DAY 8 : LIFELINE! IN SOLIDARITY WITH …
DAY 8: LIFELINE! IN SOLIDARITY WITH … Download PDF
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Grace: To discover everyone and everything anew in the Lord, and to grow in solidarity with the victims of Corona
Our LIFELINE is with us. The Risen Lord invites us to look at our reality of Corona pandemic with the eyes of faith. As we ‘read the signs of the time’, we realise that this global crisis is a challenging opportunity for humankind to experience a global conversion and renewal. The celebration of the resurrection of Jesus in a world gripped by a global pandemic is an invitation to revision our lives beyond our own wants and needs, to foster a new approach to our sisters and brothers across the globe beyond our own borders and egos, to heal our Mother Earth and human family, towards building a more equitable, just, peaceful and sustainable world. It is a call for a renewed relationship with God, self, others and creation. It is a new way of thinking, living, relating and planning in order that everyone’s food and health become the responsibility of all. ‘There is enough in the world for everyone’s need, but not for everyone’s greed’ (Gandhiji). This is the call of the Lifeline for a new global solidarity.
“The Lord asks us and, in the midst of our tempest, invites us to reawaken and put into practice that solidarity and hope capable of giving strength, support and meaning to these hours when everything seems to be floundering. The Lord awakens so as to reawaken and revive our Easter faith”
(Pope Francis, Urbi et Orbi, 27/03/2020).
Last seven days, while journeying with our Lifeline, we have also pondered over the onslaught of COVID-19 in the light of faith. As we have entered into the heart of God, we were led into the broken world and discovered that our Lifeline is laboring in the world calling us for a magnanimous response of solidarity. We offer our entire being to the mission of the Lifeline and we say from the depth of our being, ‘your love and grace – that is enough for me.’ May our LIFELINE inspire us to rediscover our mission to be men and women of hope, and to walk IN SOLIDARITY WITH the distressed people at this critical time of humankind. “When one knows thee, then alien there is none, then no door is shut. Oh, grant me my prayer that I may never lose the bliss of the touch of the one in the play of the many”
(Tagore, Gitanjali 63).
Pause and Reflect
- What plans you make in order to put into practice the renewed sense of solidarity with the distressed people and the ailing Mother Earth.
- As you spend time with the Risen Lord recall the graces you have received during this retreat and share with him the ways in which you will sustain the graces of the retreat.
- Think of one or two concrete deeds through which you could bring hope to the victims of Corona in your place.
- What are your interior movements at the end of the retreat: joy, sadness, hope, anxiety?
Passages for Prayer and Reflection
Lk 24:13-35: “Weren’t our hearts burning”
Jn 20:11-18: “I have seen the Lord.”
Jn 20:24- 29: “My Lord and my God!”
Prayer: God of life, help me to experience you journeying with me in the midst of adversity so that I radiate your joy, peace, love and hope to all those whom I encounter.
Mantra: Lord, transform us and renew the world.
Fr Denzil Fernandes, SJ
Indian Social Institute, New Delhi