of things. They demanded proof all along the way, from the Pharisees to Thomas. Considerable weight must be given to the way the first communities lived out their witness. The Gospels are not a general history book. Much is also handed down through tradition (Jn 21:25). Consider, even in that time, the Jews paid to create false news stories of the Resurrection. Belief within the first communities, despite death and persecution, is more convincing than logical arguments for us today. Their radical change of life proves they experienced Jesus and the Gospel in reality.

ii) Commentary on the text:

a) Mark 16:9-11: Jesus appears to Mary Magdalene, but the other disciples do not believe her.

Jesus first appears to Mary Magdalene and she announces this to the others. To come into the world, God chose to depend on the yes of Mary of Nazareth (Lk 1:38). To be recognized as living in our midst, He chose to depend on the word of Mary Magdalene who had been freed from seven devils.

Mark says that Jesus appeared first to Mary Magdalene. In this he agrees with the other three Evangelists (cf. Mt 28:9-10; Jn 20:16; Lk 24:9-11). But on the list of appearances given in the Letter to the Corinthians (1Cor 15:3-8), there is no mention of any appearances to the women. The first Christians found it difficult to believe the witness of women. This was a condition of the society at the time.

b) Mark 16:12-13: Jesus appears to two disciples

The story of Jesus' appearance to the two disciples who were walking in the fields is probably a reference to Jesus' appearance to the disciples from Emmaus who, on returning, shared their experience of the resurrection with "the eleven” and their companions (Lk 24:33-34). Only here, Mark differs from Luke because the others did not believe in the witness of the two disciples.

c) Mark 16:14: Jesus scolds the eleven for their incredulity

Finally, Jesus appears to the eleven disciples gathered at table and scolds then because they have not believed those who had seen Him risen. For the third time, Mark makes reference to the resistance of the disciples to believe the witness of those who had experienced the resurrection of Jesus. Why does Mark insist so much on the incredulity of the disciples? Probably to teach two things: first, that faith in the risen Jesus is transmitted through the faith of those who give witness to it; second, that no one must give up hope when doubt or confusion arises in one's heart. Even the eleven had doubts!

d) Mark 16:15-18: The signs that go with the proclamation of the Good News

Jesus immediately confers the mission of announcing the Good News to all creation. The requirement for anyone who wishes to be saved is this: to believe and be baptized. To those who have the courage to believe in the Good News and are baptized, He promises the following signs: (1) they will drive out devils; (2) they will speak in new tongues; (3) they will hold snakes in their hands; (4) if they drink poison it will not harm them; (5) they will lay hands on the sick and these will be healed. These signs take place even now:

* to drive out devils is to fight the power of evil that chokes life. The life of many people has improved since they entered in community and have started to live the good news of the presence of God. By participating in the life of the community, they drive out evil from their lives.

* to speak in new tongues: is to begin to communicate with others in a new way. Sometimes we meet someone whom we have never met before, but it is as if we have known each other for a long time. This is because we speak the same language of love. The way of thinking about others and speaking to them is different than what our original inclination was.

* to hold snakes in one's hand and to overcome poison: there are so many things that poison our life and living together. Gossip breaks down relationships for instance, as does envy, hate, pride, and many others. Those who live in the presence of God can overcome these deadly poisons. “Snakes”, as in serpents, can refer back to the devil’s interaction in the Garden. We are able to restrain these demons who attack us.

* to heal the sick: wherever we have a clearer awareness of the presence of God, we find also special care for those excluded and marginalized, especially the sick. What best restores health is welcoming and loving care. To “lay hands on” means to touch. It demands more than tossing a donation in a cup. Touching creates a bond of friendship, whereas a donation is more like a transaction.

e) Mark 16:19-20: Through the community, Jesus continues His mission

The Jesus who, in Palestine, welcomed the poor and revealed to them the love of the Father, is the same Jesus who now continues to be present in our midst in our communities, from couples to families to parishes and religious orders. Through us, He continues His mission of revealing the Good News of the love of God for the poor. To this day, the resurrection still takes place. No earthly power can neutralize the force that comes from faith in the resurrection (Rom 8:35-39). A community that wants to witness to the resurrection must be a sign of life, must fight against the power of death. So that the world may become a place of life, that community must believe that another world is possible. Above all, where the life of the people is in danger because of a system of death that is imposed, the community must be a living proof of the hope that conquers the world, without fear of unhappiness!

iii) Further information on the Gospel of Mark - God's surprises:

From the start, Mark's Gospel insists that  "The time has come…and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe the Good News" (Mk 1:15). This initial request for conversion and faith shows us the door through which we have access to Jesus and the Good News of God that He brings. There is no other access. Faith demands belief in Jesus, in His Word, accepting Him unconditionally. We are invited to not shield ourselves with any name or title, doctrine or custom, and to keep ourselves always open to the surprises of God which demand a constant conversion. Names and titles, doctrines and customs, devotions and pleadings are like a tag that we wear on our chest for identification. The tag is important because it helps us and directs us when necessary to meet a person we are looking for. But when we meet, we do not look at the tag any more, but at the face! Very often, when we meet the person we are looking for he or she is quite different from what we imagined before. The meeting always carries some surprises! More so our meeting with God in Jesus. Throughout Mark's Gospel there are many surprises for the disciples, and these come from where they least expect them:

* from a pagan who gives Peter a lesson because he recognizes the presence of God in the crucified one (Mk 15:39);

* from a poor widow who gives her all to share with others (Mk 12:43-44);

* from a blind man who annoys the disciples by calling out and who does not even have a definite belief (Mk 10:46-52);

* from marginalized little ones who believe in Jesus (Mk 9:42);

* from those who use the name of Jesus to fight evil but who do not belong to the "Church" (Mk 9:38-40);

* from an anonymous woman who scandalizes the disciples by her manner of acting (Mk 14:3-9);

* from a father of a family who is obliged to carry the cross and becomes a model disciple (Mk 15:21)

* from Joseph of Arimathea who risks everything by asking for the body of Jesus to give it burial (Mk 15:43).

* from women who, then, could not be official witnesses but were chosen by Jesus as expert witnesses of His resurrection (Mk 15:40.47; 16:6.9-10).

In a word: The twelve disciples who were specially called by Jesus (Mk 3:13-19) and who were sent by Him on a mission (Mk 6:7-13), failed. Peter denied Him (Mk 14:66-72), Judas betrayed Him (Mk 14:44-45) and all fled (Mk 14:50). But it is precisely through their failure that is shown the strength of faith of the others who were not part of the group of the chosen twelve. The community must clearly be aware that it does not own Jesus nor does it own all the criteria of the action of God in our midst. Jesus does not belong to us, but we, the community, the Church, belong to Jesus, and Jesus is of God (1Cor 3:23). The greatest surprise of all is the resurrection!

6. Psalm 27 (26)

Courage born of faith

The Lord is my light and my salvation;
whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the stronghold of my life;
of whom shall I be afraid?

When evildoers assail me,
uttering slanders against me,
my adversaries and foes,
they shall stumble and fall.

Though a host encamp against me,
my heart shall not fear;
though war arise against me,
yet I will be confident.

One thing have I asked of the Lord,
that will I seek after;
that I may dwell in the house of the Lord
all the days of my life,
to behold the beauty of the Lord,
and to inquire in His temple.

For He will hide me in His shelter in the day of trouble;
He will conceal me under the cover of His tent,
He will set me high upon a rock.

And now my head shall be lifted up
above my enemies round about me;
and I will offer in His tent sacrifices with shouts of joy;
I will sing and make melody to the Lord.

Hear, O Lord, when I cry aloud,
be gracious to me and answer me!
Thou hast said, "Seek ye My face."
My heart says to Thee,
"Thy face, Lord, do I seek."

Hide not Thy face from me.
Turn not Thy servant away in anger,
Thou who hast been my help.
Cast me not off, forsake me not,
O God of my salvation!
For my father and my mother have forsaken me,
but the Lord will take me up.

Teach me Thy way, O Lord;
and lead me on a level path because of my enemies.
Give me not up to the will of my adversaries;
for false witnesses have risen against me,
and they breathe out violence.

I believe that I shall see the goodness of the Lord
in the land of the living!
Wait for the Lord; be strong,
and let your heart take courage;
yea, wait for the Lord!

7. Final Prayer

Lord Jesus, we thank You for the word that has enabled us to understand better the will of the Father. May Your Spirit enlighten our actions and grant us the strength to practice that which Your Word has revealed to us. May we, like Mary, Your mother, not only listen to but also practice the Word. You who live and reign with the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit forever and ever. Amen.

Jesus’ commandment
John 15:9-17

1. Opening prayer

Father, You are the source of life and You always surprise us with Your gifts. Grant us the grace of responding to the call of Your Son Jesus who has called us friends, so that in following Him, our Master and Shepherd, we may learn to observe His commandments, the new and definitive Law that is Himself, the way leading to You and of remaining in You. Through Christ Your Son, our Lord.  Amen.

2. The text

Jesus said to his disciples: "As the Father loves me, so I also love you. Remain in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and remain in his love. "I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and your joy might be complete. This is my commandment: love one another as I love you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I no longer call you slaves, because a slave does not know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father. It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you. This I command you: love one another."

3. Reading

The context of our passage already determines the tone: this is Jesus’ long discourse to His disciples during the Last Supper and after the washing of the feet of the disciples, which, according to John, characterizes Jesus’ ministry of love even to the end (Jn 13:1-15). If we look at these compact chapters, we can see a dynamism which goes from a gesture as such, the washing of the feet, a gesture in keeping with Jesus’ works as signs of His identity and which appeal to the faith of those looking on and listening, to the long discourse addressed to His disciples. It is an indication of the required attitude and the reality to look for, even including the prayer of Jesus to the Father (Jn 17), a prayer that goes beyond the circle of His disciples for the benefit of all those who believe in Him in all times. There is an ascending movement of the narrative that coincides with the raising of Jesus on the cross, an upward movement perceived by John as the glorification of Jesus and one that ultimately describes Easter as the passing of the Word from humanity back to the Father.

In Jesus’ discourse, expressions follow one another closely, which is neither oppressive in its rhythm nor tiring. Each expression is complete, simple, incisive, and places the Jesus of John in a continuity of favorite themes and terms.

Just before this passage, Jesus spoke of Himself as the true vine (Jn 15:1). It is an image describing two relationships: the Father, who is the vine dresser, and the disciples, who are the branches. This image is revealing. Besides being an exhortation to the disciples, it is a given fact: the Father looks after His precious plants, and looks after the relationship established between Jesus and His disciples, so that the disciples now live in a communion that defines them. The exhortation is expressed in the very image itself, and is made explicit and centered in the word “remain.” The disciples are called to remain in Jesus just like the branches remain in the vine so as to have life and bear fruit. The theme of bearing fruit is also that of asking and receiving, which recurs in our passage, putting before us an example of John’s special style of hinting and echoing. The tone of verse 9 changes because there is no longer an image but a direct reference to a relationship: “I have loved you just as the Father has loved Me”. Jesus places Himself in a descending order that goes from God to humanity. The verb “to love” has already occurred in chapter 14 in connection with the observance of the commandments. In our passage it occurs again in a new synthesis where the “commandments” give way to “the commandment” of Jesus: “My command to you is to love one another” (Jn 15:17). This reciprocal relationship is repeated immediately after in an incisive command: “remain in my love.” Jesus goes from the verb “to love”, to the substantive “love”, to show that the action flowing from the Father through the Son to humanity has created a new order of things, a possibility which was unthinkable until then. In verse 10, the observance of Jesus’ commandments is for the disciples, a way of responding to His love in an analogical and real continuity of the way the Son, who has observed the commandments of the Father, has done. This perspective is quite different from that of the legalism that had monopolized the terms “law” and “commandments.”  Everything is referred to Jesus in a truer perspective: a response of love to the love received. The proclamation of the possibility of remaining in the presence of God. The words in verse 11 become a further way out of the legalistic mentality: the aim is joy, a joy of relationship, the joy of Christ in His disciples, and their joy present in its fullness.

In verse 12, as we have already said, the discourse becomes more urgent. Jesus says that His commandments are a single one: “that you love one another as I have loved you.” Notice how the line of relationships remains the same, always as a response: the disciples will love one another in the way that Jesus has loved them. What follows, however, re-establishes in absolute terms the primacy of Jesus’ gift: “No one can have greater love than to lay down his life for his friends” (v. 13). This is an action that lifts the terms of involvement to its highest point, the gift of life. Here we have a conspicuous digression in the new name given to the disciples, namely that of “friends” as opposed to that of “servants”. The difference lies in the fact that the servant does not know what his master is planning. The servant is called to do and that is all. Jesus’ discourse follows a thread: it is because He has loved His disciples and is about to give His life for them that He has revealed to them His Father’s plan. He did this by means of His signs and works. He will do this in the greatest of His works, His death on the cross. Again Jesus shows His close relationship with the Father: “I have made known to you everything I have learned from my Father” (v. 15). Yet at the center of this affirmation to His disciples as friends Jesus expresses an order of things: “You are My friends if you do what I command you” (v. 14).

The final verses of our passage recall the image of the vine with the added statements above: It is Jesus who has chosen His disciples, not the other way around. The initiative is His. However, the image of the vine planted in the soil is presented differently. The disciples are called so that they may go, and it is in this going that they will bear fruit; then the fruit is meant to remain (the same word used as in remaining in Jesus’ love).

The identity of the disciples is based on the choice made by Jesus and points to a journey to be undertaken, a fruit to be borne. The picture is complete: the call in the past, the present listening, and the future bearing of fruit. Yet there is still someone who must be considered, there is still an attitude to acquire. “To bear fruit” may lead the disciples towards unilateral action. However, the words “so that” connect the bearing of fruit to what follows: to ask and to receive, to experience need and to receive the gift abundantly and freely given (“anything you ask”). That someone whom Jesus reveals is the Father, source of love and of the mission of the Son, the Father to whom we may turn to in the name of the Son to that extent we have remained in His love. The conclusion is given in a solemn and concise form: “My command to you is to love one another.”

4. Meditation

Jesus’ words just before his glorification tell the Church the meaning of following Him and His demands. They are strong words, mirroring the glory of Him who will freely give His life for the salvation of the world (cf. Jn 10:17-18). They are also precise words: simple, essential, close, connected and typical of a farewell discourse where repetition becomes a pressing and gentle appeal. To be a disciple of Christ is first of all a gift: it is He who has chosen His own. It is He who has revealed to them His mission, and in doing so, has revealed the “background” of the plan of salvation: the will of the Father, the love between Father and Son, which is now communicated to humanity. The disciples now know. This knowledge will demand options so as not to remain in an empty and sterile pretense (cf. 1 Jn 4:8.20). “Remain” in the love of Jesus and observe His “commandments” is above all a revelation, the gift of a supreme possibility that frees people from a servile state even with respect to God and places them in a new, full and reciprocal relationship with Him, typical of friendship. “To remain in His love” is what the Synoptics would call the “kingdom of God,” a new stage in history, at first wounded and now freed.

In the Hebrew culture, the observance of the commandments was connected with pedantic teaching that often went into the smallest details. This had its value because it witnessed to an effort by pious Jews to remain faithful to God. Their image of God and relationship to Him also reflected their needs and abilities at the time as they interacted with neighboring cultures. However, they ran the risk, common to all human endeavors, of losing sight of God’s initiative and emphasizing the human response. In John’s Gospel, Jesus restores and renews the meaning of the “law” and the “commandments” with the concept of “love” and the invitation to “remain.” When Jesus proclaims and shows the love of the Father in the act of giving His life for the salvation of the world, He renews and personalizes this observance. It is love that reveals its quality, not in the abstract, but in the concrete and visible face of Christ who loves “to the end” and lives in person the greatest love. Several times Jesus describes His relationship with the Father. The fact that here He places himself under the sign of obedience to the Father gives new meaning to obedience. It is not the obedience of a servant but of a Son. The work to be accomplished, that is, “the commandments of My Father,” is not something separate from the person of Jesus, but that which He knows and desires wholeheartedly. The Word that was with the Father is always with Him to accomplish the things that please the Father in a communion that is life-giving. This is precisely what Jesus asks of His disciples: to keep in mind that “as the Father has loved… as I have loved you” must not remain on the level of an example, but on the level of action. The love of the Father is the source of the love expressed by the Son, and the love of the Son is the source of the love that the disciples will give to the world.

Knowledge and practice are thus closely connected in the “spiritual Gospel,” as John’s Gospel has been called by the Fathers of the Church. When faith is authentic, it will not put up with a dichotomy concerning life.

In this passage, the disciples appear as the object of the caring cure of their Master. He will not forget them, not even in the imminent trial to come, when He prays for them to the Father and “for those who through their teaching will come to believe in Me” (Jn 17:20). At the end of their listening, their welcoming, and their commitment, there is joy, which is the same as that of their Master. He has chosen them using criteria that only God knows, a choice that recalls the choice of Israel, the smallest of all nations. It is Jesus who has formed, taught and strengthened them. All this acquires a new and more intense meaning in the light of Easter and Pentecost. It is like a paradox, and this is what they are called to: to be steadfast and remain and yet to go. Steadfastness and dynamism whose source is the mystery of God, whereby the Word was with the Father and yet built His tent in our midst (cf. Jn 1:2.14).

Formed in steadfastness and going to bear lasting fruit is what defines the task of the disciples after the Pasch of the Lord, but in our passage this is connected with the invitation to ask the Father in Jesus’ name. It is, then, from the Father, in Christ and with the power of the Consoler that will come the grace to love, and in loving, to bear witness.

5. Prayer

There are some points in this passage that may help us renew our style of prayer:

- Prayer that is truly “Trinitarian,”  not just theoretically or in its expression, but also as an inherent dynamic of the prayer itself.

- The need for prayer and life to be one. Prayer is the mirror, the expression and the measure of our life of faith.

- The joy that must accompany our attitude of prayer.

- Appreciating all that is human (awareness of relationships, love of prayer, experience of joy, perception of union with God) and being aware that all is gift.

Psalm 119:129-136

Wonderful are Your instructions,
so I observe them.
As Your word unfolds it gives light,
and even the simple understand.
I open wide my mouth,
panting eagerly for Your commandments.
Turn to me, pity me;
those who love Your name deserve it.
Keep my steps firm in your promise
that no evil may triumph over me.
Rescue me from human oppression,
and I will observe Your precepts.
Let Your face shine on Your servant,
teach me Your will.
My eyes stream with tears
because Your Law is disregarded.

6. Contemplation

The Word of God calls us to confirm in our heart and in our actions the newness of being disciples of the Son. The four aspects: relationship with God, reading reality, commitment, and attention to the life of the Church are like seeds of contemplation, attitudes and possible choices.

Relationship with God: growing in an awareness of being in relationship with the Trinity. “My beloved is mine, and I am his” (Sg 2:16). We are thought of, wanted, gifted, saved between the Father and the Son in the Spirit; presenting our actions in response to the love of God who first called us.

Reading reality: recognizing personal reactions to people and institutions, such as the trivializing of the concept of “love” in a materialist interpretation as well as in spiritual escapism. On the other hand, to be aware of the expectations of free and freeing relationships as experiences of an authentic gift often not recognized.

Commitment to reality: to give one’s life (in all its forms) as a concrete expression and appreciation of love; the importance of new communications of experiences of wisdom in following the fruits of the witness given to the Gospel in the world that God wishes to save.

The life of the Church as a life of relationship in relationship: to see the Church not only as an image of the Trinity, but “within” the Trinity; to regain the feeling of freedom and joy in the community of believers.

7. Closing prayer

Lord Jesus Christ, we thank You for the loving care with which You have taught and still teach Your disciples. We praise You, Lord, conqueror of sin and of death, because You have gambled all that was Yours, even Your infinite relationship with the Father in the Spirit. You have presented this relationship to us who risk not understanding it, trivializing it, forgetting it. You spoke of it to us so that we may understand how great a love has given us life. Grant, Lord, that we may remain in You as the branches remain united to the vine that nourishes them and allows them to bear fruit. Turn your gaze of faith and hope on us that we may learn to go from words and desires to concrete actions in imitation of You who have loved us to the end when You gave Your life to us so that we may have life in You. You who live and reign with God the Father in the unity of the Spirit for ever and ever. Amen.

by Eduardo Agosta Scarel, O. Carm.,

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The Spiritual Pathway to a Sustainable Environment

PRINCIPLES

1. The roots of the ecological crisis are linked to the way human beings relate both to the Divine and to nature.

2. The human heart is not satisfied with anything less than the Infinite.

3. Created things can never take the place of God.

4. God has created us to live in harmony with all created things and with God the Creator.

5. Societies with no understanding of this will seek to deal with unlimited human desire by fostering consumerism by every means possible.

6. The Carmelite call to contemplation presents a path to wisdom that can heal both the human person and the planet on which we live.

7. The Carmelite path of contemplation re-orders our human desire and helps us attain happiness without constantly feeding every whim.

8. The Carmelite path can help people appreciate the beauty of Creation and see a way to preserve it for the good of future generations.

The whole of reality could be regarded from a trinitarian perspective: God, human beings and other created things (both visible and invisible), in mutual interpenetration, held together by the Divine Power, the Spirit of God, the enveloping and sustaining source of reality

INTRODUCTION

The gift that Carmel has received from God for the world (the Carmelite charism) is essentially based on three elements: prayer, community, and service. They guide the transforming spiritual journey of Carmelites and come together in contemplation, one of the elements of our charism that dynamically unifies them.

The whole of reality could be regarded from a trinitarian perspective: God, human beings and other created things (both visible and invisible), in mutual interpenetration, held together by the Divine Power, the Spirit of God, the enveloping and sustaining source of reality. The contemplation of such reality is a call to discover or be aware of the empowering love of God within human beings and other created things. Such a process requires a profound transformation. The Carmelite way proposes that this transfor­mation is aided by prayer, community and service that are the paths to contemplation.

Ecology is the human activity concerned with the comprehensive management of nature in order to regulate the relationships within and between all created things on the earth that is home to all. Comprehen­sive management involves taking into account the often forgotten divine dimension. The expression ecological crisis, or environmental crisis, means that the comprehensive management of such relationships is at risk. The crisis arises from a number of factors including the lack of attention to the divine dimension of reality which is apparent in the way we have been behaving in westernized societies. The roots of the ecological crisis can be linked to the human relationship with the Divine and with nature. If this is so, the Carmelite value of contemplation can be regarded as an important way to rediscover the Divine dimension of reality. Therefore prayer, com­munity and service are vital ways towards the healing of nature.

THE SPIRITUAL ROOTS OF THE ECOLOGICAL CRISIS

Understanding the link between ecology and the Carmelite charism requires understanding contemplation as a spiritual path that is intimately related to the human journey towards an integration of the human personality, both the dark and luminous sides. This is an ongoing journey towards maturity of human affectivity, intellect and sexuality. These three factors of human life can be considered as parts of the human desire dynamism.

Carmelites sum up this journey towards integration with the proposal to live in allegiance to Jesus Christ. We believe that God has created us for life and to preserve harmonious relationships with all created things and with God. We need to understand that the roots of the current ecological crisis are human and not merely technical or scientific, as if ecological problems were only a matter of some changes in technology. It is not sufficient simply to change to new “clean” technologies. If it were so, we would not be speaking about a crisis.
The current ecological crisis, evidenced by climate change, energy resource depletion, and an increasing gap between the richest and the poorest, seems to have started with a crisis within human beings. During the past century very profound social changes have taken place. Our understanding of what it means to be human has changed considerably. We moved from thinking of ourselves as creatures equipped with reason, self-sufficiency and freedom, able to make choices regarding what we considered to be best and proper for each of us, towards an understanding of the human being as eternally dissatisfied. Now technology, as a caring nanny, is expected to meet every need and desire.

Because of the huge development in technology, we have been able to take some extraordinary strides to transform nature and enhance and embellish the quality of life. However our expectations have risen greatly and we often look to technology to grant us everything we wish without delay. Our lives are now more comfortable and healthier, thanks to growing scientific knowledge. However, technological development has been appropriated by economic and cultural models to consolidate a particular way of living, which is the technocratic westernized lifestyle. Our western societies have various guiding mantras: “grow or die”; “if you are unhappy go out and buy something,” “quantity and acceleration.” Thus the tradition¬al human rhythms and cycles of nature are forgotten. We seem unaware that the technocracy model of human development is a human construction and is not an uncontrollable natural force before which we must bow.

Conventional economic theory is part of the model of technocratic human development. It is based on the logic of dissatisfaction of desire. Westernized economies empower the rivalry between human desire and greed, by producing an abundance of goods to temporarily alleviate the tension of desire.

Apart from unlimited human desire and the economy based on that desire, there exists another human limitation which has a negative influence on the health of the earth. Our daily actions are performed locally, but their effects are global.

In addition, globalized societies, guided by the technocracy laws, have created their own myths. The absence of material goods is seen as the ultimate evil and so human desire and greed are encouraged at every level. Other dangerous mantras of our societies are: “full is better than empty”, “much is better than little”, “big is better than small”. Therefore, we must fill everything, have everything, know everything.

We have a developmental model that is based on the dissatisfaction-desire economy. Human desire can be easily manipulated by external factors. This fact is observed within the phenomenon of globalization, where social fragmentation, and the creation of goods and services for consumption induced by advertising, all become external forces that irresistibly control us from within. We no longer consume the things we need, but everything we are offered without distinction. We have new needs that did 

not exist before. The technological novelties appear to be little paradises of illusion that are updated every day and suited to our increasingly fragmented world. Hence, consumerism has been imposed as the only way for the development of westernized life. It has been imposed by the strong interests in the local economy of global enter­prises. The maximization of profit is at the expense of many people’s lives as well as the environment. In the future, there will not be sufficient energy sources for life as we are now consuming many resources at the lowest cost and the maximum gain.

Another dilemma is that human desire is unlimited. According to the Carmelite, Saint John of the Cross, the heart of the human being is not satisfied with less than Infinite. For this reason when desire is given free rein on a global scale, natural resources are insufficient to satisfy it. The earth implodes. The physical limits of the planet are too finite in comparison to unlimited desire.

Apart from unlimited human desire and the economy based on that desire, there exists another human limitation which has a nega­tive influence on the health of the earth. Our daily actions are performed locally, but their effects are global. We seem to be unaware of this fact. This limitation can be seen in the issue of climate change. Global warming is a symptom of the global socialeconomic model that is ultimately unsustainable.

The planetary temperature is increasing because more greenhouse gases (GHGs, such as CO2, etc.) are constantly emitted. The GHGs emissions increments are due primarily to energy consumption of oil, natural gas and coal. Ninety percent of global energy consumption is provided by non-renewable power sources. Most of these are starting to disappear. It is said that oil-based energy will be available another 30 to 50 years. The greater demands for energy come from the highly developed societies, which have 25 percent of the global population, and whose lifestyles are characterized by an excessive consumption. This means that we consume more than we need because of the manipulation of human desire through the latest thing presented to us constantly by means of the mass media.

Moreover, as a consequence of current global patterns of development and consump­tion, social injustice is prevalent in many parts of the world. Consumerism is a luxuri­ous lifestyle when compared with half of the world’s population, i.e., only few tech­nologically developed societies enjoy high standards by depleting global resources. A quarter of the global population consumes 80 percent of the earth’s resources in order to sustain their lifestyle.

THE PATH OF HEALING

The wisdom of the Carmelite tradition takes us on the inner journey towards the maturity of our human desires. It helps us to recognize the priority of God in our lives. Human desire seems to have such unique characteristics that perplex psychologists of all generations. We have immediate wants but often we do not know exactly what it is we really want. The spiritual path for human beings is to pay attention to what really matters. Only when a person is centered, when all the strengths of his/her desire are channeled in and towards God, then it is possible to achieve equilibrium and peace.

The Carmelite, John of the Cross, describes the origin of unlimited human desire. He says that it is as if God wounds the soul and human life is a search for relief. In seeking relief, we can be too demanding, asking things to take the place of God. That is always the temptation: to make created things (either material or spiritual goods, such as success, pleasure, happiness, sex, power, science, etc., as well as people, our idols or gods and ask them to fulfill our unlimited desires.

However there is no thing or person that can take the place of God in our lives. The divine wound is only healed by the Spirit of God. John of the Cross teaches that human desire always runs the risk of fragmentation in multiple desires attaching themselves to things and people seeking from them what they cannot give. The Carmelite tells of the need to direct our desire toward God who alone can bring harmony and peace. Our addictions and unconscious desires are not obstacles to eliminate but to face up to and integrate within the desire for the Infinite. This process does not mean despising things since we need them, but is a way to bring some order to our desires. Hence, the Carmelite spiritual itinerary regards the interior of the human being as immensely cluttered and therefore needs to be emptied out in order to be filled by God, who is the fulfillment of every human desire.

Our secular societies have no other ways to treat unlimited human desire than to feed them with consumerism. Natural disasters, climate change, air and water pollution, social injustice, impoverishment of many peoples, among other environmental and social issues, are the result of unsustainable development patterns of production and consumption that are supported by economies based on the eternally dissatisfied human desire that has no God.

There is no doubt that humanity must face its capacity for self-destruction, which was limited by the sense of the sacred in the past .

CONCLUDING REMARKS

The Carmelite call to contemplation is an inner journey that leads to our maturity and reordering of our human desires. This leads to a healing for people and for the earth. Human beings need to abandon the belief that fulfillment is to be found in amassing material goods. Then we will be able to liberate the earth from the obligation to satisfy this desire for more and more. Such a proposal is certainly not easy because it requires, as a first step, recognition that human desire cannot be satisfied by the material. Opening oneself to experience the empowering love of God can help to re-orient our desires towards a simpler lifestyle. We can then learn that immediate gratification is not always necessary or possible. It requires some sacrifice so that we can receive something greater and better.

The Carmelite contemplative path of transformation by means of prayer, community and service brings about a personal, communitarian and planetary healing, helping us to understand that:

• Few things are really vital to our lives;
• Little is often sufficient;
• Dissatisfaction is part of life;
• Human aspirations and desires are infinite because they are made for God.

There is no doubt that humanity must face its capacity for self-destruction, which was limited by the sense of the sacred in the past, but now appears to be unlimited. Without a growth in awareness of the divine dimension of reality, an ecological catastrophe seems to be inevitable. It is a time for contemplation so that we might rediscover that all human desire is a manifestation of the profound desire for God.

In our communities we need to recognize that our local actions have global effects. Therefore it is urgent to change our patterns of communitarian life that affect the health of the planet. We need to work for the development of a new economy based on needs, and not to supply a never ending desire for more. We seek to help people become aware of the need to preserve the quality of life for the whole of creation because God has clothed all people and all things with a particular beauty that reflects the beauty of the Creator.

About the Author: Eduardo Agosta Scarel, O. Carm., Ph.D.

Eduardo was born in Mendoza, Argentina. He joined the Carmelite Order at the age of 22. He has a MSc in Atmospheric Sciences and a PhD (2006) in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences at the National University of Buenos Aires (UBA), and has also a MDiv in Theology at the Buenos Aires Salesian Theology Institute (2005). He also did post doctorate studies in the Interdisciplinary Team for Studies on Atmospheric Processes in the Global Change (PEPACG in Spanish) at the Pontifical Argentinian Catholic University (UCA) where he currently works. He received fellowships for undergraduate studies from UBA in 1998-2000, and the National Council of Sciences and Technique Researches (CONICET). He is currently Professor at the UCA and is a CONICET Assistant Researcher. He works on climate variability and climate change, regional climate impacts on agriculture, and the relationship between galactic cosmic rays and climate. In addition, he reflects on the relation¬ship between science and faith, and between spirituality and ecology. In 2004, he was recognized by the Montevideo Association of Universities (AUGM) for his investigation on links between the South American climate and the galactic cosmic rays in 2004. He is an active member of the American Geophysical Union (AGU) and the American Meteorological Society (AMS). He also be¬longs to the International Commission of Justice, Peace and integrity of Creation of the Carmelite Order since 2008, and he is a consultant of the Earth, Society and Environment Pastoral Section in the Latin American Council of Catholic Bishops (CELAM) since 2007. Since 2011, Eduardo has been a member of the Coordinating Team of the Carmelite NGO.

Position submitted by the Carmelite NGO, a non-governmental organization in Special Consultative Status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations and affiliated with the Department of Public Information of the United Nations.

by Pope Benedict XVI

Let’s say you like a clean house, arguing that “environment builds morale” and “cleanliness is next to godliness.” This all sounds great. And if this indeed is the case, then we’ll see you putting some time and energy into cleaning the house. But if you aren’t putting any time and effort into cleaning the house, then you might say that it’s a high value all you want, but we will know better. It’s a simple equation — we put time and energy into the things we value and we neglect the things we don’t.

This is what makes Carmelite prayer distinctive. It’s not the prayer itself; in fact, there is no ‘method’ for Carmelite prayer. It is all about the time and energy that is actually put into prayer.

During the canonization of Saint Nuno Alvares (April, 2009) Pope Benedict said, “Carmel teaches the Church how to pray.” That’s what Carmel has always been about: prayer. And that’s what being a Carmelite – whether friar, nun, or Lay Carmelite – is all about: prayer. It’s not method; it’s emphasis.

That is the witness of the great Carmelite saints. When facing a “dark night of the spirit” or a “dark night of the soul,” Saint John of the Cross will tell you to keep praying. When daunted by the heavy lifting that true self-understanding entails, Saint Teresa of Avila will tell you to keep praying. When vexed by the everyday foibles of the people around you, Saint Therese of Lisieux will tell you to keep praying. Or even when facing the darkest caverns of the Nazi prison camps (or the equivalent in your life) Blessed Titus Brandsma will tell you to keep praying.

In no way should this be seen as—pardon the expression—merely putting cake frosting on manure. Rather, heavy-duty prayer (i.e., dark night prayer, deep self-knowledge prayer, or even concentration camp prayer) can show us that the manure is not manure at all and does not need any cake frosting. It is heavy-duty prayer that brings us to “put on the mind of Christ” (Philippians 2:5). It is heavy-duty prayer that brings “the peace that surpasses all understanding” (Philippians 4:7). It is heavy-duty prayer that brings us “to attain the very fullness of God” (Ephesians 3:19).

“Carmel teaches the Church how to pray.” Carmel can teach you how to pray – real prayer.

Ordinary Time

1) Opening prayer

Father,

You call Your children

to walk in the light of Christ.

Free us from darkness

and keep us in the radiance of Your truth.

We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son,

who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit,

one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

2) Gospel Reading - Matthew 9:14-17

The disciples of John approached Jesus and said, "Why do we and the Pharisees fast much, but your disciples do not fast?" Jesus answered them, "Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast. No one patches an old cloak with a piece of unshrunken cloth, for its fullness pulls away from the cloak and the tear gets worse. People do not put new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise the skins burst, the wine spills out, and the skins are ruined. Rather, they pour new wine into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved."

3) Reflection

• Matthew 9:14: The question of  John’s disciples concerning the practice of fasting. Fasting is quite an ancient usage, practiced by almost all religions.  Jesus Himself practiced it for forty days (Mt 4:2). But He does not insist that the disciples do the same thing. He leaves them free. Because of this, the disciples of John the Baptist and of the Pharisees, who were obliged to fast, want to know why Jesus does not insist on fasting:“Why is it that we and the Pharisees fast, but Your disciples do not?”

• Matthew 9:15:  Jesus’ answer.  Jesus answers with a comparison in the form of a question: “Surely the bridegroom’s attendants cannot mourn as long as the bridegroom is still with them?”  Jesus associates fasting with mourning, and He considers Himself the bridegroom.  When the bridegroom is with His friends, that is, during the wedding feast, they have no need to fast.  When Jesus is with them, with His disciples, it is a feast, the wedding feast. Therefore, they should not fast. But one day the bridegroom will go away.  It will be a day of mourning. Then, if they want, they can fast. Jesus refers to His death. He knows and feels that if He continues on this way of liberation, the authorities will want to kill Him.

• Matthew 9:16-17: New wine in new wineskins! In these two verses, the Gospel of Matthew gives two separate sayings of Jesus on the patch of new cloth on an old cloak and on the new wine in new skins. These words throw light on the discussions and the conflicts of Jesus with religious authority of the time.  A patch of new cloth is not put on an old cloak, because when it is washed, the new piece of cloth shrinks and pulls on the old cloak and tears it and the tear becomes bigger.  Nobody puts new wine in old skins, because when the new wine ferments, it tears the old skins. New wine in new skins! The religion defended by the religious authority was like a piece of old cloth, like an old wineskin. Both the disciples of John and the Pharisees tried to renew the religion.  In reality, they barely put some patches, and because of this, they ran the risk of compromising and harming both the new and the old uses.  The new wine which Jesus brings to us tears the old skins.  It is necessary to know how to separate things. Most probably, Matthew presents these words of Jesus to orientate the communities in the years of the 80’s. There was a group of Jewish Christians who wanted to replace the  newness of Jesus with the Judaism of the time before His coming.   Jesus is not against what is “old.”  He does not want  what is old to be imposed on that which is new.  Similarly, Vatican II cannot be reread with the mentality before the Council, as some try to do today. 

4)  Personal questions

• What are the conflicts around religious practices which make many people suffer today and are a reason for heated discussions and polemics? What is the image of God which is behind all these preconceptions, these norms, and these prohibitions?

• How is this saying of Jesus to be understood: “Nobody puts a piece of new cloth on an old cloak?   What is the message which we can draw from all of this for your community today?

5) Concluding Prayer

I am listening. What is God's message?

Yahweh's message is peace for His people,

for His faithful, if only they renounce their folly. (Ps 85:8)

by Ruth Burrows O Carm

We may think that the real Easter experience of prayer is that of the resurrection. Ruth Burrows (Sr Rachel of the Quidenham Carmel), author of many books on prayer, shows how the dying part is equally important: ‘The dying and the rising are simultaneous in this life.’ 

Easter experience in prayer is not just an uplifting, ecstatic moment of delight in God, a conscious awareness of the divine presence or an infusion of dazzling insight. Quite properly we understand such joy and, indeed, all the joy and happiness that enrich our lives, as intimations of resurrection. They seem to indicate a deep, perhaps only implicit awareness that the ultimate is joy. Pain, affliction of whatever kind, these pass away, but joy is eternal. Even now, our sad, suffering, seemingly lost world is enfolded, upheld, penetrated by absolute joy; behind its tears gleams the serene smile Dante perceived, and this joy, even now, is our inheritance and our real home.

Likewise, ‘experience’, as used in this essay, is not merely the pressing upon us of a succession of events, but the effect of our response to these, that is the person we actually are. We become who we are through experiencing. Thus ‘Easter experience’ will be our life, lived no longer for ourselves, but for him who died and rose again for us. It will mean being wrenched from our innate self-orientation, dispossessed of our self, so that the risen Jesus may live in us. Easter experience is sharing the death of Jesus in order to share his life. This transformation, surpassing all we could possibly imagine, is the work of the Holy Spirit, who is the Gift of gifts, the fruit of Jesus’ triumph. Prayer in its essence is nothing other than surrender to this purifying and transforming work of the Holy Spirit in the raw reality of human life. We are an Easter community, brought to birth at Easter and inescapably bonded together, continually affected by and affecting others. The Father’s will, his great design ‘before the foundation of the world’, is that the human family and the whole creation should be transformed into the ‘kingdom of his beloved Son’. Jesus died to make this possible; the Father raised him from death to glory, to be the source, the king of the new creation that is coming into being through the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is the living love exchange between Father and Son, the personalisation of all that they are to one another, and this inconceivable intimacy is offered to us.

We accept in faith what is beyond all imagining and make its realisation the mainspring of our life. We are caught up in that divine outpouring, receiving and returning of love. It is the Holy Spirit who welds us into this union and the whole creation, destined to be infused with the holy life radiating from us. This is the ‘fullness of salvation’.

Holiness: not a private possession
Recreation can never come about as a mass production but depends on the recreation of individual men and women. Holiness is not a private possession. A person possessed by the Spirit is the living presence of Jesus in the world. Such a one, so to speak, gives the Spirit scope, or, to change the metaphor, becomes like Mary, the Spirit’s entry into creation. Where Jesus is, there is the kingdom, and thus it grows. Whatever our ‘external’ vocation – to apostolic labour, social work, marriage and family, politics – no matter how we spend ourselves ‘doing good’, ultimately, what will count, what will transform creation and satisfy its innate longing, is for each one of us to realise his or her divine adoption. The willed surrender to the divine work, the aligning ourselves with the holy will of the Father, is prayer. Prayer is not first and foremost our doing, but is a response to God’s desire for us.

The paradigm of true prayer
Mary’s fiat, ‘let it be done to me’, is the paradigm of all true prayer. Her fiat gave God a welcome to creation, a ‘yes’ that was essential, for Love never elbows its way in. God’s design for each and all is beyond human conception; what it will mean of blessedness as yet we cannot imagine. ‘Thy kingdom come, thy will be done’ – no higher goal can be thought of, no prayer be purer. The transformation of creation into the kingdom of Jesus is a divine work in the absolute sense but our longing for it, expressing itself in act, our clearing away of whatever obstacles we can, and surrender to the Spirit’s action, hasten its coming. The piece of creation for which we are wholly responsible is ourselves. Our desire must be to expose ourselves to the Holy Spirit’s purifying and transforming action. The pressure of divine love upon us is incessant and our ‘yes’, ‘be it done to me’, must be incessant. We must become prayer, total response. It is impossible for this to be so unless we give time to reflection and prayer.

The New Testament rings with joy in the certainty of God’s loving, welcoming nearness, in the certain hope of a glorious destiny; knowing we are brothers and sisters, co-heirs with Jesus, caught up in the love with which the Father loves Jesus. It is inconceivable that we should receive this revelation and not be moved to commune person to Person with the Father and Jesus.

A period of ‘pure’ prayer has a unique place in our Christian life. It is, in itself, a profound act of faith in the reality and love of God who, here at this moment, offers all God has and is to me. Maybe there is no greater expression of faith than sustained fidelity to a period of exposure to divine love, often unfelt. We are thereby affirming that our identity is to be from God and for God – this is adoration, this is thanksgiving. How we see and experience ourselves is unimportant. We are known and absolutely affirmed by God. Easter faith enables us confidently to offer ourselves in our ignorance, poverty and sinfulness, to divine Love, inviting Love’s purifying and transforming action. Such prayer is Easter experience and is the gift of the Father ‘who, by his power at work in us is able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or think’ (Eph 3:20).

There is only one obstacle to divine love and that is our tenacious selfishness, nothing else; not our frailties, our weaknesses, not our situation and circumstances, not our difficult temperament or emotional wounds, not what we think are handicaps, but only our self-sufficient, self-clutching, self-serving self. This is sin, the dead opposite of faith, which leaps out of self, to cast its whole weight onto God revealed in Jesus; the dead opposite of love which soars out of self in gift to another. Through his death and resurrection Jesus has broken the shackles of this sin. He is able to triumph within us, snatching us from the power of darkness and transporting us into the kingdom of love. We must co-operate.

Learning to love
Our co-operation will mean learning to love, disregarding our selfish concerns and devoting ourselves to our neighbours’ good. It will involve the specifically Christian virtues of humility and meekness, the relinquishing of all power and claims to ‘rights’ save that of servanthood. Through Jesus’ victory we are empowered even to lay down our lives for one another, not necessarily in the literal sense but in daily selfless service, ‘so death is at work in us and life in you’ (2 Cor 4:12). Learning to love selflessly is the most effective way of ‘dying’ with Jesus. The accent is not on suffering as such but on selfless love, and this means a life of obedience to God’s will that we become fully human.

All good people and especially Christians know that they must overcome their selfishness, but few of us perceive just how tenaciously it pervades our whole being, vitiating even our most altruistic actions. The fact is that of ourselves we cannot get rid of it. It calls for the direct action of the Holy Spirit. This action can take the form of enlightenment and thereby of a sickening sense of self and awareness of our powerlessness to uproot it. Solitary prayer inevitably destroys illusions, revealing our sin and poverty, and that is why it is so often neglected. The only answer is a trustful surrender to divine Love, a consenting to be thus plunged into Jesus’ death.

The love that operates with special intensity in personal prayer comes to us incessantly through everything that happens, everything without exception: other persons, events great and small, be they pleasurable or painful. Each moment, almost, calls for a choice for ‘me’ or for love. To emphasise again, never could we acquire the habit of watchfulness for God’s will and the insight to recognise it in the humdrum of life, nor have the readiness to embrace it, without devoting time to reflection and prayer. Our generous efforts, even though ineffective of themselves, make it possible for God to work in us.

Dying and rising together
It is not a case of getting the dying part over and done with and then legitimately expecting ‘resurrection’, real Easter experience! No, the dying and rising are simultaneous in this life. Every dying to self means an increase of Jesus’ life in us. ‘While we live we are always being given up to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh’ (2 Cor 4:11). It rests entirely with God, when the time is ripe, to wrench us completely from self’s stranglehold so that in very truth ‘it is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me’. Even then, we shall still go on dying with him, sharing his suffering in one way or another ‘for his body the Church’.

Purification must continue in order to increase our capacity for love. True prayer will never allow us to be complacent but will shatter the illusion that perseverance and fidelity will bring us sooner or later to a holiness that we can perceive and savour. ‘You alone are the holy One.’ Jesus’ holiness is there for us to claim but this we can do only by consenting to abandon all claims to a holiness of our own. We cannot have our own life, even purified and beautiful with the reflected beauty of Jesus. No, Jesus cannot live his life on top of our own or beside our own. Only God can effect in us such a self-dispossession, and this will indeed be Jesus’ Easter triumph and his joy and ours.

We long to see and feel Jesus’ risen life within us. We cannot, any more than we can perceive the risen Lord himself. The risen Jesus does not allow Mary Magdalene to cling to his sensible form; the disciples perceive him being taken from human sight and touch. Mary Magdalene, the disciples and all those to follow, must do without the visible and tangible. Rather, forgetful of themselves, they must go out to others witnessing to the glorious news. The ‘seeing’ now is by faith alone and a life of selfless love is the witness to the life of Jesus in us, his triumph and the Father’s joy and glory.

Sharing the passion of Jesus
Today, we Christians are offered a particularly stark sharing in the passion and death of Jesus, one such as earlier generations did not know, at least to the same extent: the ‘absence’, the absolute silence of God, the God who never intervenes to manipulate people and events in order to protect his own, who allows the most terrible things to happen; a seemingly powerless God, a God that is no God. We live in a society that is not merely atheistic – the question of God isn’t serious enough to confront – but totally uninterested, seemingly oblivious of need.

Fearful though this is, it offers the possibility of a very pure faith, a very pure trust and love. There are none of the supports of faith enjoyed by earlier generations, but this is an austere blessing. All too easily, supports for faith become substitutes. Faith is surrender; staking our lives on the Father whom Jesus guarantees to be our Father too and in whom, as cherished children, we have absolute security. We must be ready to let go our notions of God and ourselves and of what we think essential to human fulfilment, in order to embrace, with Jesus, the Father’s incomprehensible will, in the certainty that, no matter how bitter the chalice, it is offered by Love and holds Love within it. Even as Jesus ‘emptied himself’ so does the Father, choosing to be powerless in this world. He will not rob his creatures of the rights and freedom he has given them, not even to save his own Son. His mighty power, his love triumph through Jesus’ faith, trust and love and that of his ‘chosen’: here is ‘the immeasurable greatness of his power in us who believe, according to the working of his great might which he accomplished in Christ when he raised him from the dead and made him sit at his right hand in the heavenly places…’ (Eph 1:19, 20).

A novel’s expression
A moving expression of such an Easter triumph occurs in Hilda Prescott’s novel, The Man on a Donkey.1 The context is the Great Northern Rising following on the dissolution of the monasteries in the reign of Henry VIII. Robert Aske is both the inspiration and brain behind the rising, and the rebels’ peace-loving negotiator with the king’s representative. Aske is sincerely devout but his understanding of God is naïve. His God will intervene and prevent the evils perpetrated against the Church and innocent northerners. Deriving from his view of God, the king too, God’s anointed, can be trusted to stand by the right and his pledged word. One by one Aske’s deepest loyalties are cruelly betrayed; the whole enterprise is defeated, largely through his trust in the king’s promise that, provided the rebels disarm, their complaints and requests will be attended to and a total amnesty given. A mockery. Savage reprisals are meted out to the men who had trusted Aske with their interests and he himself is hung in chains from York Keep, condemned to a long-drawn-out agony.

On the fifth day of torment, rain beating on his head and neck brought Aske back for a while out of the nightmare into conscious horror. He saw in the scribble of lightning which split the black night the sheer drop of the wall beside him; the green far away below.

And as his eye told him of the sickening depth below his body, and his mind foreknew the lagging endlessness of torment before him, so, as if the lightning had brought an inner illumination also, he knew the greater gulf of despair above which his spirit hung, helpless and aghast. God did not now, nor would in any further future, prevail. Once he had come, and died. If he came again he would die, and again, and so forever, by his own will rendered powerless against the free and evil will of men. Then Aske met the full assault of darkness without reprieve of hoped-for light, for God ultimately vanquished was no God at all. But yet, though God was not God, as the head of the dumb worm turns, so his spirit turned, blindly, gropingly, hopelessly loyal towards that good, that holy, that merciful, which though not God, though vanquished, was still the last dear love of a vanquished and tortured man.’

This is Easter triumph and Easter joy.

Rejoice in the Lord always
Joy is the keynote of the Easter community. How can one rejoice in an agony such as Aske endured? A feeling of joy and happiness is incompatible with mental suffering and extreme physical pain. But Christian joy, Jesus’ joy, is not. Rejoice in the Lord, who is dearer than oneself. Prescott illustrates this poignantly.

Laurence Machyn is sitting, telling his beads by the bedside of his unconscious wife, willing her to live. Since she met him as a child of nine, Aske has been July’s obsession. Her life has meaning only in him, is wholly centred on him and she cares nothing for her unprepossessing husband, wounding him with her contempt. But Laurence’s deep, tender, compassionate love for his child-wife is unimpaired. When July chances to hear that Aske hangs alive in chains, the sense of menace and of the world’s cruelty which has haunted her fear-ridden life, now overwhelms her. The worst, the most terrible thing that could happen is happening. She hangs herself. Laurence finds her just in time.

It was as he got up and leaned over her that she remembered, and she whispered before he could speak –
‘He hangs alive in chains. He is not dead.’
Laurence sat down again. Now she did not even hear the clicking of his beads, and again she lay, simply staring upwards.
‘Wife,’ said Laurence suddenly, ‘we must pray God for him.’
She cried so that it tore her throat – ‘No. He [God] made pain, he chose it for himself.’
That was all she could say, and Laurence must guess the rest. God had made pain, so that all the universe was corrupt with it, God would do nothing to help one who, hanging in chains, moved yet.
Laurence stood up, and again bent over her. But this time he took her hands in his and held them closely.
‘You do not understand,’ he said. ‘There’s nothing to fear in pain. Love makes it all different. I love you. If I might suffer for you I would be glad.’

Love makes it all different
Spontaneous feeling apart, joy is the heart’s choice to find its satisfaction in what pleases the beloved. Such was Jesus’ joy. ‘These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be full’ (John 15:11). Jesus, no more than Aske, could have felt joy in his agony. Nevertheless it was a supreme joy to suffer for his Beloved and for us. ‘If you loved me you would be glad…’

Notes
1. Hilda Prescott, The Man on a Donkey (London: Phoenix Press, 2002).

By Fr. Christian B. Buenafe, O. Carm,

“On entering the tomb, they saw a young man in a white robe seated on the right-hand side, and they were struck with amazement. But he said to them, ‘There is no need for alarm. You are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified: he has risen, he is not here. See, here is the place where they laid him. But you must go and tell his disciples and Peter. He is going before you to Galilee it is there you will see him, just as he told you.’”
—Mark 16: 5–8

Christ is light! Thanks be to God!
Christ is Risen! Alleluiah! Alleluia!

The long period of repentance and renewal has ended for Lent is over. Lent is past. Lent is gone. Easter is here, let us rejoice and be glad.

Today, Christians celebrate the mother of all solemn feasts, Easter. Darkness is gone, the light is at hand. Christ conquered death when he rose to life. When in dying God destroyed life and in rising, God restored life. Easter is the core of Christian faith.

Through Jesus’ suffering and death, we are saved. And therefore we live in Him and with Him, we all rose with Christ on this day. We have reflected and renewed the life, passion and death of Christ, thus we are transformed in His resurrection. The Resurrection of Christ has changed everything—the world and the people who follow Christ.

With grateful and humble hearts, we now receive and celebrate the gifts of the love and mercy of God; may the blessings of Easter be upon us!

We now live in Christ. There is new life after all, in Christ.

New Life in Christ. Having reflected and transformed in the paschal mystery of Christ during the Holy Week and our Lenten observance as a repentant sinner, as a returning child, or as a converted follower, we have suffered and died with Christ. Our lives are assessed and evaluated to pattern our lives in Christ’s standards. Now we can claim and gain life eternal in the Risen Christ as Easter is here.

When we die with Christ, we can claim the experience and grace of the Resurrection. For only in dying and death in Christ that we live eternally. In union with all the Christians throughout the world, we proclaim just like what the Psalmist exhorts: “This is the day that the Lord has made, we rejoice and are glad!”

In the mystery of our Baptism, we are blessed and born again in Christ. During the Easter vigil, we all renewed our baptismal promises to remind us of the greatness and mercy of God as well as our fidelity to Him.

Renewed Christian life. When one is renewed in the love of God, there is newness and freshness in everything we do. Everyone is seen as a neighbor with a name, a kapwa. There will be new wine and new wineskin; new eyesight and new lenses; new life and new perspectives in life; new direction with and with clearer conscience. New priorities and new ways to deal with the different aspects of one’s life; new self and new spirit. The spirit now is more alive, more inspired, more resolved, more bold, more stable, more firm, more real. Finding one’s true self in Christ is a blessing to discover and enjoy.

We are made new and refreshed in Christ as we rose with Him on this day of Easter. Christians all over are rejoicing as we receive the one true light, Jesus, the Christ.

We become graceful and blessed Christians. We sing and echo with all the choirs of angels and the saints, and with all men and women: Alleluiah! God is so great, so good, that He saved us in order for us to live and have life eternal.

We are a people of the Resurrection, an Easter people. We are a people of Hope—hope that springs from our faith and nurtured by love. As an Easter people, we work for Hope, we build a hopeful world. We build a world that has full trust in God’s goodness and the goodness of others.

As a people of grace and blessing, Christians should not only remember Easter for egg-hunting, group outings and partying, but as a holy day for us as God gave us hope to hold on. That like Christ, after our existence on earth, life does not end but only changes as the resurrection of Christ is a proof and testimony that there will be life eternal with God and with all our loved ones when that time comes.

As a people of Hope who have firm faith and tenderly love, we can make the world anew, a better place to live in. This is possible as we are all children of the light who are more than willing to share the light we have received from the Risen Christ.

Hence, we are invited and asked to:

1. Rejoice and be glad as the Lord Jesus has risen from the dead.
2. Celebrate and enrich one’s life in the Risen Christ.
3. Share with gratitude the blessings of Easter with those who have not risen with Christ, especially those Christians who refuse to live in accordance to Christ’s messages of love in the Gospel.
4. Rest and grow in Christ for he is the risen One.
5. Be a light for others, be a living sacrifice and testimony of the love of God to others.

Prayer: Lord, may we receive the joys and blessings of Easter for our families, communities, and friends. May we be ever faithful to perform our Christian duties and obligations now as we had risen with Christ. With new life in Christ, we share the Easter blessings we receive to those who have not risen with Christ in their hopelessness and lack of faith. Renew them and transform them in your light and love. May the Easter blessings be upon you, now and forever. Amen.

Christ is Risen! Alleluiah! Alleluiah! May the Easter Blessings be with you all.

By Fr. Mario Esposito, O.Carm

During the Sacred Triduum and the celebration of Easter, it is easy to recall the memory of the Servant of God, Mother Angeline Teresa. Mother was deeply devoted to Christ, to the Eucharist, to the liturgy of the Church, and to all priests. The Christ-centered approach in her spirituality touched every aspect of her life and her prayer, and became part of her legacy to the Congregation of the Carmelite Sisters for the Aged and Infirm. Just before Easter 1966, Mother wrote to all the superiors and Sisters in these words: “Easter, the season of hope and joy will soon be here. It is a time of new life, new growth, and renewed resolutions. The days of Lent remind us constantly of the great Truths of our Faith, and during Holy Week we recall how Christ suffered of us, and how much He loves us. We cannot reflect on these great Truths without letting them affect our daily lives as Religious and resolving that Christ will not have suffered in vain.”

These simple sounding yet profound sentiments teach us an important aspect of Mother’s spirit and leave us with a point to ponder this 2012 as we mark the same holy feasts. For Mother, prayer was never something in a vacuum. For her, beautiful ceremonies and lofty words must be translated into how we live. With the eyes of a contemplative, Mother looks at the paschal mystery, the passion, death and resurrection of Christ, but that contemplation doesn’t end when one blesses him or herself with holy water as they leave the church. What we have prayed and pondered we must live, and the example, life and love of Christ must change, affect our ways of thinking and acting. The liturgical meeting with Christ in prayer should lead us to become more Christ-like. Mother lived in this fashion, she died in this fashion, and wants us to do so too.

As Mother wrote, Easter is a time to bathe in the glory of new life and new growth. We have been redeemed by Christ and set free. It is up to us, as she also wrote, to renew our personal resolutions to follow Our Lord in every part of our lives, and to lean on Him, knowing that without Him and His grace, really, we can do nothing.A wonderful and joyous Easter to you!

In Christ,
Very Reverend Mario Esposito, O.Carm
Vice-Postulator

During the Provincial Chapter of the Maltese Province held on 9-13 April 2012 were elected:

• Prior Provincial:  Fr. Michael Farrugia, O.Carm.
• First Councilor:  Fr. Alexander Vella, O.Carm.
• Second Councilor:  Fr. Charles Mallia, O.Carm.
• Third Councilor:  Fr. Maurice Abela, O.Carm.
• Fourth Councilor:  Fr. Alexander Scerri, O.Carm.