Today is the fifth anniversary of the brutal murder, in Syria, of a Dutch Jesuit, Frans van der Lugt. In a short animated film created in his honour the central message is to love: because love keeps going, it just keeps going... because Jesus just kept loving, and loving and loving. A few days earlier we also heard news of the death, in Peru, of Paul McAuley, a Lasallian missionary and environmental activist... and a few days before that came moving images of Pope Francis meeting Brother Jean-Pierre, the final surviving member of the Trappist Tibhirine community.
Three religious men, each one a powerful witness of self-giving, loving and utter, completely radical discipleship of Jesus. Three men who did not intend, or set out to be murdered (or narrowly escape murder), but who, having set out on the way of love, could do nothing other than keep going, regardless of the cost. Three men whose lives bear testimony to what St Paul says in today's Second Reading (Phil 3), that nothing can happen that will outweigh the supreme advantage of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord... At many times in their lives, maybe even in the face of impending violence, they too must have prayed with this passage, and with these words All I want is to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and to share his sufferings by reproducing the pattern of his death... and then they kept going, kept loving; they just kept loving.
As for me, I am, as St Paul also says, nowhere near perfection: I am still running, trying to capture the prize for which Christ Jesus captured me. And having been captured and captivated by Christ, I too need to keep going, keep loving, following wherever greater and deeper and wider loving will take me; most likely not to a martyr's death, but certainly more and more deeply into a disciple's living witness.
As we enter Passiontide, and in these dark and wearying times, may we all continue with Jesus, our guide and leader on the way of love... and may we all keep going, keep loving, just keep loving...
Three religious men, each one a powerful witness of self-giving, loving and utter, completely radical discipleship of Jesus. Three men who did not intend, or set out to be murdered (or narrowly escape murder), but who, having set out on the way of love, could do nothing other than keep going, regardless of the cost. Three men whose lives bear testimony to what St Paul says in today's Second Reading (Phil 3), that nothing can happen that will outweigh the supreme advantage of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord... At many times in their lives, maybe even in the face of impending violence, they too must have prayed with this passage, and with these words All I want is to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and to share his sufferings by reproducing the pattern of his death... and then they kept going, kept loving; they just kept loving.As for me, I am, as St Paul also says, nowhere near perfection: I am still running, trying to capture the prize for which Christ Jesus captured me. And having been captured and captivated by Christ, I too need to keep going, keep loving, following wherever greater and deeper and wider loving will take me; most likely not to a martyr's death, but certainly more and more deeply into a disciple's living witness.
As we enter Passiontide, and in these dark and wearying times, may we all continue with Jesus, our guide and leader on the way of love... and may we all keep going, keep loving, just keep loving...
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