Dear Friends of Francesco,
Greetings peace and Blessings to you and all your families and friends as we begin Lent in 2007. Sirach 2 verses 2-3 reveal wisdom to help us with life and Lent: “Set your heart right and be steadfast…cleave to Him and do not depart.” This business of “cleaving” is as awesome as it is important. To cleave means to adhere, to cling or stick fast, to be faithful; to cling means “TO REMAIN CLOSE”, to resist separation, to remain emotionally attached, to hold on.
The beauty of striving to “cling - stay close” is a perfect way to prepare for the beginning of Lent and the rest of our lives in light of the awesome 2007 Lenten preparation letter from our Holy Father Benedict XVI (respectfully and affectionately B16). This Lent he wants us to “learn to stay close”. He tells us “Lent is a favorable time to learn to stay close to him who on the cross consummated for all mankind the sacrifice of his life.”
As Jesus prepared His disciples who were close to Him to stay close to him as he drew closer to the Cross, he revealed to them that “The Son of Man will be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him, and when he is killed, after three days he will rise” (Mark 9:31). The passionate love with which Jesus both moves towards the Cross - The Paschal Mystery - and reveals the necessity of this movement to his disciples is amazingly and dramatically referred to by B16 in his 07 Lenten Letter as “mad eros”: “Is there a more ‘mad eros’ than that which led the Son of God to make himself one with us even to the point of suffering as his own the consequences of our offenses?”
Many people have been and tragically are still caught in the panic generated by fear regarding love – more specifically fear of the potential opposition between agape and eros. The panic generated by this fear has the potential to be cast out with the luminous presentation of the perfect love which cast out all fear in the wonderful encyclical on love by B16 Deus Caritas Est http://francescoproductions.com/benedict/benedict.html).
I leave you with what I think may very well be one of the most amazing lines in the pontificate of our beloved B16 regarding love – love as both agape and eros:
One could rightly say that the revelation of God’s eros towards man, is in reality, the supreme expression of his agape. In all truth, only the love that unites the free gift of oneself with the impassioned desire for reciprocity instills a joy, which eases the heaviest burdens. Jesus said, “When I am lifted up from the earth I will draw all men to myself” (Jn. 12:32). The response the Lord ardently desires of us is above all that we welcome his love and allow ourselves to be drawn to him. Accepting this love, however, is not enough. We need to respond to such love and devote ourselves to communicating it to others. Christ “draws me to himself” in order to unite himself to me, so that I learn to love the brothers with his own love.
To learn to stay close to Jesus, and to learn to love with his own love. There it is. Towards this end please be sure of my prayers for you and please pray for me. With the Great JPII “I call on everyone to cling to hope in the victory of the Cross, even as they are living once again the sorrowful experience of the passion.” With the intercession of the Great JPII, entrusted to Mary Mother of Beautiful Love peace and Blessings to you and all your family and friends 4 ever through Christ our Lord…Amen…Lord willing talk to ya’ll next week…
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