he
depth of God’s commitment to us is seen graphically in the Cross.
The constancy of God’s commitment to us through history is
displayed particularly in the men and women who have offered life to and for
others.
For many of them their lives ended in martyrdom; for many more their lives were brought to sacredness and to God in daily and undaunted commitment and love for their brothers and sisters, without condition or boundary. Theirs was, and is , as radical as the commitment Jesus made. They, Christians – laymen and women, priests, men and women religious, and even children, - all had, and have, one thing is common: intense love for the needy neighbor, impelled to live and work for a more just and loving world, their faith in action speaking much louder than their word and more convincingly than their word, their dedication to the poor, often seen as threatening to the powers-to-be, as expression of fidelity to the one who sent them.
Living their faith in loving service of neighbor, they were, and are, neither fearless nor foolhardy; neither were they heroes. A hero gives the illusion of surpassing his humanity. We call them saints, the saint doesn’t surpass his humanity, but assumes it, and strives to realize it in the best possible way. These Christians are simply followers of Jesus.
As Blessed Guido Maria Conforti, founder of the Xaverian Missionaries, says, this self giving in daily service “is a type of martyrdom. Whatever it lacks in intensity of suffering is made up for by its lifelong duration.” In this issue of the Xaverian Mission Newsletter we will meet some such people, examples of witnesses of the love and faith in Jesus Christ that we share as his followers. They are witnesses of the risen Christ… Easter!
(From Xaverian Mission Newsletter)