[Kd1871-covenant-solidarity] EN - Francis on deepest dimensions of covenant in solidarity

[maria fischer]

*The Holy Father`s sermon in Lampedusa*

"Immigrants dying at sea, in boats which were vehicles of hope and 
became vehicles of death. Since I first heard of this tragedy a few 
weeks ago, and realised that it happens too frequently, it has 
constantly come back to me like a painful thorn in my heart. So, I felt 
that I had to come here today, to pray and to offer a sign of my 
closeness, but also to challenge our consciences lest this tragedy be 
repeated. Please, let it not be repeated!"

The Pope thanked the inhabitants and the authorities of Lampedusa for 
their solidarity with the immigrants and greeted the Muslims among them 
who today begin the fast of Ramadan, and added, "The Church is at your 
side as you seek a more dignified life for yourselves and your families".

"This morning, in the light of God's Word which has just been 
proclaimed, I wish to offer some thoughts to challenge people's 
consciences, to lead them to reflection and a concrete change of heart".

"'Adam, where are you?' This is the first question God poses to man 
after his sin. Adam lost his bearings, his place in creation because he 
thought he could be powerful, able to control everything, to be God. 
Harmony was lost, man errs and this error occurs over and over again 
also in relationships with others. The 'other' who is no longer a 
brother or sister to be loved, but simply another person who disturbs 
our lives and our comfort. God asks a second question, 'Cain, where is 
your brother?'. The illusion of being powerful, of being as great as 
God, even of being God Himself, leads to a whole series of errors, a 
chain of death, even to the spilling of a brother's blood! God's two 
questions echo even today, as forcefully as ever. How many of us, myself 
included, have lost our bearings; we are no longer attentive to the 
world in which we live ... we do not take care of that which God created 
for all of us, and we are no longer capable even of looking after each 
other. And when humanity as a whole loses its bearings, it results in 
tragedies like the one we have witnessed.

"'Where is your brother?' His blood cries out to me, says the Lord. This 
is not a question directed to others, it is a question directed to me, 
to you, to each of us. These brothers and sisters of ours were trying to 
escape difficult situations to find some serenity and peace; they sought 
a better place for themselves and their families, but instead they found 
only death. How often do such people fail to find understanding, fail to 
find acceptance, fail to find solidarity. And their cry rises up to God! 
I recently listened to one of these brothers of ours. Before arriving 
here, he and the others were at the mercy of traffickers, people who 
exploit the poverty of others, people who live off the misery of others. 
How much these people have suffered! Some of them never made it here.

"'Where is your brother?' Who is responsible for this blood? In Spanish 
literature there is a work by Lope de Vega which narrates how the 
inhabitants of the city of Fuente Ovejuna kill their tyrannical 
governor, and they do so in a way that no-one knows who carried out the 
execution. And when the king's judge asks, 'Who killed the governor?', 
they all answer, "Fuente Ovejuna, my lord". Everybody and nobody! Today 
too, this question emerges forcefully: who is responsible for the blood 
of these, our brothers and sisters? Nobody! That is our answer: it isn't 
me, I don't have anything to do with it; it must be someone else, but 
certainly not me. Yet God is asking each of us: 'Where is the blood of 
your brother which cries out to me?'.

*Today no-one in our world feels responsible; we have lost a sense of 
responsibility for our brothers and sisters; we have fallen into the 
hypocrisy of the priest and the Levite whom Jesus described in the 
parable of the Good Samaritan: we see our brother half dead on the side 
of the road, perhaps we say to ourselves: 'poor soul...!', and then go 
on our way; it's not our responsibility, and with that we feel 
reassured. The culture of comfort, which makes us think only of 
ourselves, makes us insensitive to the cries of other people, makes us 
live in soap bubbles which, however lovely, are insubstantial; they 
offer a fleeting and empty illusion which results in indifference to 
others; indeed, it even leads to the globalisation of indifference. We 
have become used to the suffering of others, it doesn't affect me; it 
doesn't concern me; it is none of my business. The globalisation of 
indifference makes us all 'unnamed', responsible yet nameless and faceless.*

"'Adam, where are you?' 'Where is your brother?' These are the two 
questions which God asks at the dawn of human history, and which he also 
asks each man and woman in our own day, which he also asks us.

*But I would like us to ask a third question: 'Has any one of us wept 
because of this situation and others like it?' Has any one of us grieved 
for the death of these brothers and sisters? Has any one of us wept for 
these persons who were on the boat? For the young mothers carrying their 
babies? For these men who were looking for a means of supporting their 
families? We are a society which has forgotten how to weep, how to 
experience compassion -- 'suffering with' others: the globalization of 
indifference has taken from us the ability to weep! In the Gospel we 
have heard the crying, the wailing, the great lamentation: 'Rachel weeps 
for her children... because they are no more'. Herod sowed death to 
protect his own comfort, his own soap bubble. And so it continues... Let 
us ask the Lord to remove the part of Herod that lurks in our hearts; 
let us ask the Lord for the grace to weep over our indifference, to weep 
over the cruelty of our world, of our own hearts, and of all those who 
in anonymity make social and economic decisions which open the door to 
tragic situations like this.*

**

*"In this liturgy, a penitential liturgy, we beg forgiveness for our 
indifference to so many of our brothers and sisters. Father, we ask your 
pardon for those who are complacent and closed amid comforts which have 
deadened their hearts; we beg your forgiveness for those who by their 
decisions on the global level have created situations that lead to these 
tragedies".
*

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Dear friends and collaborators/users of schoenstatt.org  on a day that 
has shown us how our Holy Father lives the solidarity with the poorests, 
we would like to share his sermon in Lampedusa with you all.  what is 
put in bold seems to me that it is said for all of us, and opening us 
opening us deeper dimensions of the covenant of solidarity - either with 
shrines like Lourdes affected by flooding, either with countries and 
peoples affected by earthquakes, either with members of our Schoenstatt 
family suffering with diseases, with moments of pain and injustice, 
either with the poor, immigrants, the homeless, street children ... 
Cvoenant solidarity is /*prayer*/, are /*donations*/, is /*concrete 
help*/ to build houses like right now in Paraguay, to go and meet people 
in the street as in the project "Encuentro" in Madrid ... and something 
that today in Lampedusa Frances  highlighted and which is perhaps the 
"soul" of our covenant solidarity: /*to be touched, moved by the pain of 
others ... to make it ours and thus make it solidarity.*/

When Francis speaks of globalization of indifference, let us go ahead 
for the globalization of solidarity covenant ...

The "Messages of Francis to the Pilgrims 2014" of this week are in the 
same line ... (will be online soon)


And these can be shared and spread and used - and please share what you 
do and experience with these texts- in order to inspire others
In covenant solidarity, maria with the team of schoenstatt.org



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