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Editorial : “Get up and walk”
AA-Info n. 23
Rome
he new year has begun. We have celebrated the birth of the Lord Jesus and we have entered the last phase of the preparation of our 34th General Chapter. In six months the chapter members will gather in Rome at Mount Celio, at the Passionist religious. We will have 25 days of work to give our religious family a new dynamism and a new team of government and animation.
Meditating recently on the episode of the paralytic healed by Jesus, I began to reflect on what might be hindering our march towards the expected renewal. It seems relevant to me at the beginning of this year to invite each one of us, religious and laity, to leave our stretcher and to overcome the paralysis that can threaten us.
I love this call of Christ: “Get up and walk”, it is a command to which the response cannot be postponed. We are called to get up and walk. Sometimes the prospect of a chaotic road makes us doubt our abilities. Will we have enough strength and perseverance to complete the journey ahead of us? Will we have enough courage to overcome the various obstacles along the way? Will we have enough faith not to look back and to advance resolutely towards the Kingdom? Recently I was reading a treatise by St. Ambrose on the Gospel of Luke. I particularly liked what he said about the episode of the paralytic. The bishop of Milan said that he was healed of “the dislocated bones of his life and the lame legs of his actions”. Our lives are marked by happy or difficult events. Religious life is sometimes crossed by moments of doubt and the times we live in the Church are particularly turbulent. Have I done well to dedicate my life to the proclamation of the Gospel? Have I contributed to the coming of the Kingdom?
The questions keep coming up in our heads and we sometimes feel dizzy. We can have the impression that our lives are dislocated, weakened by successive crises. We also have “lame legs in our actions”. We want to do well and we stumble and fall by the wayside. I am sure that the Lord continues to heal us of our paralysis today. It is the urgency of the Kingdom that is at stake and God does not leave us with our infirmities. The gift of his love is permanent and his grace never ceases to flow. Get up and walk! Like the risen ones, we choose to walk towards the Jerusalem above. We are sure that the Lord will accompany us on the way. But we must continue to overcome our paralysis. First of all in our communities. Can we move towards greater brotherhood? Do we have the capacity to overcome our differences in order to work towards reconciliation and forgiveness? It is also important to work for unity in our Church. Ecumenism remains a priority task for the Assumption. Inter-religious dialogue is also a necessity in this globalized world. Finally, it is good to work for the safeguarding of our Earth. This is not a fashion to be sacrificed to, but an absolute emergency.
The year 2023 is in our hands. If we overcome our paralysis, those caused by fear or doubt, we will be the artisans of a renewal. May the Lord give all Assumptionists this strength for renewal. Assumption, rise up and walk!
Happy New Year to all.
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