My dear Sisters,
Dear Friends,
Here we are, together, for a good part of the journey. Like those two disciples, we too are walking, perhaps timidly, but we are walking, and we are questioning everything we see humanity experiencing at this moment in the world’s history. “Now while they were talking and discussing these things, Jesus himself came up and walked with them.” See Luke 24:15. And Jesus walked with them, and Jesus walks with us. And Jesus continues to walk with the world today in all its incomprehensible, unpredictable, and madness. Jesus walks with all of us. At the pace of each and every one of us, He walks. He walks side by side, without being in a hurry, without agitation, without imposing His own pace on us.
Even if we argue loudly with each other, saying empty words of hope to each other, even if we grumble, even if we sulk, even if … the important thing is to walk and not stop our walk. Walking with the certainty of the heart that Jesus is walking by our side. And that he wants to light-up our path by asking us, “What are you discussing while walking? ». See Luke 24:17.
We often hear it said that one of these unnamed disciples could be one of us. We are thus invited to re-read this passage by putting ourselves in the place of the unnamed character. Let us imagine ourselves in this character’s place. A character disappointed by everything they see and hear in Jerusalem. He or she sets off with Cleopas towards the place they surely already knew. They choose to turn their backs on a future that seems unknown to them. They prefer to turn their backs on the opening of a hope that, for them, is dead. They are fed up with the new. This new that they can no longer master or explain to theirs, that they can no longer control or argue in the eyes of the world. Everything escapes them. This is a terrible failure. It’s a dead without a way out. Everything looks like an endpoint.
Suddenly, Jesus, differently and serenely, began to walk with them. This is His way, the Risen One’s way, of walking with us. Jesus makes no sound. He approaches without imposing himself on our path. But our eyes seem too closed to recognize him. “Their eyes were kept from recognizing him.” See Luke 24:16. Because we cling to our narrow and secure points of view, we dwell on unresolved failures, we twist ourselves in our endless bitterness, and we question the hope that once dwelt within us. “We had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. And besides all this, it is now the third day since these things took place.” See Luke 24:21.
During this Lent, we wanted to attune our hearts to the rhythm of all these women of Easter, in a world of Good Friday. Women who are searching, seeking out where the Lord is. Who run everywhere looking for him. And they seek him in this world in which we live today. A world where the law of the strongest, the most powerful, the most corrupt, the most influential, the most handsome, the most demonstrative, the most heavily armed has the right to speak and be heard.
And to keep us on the right track in our search, every week during Lent, we received a page of meditation that pointed us towards a possible path for breaking through the walls that blind our eyes, so that we might “One must leave oneself, one must see the interests of Jesus and the salvation of souls”. See Letters from Sister Eugénie Caps to Catherine Frentz, Collection 2, page 7. A beautiful way to encounter the Lord: “Are not our hearts burning within us whilst he spoke to us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?” See Luke 24:32.
The Word of God sets us in motion and opens our senses to a new breath of life. We need to breathe a different air, one that teaches us to contemplate our sisters and brothers according to the gifts of the Spirit and not according to our jealousies. “There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of work, but it is the same God who works all things in all people. To each is given a manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.” See First Letter of Saint Paul to the Corinthians 12:4–7.
To decide to live this Pentecost by consciously choosing good is courageous. To move forward without fear, allowing the Spirit to guide my steps and manifest Himself in my walk, through the steps I choose to take for the sake of good, is courageous. To decide to cultivate within myself the certainty that the Spirit gives me the grace to breathe new life, and that Jesus accompanies me on my walk, sometimes faltering, is courageous. So, let us not be afraid, because the Lord promises us strength, the strength of the Spirit. (See Acts 1:8.) And this strength sustains our choices and supports our courage.
We know that we are not alone in welcoming the Spirit of Goodness, nor in this daily journey of seeking the Lord of Life. We are in community and in fraternity, in religious family and in human family. We weed the path together.
We weed the path together, if we dare to preserve along our way flowers of every color, every kind, every size, and every scent.
Together, we clear the path, if we refuse to be swayed by the prevailing trends, which confines us to stereotypical beauty standards, to codes of narcissism, reducing the person to a mere profit figure, seeking to stifle all those who have chosen to make room for the Spirit of Good, and ultimately attempting to kill the diversity of the Spirit.
Recalling the story of Pentecost, we notice that Jesus met the disciples when the doors of the place where they were gathered were still locked. (See John 20:19.) Then it was at that moment that the Lord breathed on them, just as He breathes on us today, and says to us with the same intensity in his words, “Receive the Holy Spirit”. And if we truly wish to welcome him, in complete freedom, we receive the Holy Spirit.
How can we identify his Spirit amongst so many spirits? Well, we all know that we can identify his Spirit very clearly, because it bears the scent of Goodness and Peace. It is solely by this scent of Goodness and Peace that we can recognise him.
My Sisters and our Friends, let us celebrate this Pentecost by moving without holding back, according to the Goodness and Peace of the Spirit. Let us walk, striving to take the first step towards Goodness and Peace when the time is right. Let us walk, too, as bearers of this Spirit of Goodness and Peace, of the One who offers us these pages of the Gospel. For the manifestation of the Spirit given to us is at the service of the Good of all. Let us therefore dare to be people who spread, with determination, this sweet fragrance, which is the Spirit of Goodness and Peace of the Lord.
May wonder and gratitude for the Lord’s faithfulness be with you.
And may Mary, Our Lady of Light, enlighten you as she watches over your discernment.
To each and every one of you, I wish a Pentecost filled with the Spirit of Goodness and Peace.
Sister Olga Fonseca
General Superior of the Spiritan Sisters.