By José Pablo Poblete, LC
“To face the future with confidence, we must direct our gaze to Jesus Christ, Lord of history, Good Shepherd, who has been with us in dark valleys (cf. Ps 23:4), and invites us to continue His redemptive work in this new missionary stage of the Legion”¹.
Thus, the General Chapter exhorts us to live this new stage, and what a challenge it is amid a global pandemic that forces us to stay physically at home! I imagine that from all arises a wonder, full of faith, when contemplating how mysterious the global situation we are immersed in is.
We must be aware that thanks to the action of the Holy Spirit, the initiative has not been an alien word to so many members of Regnum Christi around the world. Masses through various platforms abound on the internet, there is the possibility of taking formation courses, encounters with Christ, Eucharistic Hours, or praying the rosary with people from other cities and sections. Let us continue, perhaps with greater insistence during Holy Week, being bridges of mercy and God’s grace. Each one in the place where Providence calls, whether speaking in front of cameras or interceding for the fruits of all these initiatives that do so much good and that bring Christ’s message to all the peripheries of the world.
We must humbly recognize that God has curious plans, and very often they are not the same as our way of arranging things. That Holy Week 2020 did not have grand missions was probably not what was first in our annual planning.
But we are certain that God always makes His presence known in a way different from the “normal” or “expected,” as was the case in the Annunciation and later on the Cross. Christ likes to surprise us, and generally, the present is only fully understood when looking back into the future and seeing the hand of Providence guiding the plow through the furrows. Hopefully, during this time, once again, the Father hears, this time from the mouth of each Legionary, the phrase that Mary responded to Gabriel: fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum.
This Holy Week is a great opportunity to imitate Christ and to grow in His radiance through our lives.
During Holy Thursday, we can show the world how we are all one body in the Church. It will not be during the chrism Mass, but in the common prayer around the great gift of the Eucharist. Probably for many, it will be the most fruitful spiritual communion they will make in their lives, seeing that God’s will tries to reach what physically cannot be this year.
Good Friday will be a moment to carry the cross with Jesus. The cross of so many sick, of so many people living in solitude, of so many who face moments of fear and anguish without hope. Carrying the cross, identifying with it, and why not, loving it a little more, seeing how Christ is there walking with each of us.
Holy Saturday will be a day to accompany the theological trust of Mary, who does not despair in the face of the silence and fear of the disciples. In some way, that Saturday was similar to the period we are living through with the current pandemic. How does Mary want us to live it?
Easter Sunday will be the opportunity to shout from the four winds of our communities and internet networks that Christ has risen and that His life is our life and our true hope.
We must look to Christ, in the favorable wind and in the storm. Courage and confidence, for Christ has placed us in this moment of history so that we may testify to His love. May it be a Holy Week.
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1. Ordinary General Chapter of the Legionaries of Christ, Capitular communiqué, March 2, 2020, no. 118.