I came home tonight after a Fede e Luce celebration, after living what has become, every day and more deeply, a "Christian community."
And I found myself asking:
Who are you and what are you doing here, my handicapped brother,
who looks at me and smiles,
you who cannot speak yet make yourself understood,
you with pure eyes and an open heart?
Who are you and what are you doing here, mother or father,
who came to this Fede e Luce celebration?
Who are you and what are you doing here, elderly woman,
who quietly sees that all goes well?
Who are you and what are you doing here, young man full of life and the desire to live, full of ideas, strength, and freedom to build new things?
Who are you and what are you doing here, young woman, with your gentle smile, a heart full of tenderness, arms made to caress and console?
Who are you and what are you doing here, child
who sees life as a celebration and others as friends?
Who am I, a priest, among all of you?
All our paths crossed; we shared a Mass, a celebration; we became a Christian community.
What does this mean?
It means we are invited by God to be in communion with Him and His Son, so that we become for others the ones who make real God's love.
So I, as a priest, in the community am the sign
that God always invites everyone to His table;
that God does not judge or condemn but calls and welcomes;
that God makes no distinction among people but loves them all equally,
looking only at the heart.
So you, mother, in the community are the concrete sign
that God is for people like a mother and loves them:
"As a mother comforts her child,
so I (=God) will comfort you and you will be glad." (Isaiah 66:13)
So you, father, in the community are the concrete sign
that God loves people like a father:
"I thought, how gladly would I treat you like sons
and give you a delightful land… I thought
you would call me 'Father' and not turn away from me." (Jeremiah 3:19)
So you, elderly woman, in the community are the concrete sign that God has great wisdom and great patience:
"You, Lord, are a God merciful and gracious,
slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness." (Psalm 86:15)
So you, young man, in the community are the concrete sign that God always has a young heart and always looks to the future:
"The Lord is creating something new on earth!" (Jeremiah 31:22)
"Behold, I (=God) make all things new!" (Revelation 21:5)
So you, young woman, in the community are the concrete sign that God smiles on people, full of tenderness in His heart and goodness in His gaze:
"And Jesus, looking at him, loved him…" (Mark 10:21)
So you, child, in the community are the concrete sign that God loves life and celebration and prepares one for all.
You, child, do not find it strange that all creatures live together:
"The wolf shall dwell with the lamb,
and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat;
the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together;
and a little child shall lead them,"
(Isaiah 11:6)
So you, my handicapped brother, in the community are the concrete sign that God did not come among us with spectacle and force, but in poverty and simplicity:
"She gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger,
because there was no place for them at the inn." (Luke 2:7)
A Christian community would lack something if it did not have within it adults, elders, young people, children, and handicapped brothers and sisters.
Each one, in your own way, are for the 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 (= Christians)
are the body of Christ,
and each one of you is a part of it,
each according to your own share,"
(1 Corinthians 12:12–27)
- Michel Charpentier