February 1981
I came home this evening from a Faith and Light gathering. Our paths had all crossed; we shared a meal together, celebrated a feast. We had become a Christian community.
What does that mean? It means we are invited by God to live in communion with Him and His Son, so that we become for others the living proof of God's love.
As a priest, I show in the community that God always invites everyone—everyone—to His table; that He does not judge or condemn but calls and welcomes; that He makes no distinction between people but loves them all equally, looking only at the heart.
As a mother, you show in the community that God is for us like a mother, and He loves us:
"As a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you, and you will be comforted." (Isaiah 66:13)
As a father, you show in the community that God loves us as a father loves:
"I said, 'You are my children,' and I will be a father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters… You will call me 'Father,' and you will not turn away from me." (Jeremiah 3:19)
As an elderly woman, you show in the community that God has deep wisdom and infinite patience:
"You, Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness!" (Psalm 86:15)
As a young man, you show in the community that God always has a youthful heart and looks always toward the future:
"The Lord is doing a new thing on the earth!" (Jeremiah 31:22) "Behold, I am making all things new!" (Revelation 21:5)
As a young woman, you show in the community that God knows how to smile at us, tenderness in His heart and goodness in His gaze:
"Jesus looked at him and loved him." (Mark 10:21)
As a child, you show in the community that God loves life and celebration and is preparing a feast for all. You, child, do not find it strange that all creatures live together:
"The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them." (Isaiah 11:6)
As a brother with a disability, you show in the community that God did not come to us in spectacle and power, but in poverty and simplicity:
"She gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them." (Luke 2:7)
A Christian community would be incomplete without adults, elderly people, young people, children, and brothers and sisters with disabilities in its midst.
Each of you, in your own way, is for others the hands, the gaze, the heart of God—who in the person of Christ loved us concretely with a human body, human hands, a human gaze, a human heart.
"Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ… Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it." (1 Corinthians 12:12, 27)
Michel Charpentier
The Final Message of Pope John Paul I
SEPTEMBER 29, 1978, THE DAY OF HIS DEATH
"We ask the sick and the handicapped to understand what an important part they have in God's plan and how much evangelization depends upon them…"
For Reflection
- Are parents, friends, and people with disabilities present in your community? Do they have a place? What is the particular gift of each person? How might you discover it?
- Every year, on the Feast of the Presentation of Jesus at the Temple (February 2), communities gather for the Festival of Light. The liturgy of this day celebrates Jesus, the light of our lives. A presentation or vigil can be prepared by the community, inviting new friends to join. The theme could be: light in the Bible (Genesis, Exodus, Christmas, the Presentation, the man born blind, the Resurrection, Pentecost, the heavenly Jerusalem).