sussidio 4 2014

 

CALLED

 

From the Word of God

And you were dead, through the crimes and the sins which used to make up your way of life when you were living by the principles of this worl.^. We too were all among them once, living only by our natural inclinations, obey-

ing the demands of human self-indulgence and our own whim; our nature made us no less liable to God’s retribution than the rest of the world. But God, being rich in faithful love, through the great love with which he loved us,

even when we were dead in our sins, brought us to life with Christ – it is through grace that you have been saved-and raised us up with him and gave us a place with him in heaven, in Christ Jesus.

This was to show for all ages to come, through his goodness towards us in Christ Jesus, how extraordinarily rich he is in grace. Because it is by grace that you have been saved, through faith; not by anything of your own, but by a gift from God; not by anything that you have done, so that nobody can claim the credit.

We are God’s work of art, created in ChristJesus for the good works which God has already designated to make up our way of life. Do not forget, then, that there was a time when you who were gentiles by physical descent, termed the uncircumcised by those who speak of themselves as the circumcised by reason of a physical operation, do not forget, I say, that you were at that time separate from Christ and excluded from membership of Israel, aliens with no part in

TO an apostolic

the covenants of the Promise, limited to this world, without hope and without God. But now in Christ Jesus, you that used to be so far off have been brought close, by the blood of Christ. (Eph 2, 1-13)

From the writings of

                 Blessed A. Rosmini

God certainly never abandons those who trust entirely in him and receive from him through whatever he sends them. This abandon­ment to divine Providence is essential in our Institute, and there is no true sacrifice, no true imitation of Christ, without it. Anyone who thinks differently is thinking in a human way and deceiv­ing himself.

Can there be any apostolic life without solid virtues? The apostles were sent.

St Paul was afraid that after preaching to others he might find himself a castaway. This shows us that apostolic works are not to be taken on simply out of our own inclination, or because we have a taste for them and find satisfaction in them, but only when this is the will of God and he sends us.

When we undertake the great task of instructing others, we ought to be afraid and tremble, as St Augustine and all the other saints did. Let us rather want to see to our own conversion, and so

LIFE

prepare ourselves for the apostolate, rather than actually undertaking it; and having converted ourselves, be better placed to convert others – when and how the Lord wishes. If we have overcome ourselves, overcome temptations, sacrificed our inclina­tions, made ourselves perfect , then we shall have made ourselves fit instruments in the hands of God, and we may hope that perhaps he will make use of us to do some good. But while we are so imperfect, full of our own will, relying on our own judgement, so little mortified, we have only too much reason to fear for ourselves. The only true apostle is the man who is ready to wait for the heavenly mission in imitation of Christ, who spent thirty years in the obscurity of a hidden life. This is the virtue that does not deceive us, because it does not flatter our self-esteem.

So take courage, my dear brother in the Lord! Let everything go – life, possessions, our wishes, our particular judgements; but never let true virtue go: the gospel virtue, the apostolic virtue which forms the essence of our profession.

(AL, Vol. III, let. 123, pp. 158-160; to Don Alessio Martin at San Michele della Chiusa, from Stresa, 8 January 1840)

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