Faith, Mission and Martyrdrom

In line with the Year of Faith proclaimed by Pope Benedict XVI, Faith, Mission and Martyrdom is the annual theme of reflection for the entire Consolata family. This theme runs throughout and inspires our activities, meetings and retreats for this year.

True faith is more than a worldview, that is, a way of seeing and interpreting the world and life; more than an intellectual assent to the belief in the existence of a God, Creator of Heaven and Earth and Saviour in Christ his only son; more than a feeling of love for God and neighbour; more than a fundamental choice, because it permeates everything that we are, feel and do.  Faith is all this, but it is also, and above all, a gift from God. This faith finds its natural expression in mission.  Paraphrasing the apostle James (James 2:17), faith without mission is a dead faith.

Mission and martyrdom are one and the same thing. Mission is not fundamentally about preaching the word of God or doing works of charity. Mission is about bearing witness to our intimate relationship of love with Christ, and offering it to others. No one can give what he or she does not have. If we do not have an intimate, personal and loving relationship with Christ, then we cannot and should not be missionaries.

The word witness in Greek is 'martirete'; a missionary is one who bears witness to Christ, whatever the circumstances, in season and out of season, with purpose or without purpose, as St. Paul says. This witnessing can mean a short life, like Christ's, giving one's life readily; or it can mean a long life, being faithful minute by minute, every minute of one’s life.

There are therefore two forms of martyrdom, just as there are two forms of combustion: live combustion, "putting all the meat on the grill", or slow combustion, like how charcoal is formed, the wood is slowly changed into coal, which in turn burns slowly warming those who are cold.

"For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it." Mark 8:35

Mission calls for life, martyrdom calls for death. In Christ, life and death meet in harmony: “What is not worth dying for is not worth living for”. Do not occupy your life with things that you are not willing to die for; let the reason for your life be the reason for your death, and vice-versa.

Fr. Jorge Amaro, IMC

The Christian dimention of Time

"Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and for ever". Hebrews 13:8
"I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end". Revelation. 22:13

Cosmic Time, the Circle – Starting from what is objectively observable, a circular understanding of time has always prevailed in Ancient Greece and the Far East: from the cosmic point of view, the 365 days it takes the earth to go around the sun; from the point of view of nature, more specifically climate change, the four seasons: winter, spring, summer, and fall.  From these facts, the myth of the "eternal return" was born for philosophy, the idea that "there is nothing new under the sun" for science, and the belief in "reincarnation" for religion.

Human Time, the Straight Line – From an existential and human point of view, each day that comes is one more day that we are going to live and one less day that we have left to live. Conceiving of time as a straight line, coming from the past, passing through the present and heading towards the future, means that what comes from the past, is replaced by the present and drives towards the future, is nothing that can be observed in nature. Time in a straight line is the time of individual and community history, the time that incorporate the idea of progress: today was better than yesterday, tomorrow will be better than today. In philosophy, Heraclitus’ maxim, "we do not bathe twice in the waters of the same river" shares this understanding of time, the same is true in cosmology and religion, which convey the same notions of the beginning and the end of the world.

This is also the Jewish understanding of time: leaving Egypt (a land of slavery), passing through the desert (a place of suffering, penance, purification, and effort) and entering the Promised land, overflowing with milk and honey (a land of freedom, rewarded effort and finished work).  This is the archetype of progress and human life advocated by Karl Marx’s theory, in which Egypt would be capitalism, the desert would be dictatorship over the proletariat and the promised land would be socialism and a classless society.

Christian Time, the Spiral - It is the synthesis between the straight line and the circle since it is a circle in continuous forward movement. The Portuguese dictionary defines a spiral as "a curved unlimited line described by a point that turns around a pole and progressively moves away from it", like a propeller, a spring, or a spiral staircase. This is Christian time and even human time (it should be noted that the DNA of our genetic code is represented in the form of a spiral). As the figure shows, each year consists of 365 days around the Sun – the Sun that is Christ, who illuminates and gives meaning to our lives, who is the beginning and the end, both Universe and of our individual lives.

Christian time, therefore, is neither a circle nor a straight line, that is, each Christmas and each Easter are different, given that the year we are in and the conditions of the situations in which we find ourselves are different. However, Christ is the constant throughout our lives, He is the axis around which we gravitate, "In Him we live and move and have our being" (Acts 17:28). Each year that passes we meditate on the mystery of Christ, from his Incarnation until his Death, Resurrection and Ascension into heaven. 

Ultimately, to get out of our personal "Egypt", shaping our lives more and more like His, so that one day we will reach the Promised Land and be able to say like St. Paul, "It is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me" (Galatians. 2:20).

Fr. Jorge Amaro, IMC