God Wants It All
JUNE 1993
Are we aware of our responsibility? We must respond to God and man. The life of every man always involves this two-fold relationship. It is a relationship that implies a duty because both God and man want something from us and we cannot turn away from the needs of either, otherwise our life would lose its meaning. It is therefore in meeting these demands that we shall fulfill our human and Christian vocation. Do men and the Church really expect something from us? Does God Himself expect something? And if no one demanded anything of us, would we not feel that our very life is useless and empty?
In reality not only man, but God, God above all, expects something from us. And what could He expect from such miserable creatures as we? If we really believe that God loves us, then we must also believe that He expects everything, because He expects a response of love. God wants us to be saints. It is not so much to be happy that we should strive for holiness; rather, we should strive for holiness because the Lord demands this of us and we cannot turn away from the demands of a God who, having given Himself completely to us, expects our total self-gift to Him. To those who truly love us, we are everything, because the beloved is the only joy and delight of the person who loves. God therefore expects everything from us because somehow He wishes to find His joy and delight in us.
These reflections may seem so abstract and far-removed from our common way of thinking that they may leave us indifferent; in fact, despite what we say, we shall never fully believe that God loves us. In any case, what is Christianity but the revelation of the Love of God, of a real love that moved God to become Incarnate and to die on the Cross for our sake? If only we realized even a little what our faith teaches! We would truly regard our life as one of infinite value; it would have the same value as the love of God itself!
But in what way can we meet the demands of God in a holy life? In what way is the holiness of man in relationship with God? God made Himself present to us in our brethren so that the gift of our life to the Lord may become real and concrete in our relationship with men: those close to us and those of our time.
We must ask ourselves first of all whether the 'Community of the sons & daughters of God' really meets the requests and needs of our brethren. Is the Community an association that expresses only a certain nostalgia for the past or for an outdated spirituality? Perhaps the CFD strangely turns away from the problems that men and Christians are confronted with today?
But did Jesus perhaps respond to the expectations of Israel? Is it not perhaps true that only God knows at heart what men's real needs are? If God raised up the CFD and if it was His will that it should give witness to the primacy of prayer, then it is a sign that men of today have a real need most of all of this, to find God again and to live in communion with Him. Nothing can replace God for man. Every "surrogate" of God will end up in disappointment because we are made for God. Indeed, we believe that the Community has a rationale. We believe that it was God's will to raise up the CFD so that it might meet man's urgent need of God Whom men of today have lost. The world in which we live is a desert and in this desert men need to encounter God once again, men need to realize that their life is not meaningless because God loves them, God who endows human life with infinite value.
Human life is not an adventure that ends in ultimate defeat. The human adventure is a path that brings man to the secret of a God Who is Eternal.
My dear brethren: our responsibility is great because it involves revealing to others the real and unfathomable love of God and giving witness to a God Who did not abandon the earth but is still living with us, a God Who accompanies us on our journey and loves us. If we really want the CFD to meet both the needs of men and the demands of God, we must be witnesses of this kind, witnesses who live a life of purity and peace, of simplicity and love, but above all witnesses with living faith.
May the Lord grant that we may live our divine calling!
The Father