A very special note of the Easter experiences recounted in the Gospels, is the inner joy that captures and surprises those men and women who encounter the risen Christ. Jesus had spoken frequently through the parables of the Kingdom as the final fulfillment (cf. Mt 18:3; 25:21, Lk 15:7.10; 19:17), had explicitly made ​​the promise in the dialogues of the Last Supper (cf. Jn 15:11; 16:22.24; 17.3).

And in fact there are various references to the joy and wonder in the accounts of the appearances of the Risen Lord: "With fear and great joy the women ran to make the announcement" (Mt 28:8 );  and the two disciples of Emmaus had felt "burn the heart" making conversation with him along the way (Luke 24:32), and then again, returned to Jerusalem at the other, the appearance of the Risen Lord "still did not believe for joy and were amazed" (Lk 24: 41). And even with "great joy" come up from the Mount of Olives to Jerusalem after the farewell (Lk 24:52). And John in his turn remembers that on the evening of the resurrection, the appearance of the Risen Lord, "The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord" (Jn 20:20).

The joy as a fruit of existential presence of the novelty of the resurrection back very frequently both in the Acts of the Apostles and in the Epistles of Paul, is prolonged in the letters of Peter (1 Peter 1:6.8 ) and John (1 Jn 4:2; 2 Jn 12) and is completed by the marriage of the Lamb in Jerusalem of heaven (Rev. 21).

The key to joy

We mentioned this grace of joy in relation to the resurrection, to connect the central theme of this issue with the recent document of the Congregation for Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life: the letter "Rejoice...!" (February 2, 2014). In the wake of the language now known and typical of Pope Francis, who speaks with a frequency of joy and mercy, tenderness and embrace, confidence and new dignity, passion and enthusiasm for the Gospel, the Letter proposes essentially two things.

On the one hand a domestic recovery to each of us, about the reason of our consecration, to recognize the grace of the call, and awaken the joy of that charm of departure, because still supports the paths and projects of the heart. And the other part wants to urge to open our hearts, gestures and projects with a presence in the story that is that capacity for tenderness and support, proximity and audacity of contacts near every suburban existence. Because maybe a good cause of the crisis of imagination and enthusiasm in which we find ourselves in recent times in the consecrated life is just derived from the cooling of this wonder and this joy  to a presence that walks with us, but also urges us to live the suburbs, such as Galilee.
How can we say that we are walking with the Living if we have an air of Lent without showing that we are happy and resurrected too? How can you walk with the Risen Lord if we crawl close to the ground scared for the changes that reject our responses of works and styles now old and dusty? How can we simply say that we are walking toward the meeting in the “Galilee of the Gentiles" (Mk 16:7; Mt 28:10), if these suburbs now we have forgotten and we sail in sight, we roll without imagination, lack of inventiveness? If we travel as a "passenger camouflaged of the caboose, who admire the fireworks of the world" (EG 234) when we ever get to be the protagonists of a new story, explorers of trails just glimpsed? We are sons of the prophets who have come new roads and challenged  leathery habits, we can not afford to leave the road (and our gifts) at the mercy of fear and worldly prudence of those who are scared to soil their hands, and lazy is dedicated to careless maintenance.

Reinventing the founders dreams

On the road with the Living is then an experience to be reinvented, a presence to re- learn again to our next escape to the quiet village, a resurgence in the heart of dreams aborted due to lack of hope, a new experience of broken bread and gestures that illuminate the entire an existence. Too many times we do exercises with no sense of survival, we bar and imagination for fear of the unexpected difficulties: the Risen is a distant ghost that does not accompany our steps,  but only seems to be present in the background, so vague and purely ineffective.

"Wake the World" is the title that fr. Antonio Spadaro has put to his journalistic record of the long and vibrant dialogue during three hours of Papa Francesco with the Superiors General associated in USG (29 November 2013)[1].

"You have to be really witnessing a different way of doing things and behaving" (p. 5). And again: "Jesus went to everyone, absolutely everyone. I do not feel at all uneasy going to the suburbs: do not feel uneasy in contact with anyone" (p. 7). Until statements disconcerting for simplification: "The charisma is not a bottle of distilled water.  It must live with energy, rereading it also culturally" (p. 8).

Believing in the Risen Lord, and follow him as the Living, implies therefore to take very seriously the two sides on which is based the impressive collection of texts and speeches of Pope Francis, made ​​in the mentioned Letter, following the common thread of joy as an inner source of truth and as a gift to offer in the tangles of history.

Living the horizons of the soul and of the time

Interesting building on both sides of the Letter. Both parties start with a brief but effective biblical passage focused on the joy, in this case from two texts of the prophet Isaiah. You could also start from the Psalms, where the theme of joy has a very high frequency, and the terms used to say vary widely, with a vibration that reaches mystical heights. But among other biblical texts, just the prophet Isaiah not only shows, thinking about the frequency of the word, a peculiarity in this value. But even he mixes continuously joy and prophecy, interweaving them with another theme, that of proximity. This is not a superficial joy, this is not an alienation in times of anguish and disappointment: it is a resource that comes from God, his faithfulness, his projects that do not fail, and you must always return to do not lose hope and find the rock.

A joy that first of all - as the text clearly shows, weaving a synthesis with precious expressions of Francis - it's presence and call, choice and seal, inner transformation and transfiguration, pilgrimage and crucible that render the believer and the people themselves almost luminous icon that sparkles with joy. Is suitably reiterated the call to place the personal story in the history of Jesus, to whom every consecrated discipleship arises  and in the history of hugs and rebirth that always accompany the progressive growth in fidelity. The reference to concerns of desire and love, that turns dreams of new evangelization, but also the inner paths of purification and rebirth, I think a successful completion of the first part.

The second part  takes inspiration from the wording of Isaiah (Isaiah of Babylon), and opens with a lectio divina which emphasizes the words used by Isaiah 40.1-2 consonance with the lexicon of mercy and nuptiality of  few Biblical episodes. And so consequently the vibrations of God "spouse" in the midst of his people. Even here with valuable quotations from the daily teaching of Pope Francis, open roads the proximity where expand the tenderness in our hearts, where offering hugs and companionship to those who feel "difference" in society. "Being servants of the community and culture of the meeting," he asked religious and seminarians, Pope Francis in Brazil (27 July). But inhabiting the borders, the "non-places" (as the sociologist Augé says), as the land of our future, where repeat, exploring,  identity, practicing hospitable and creative communion.

In appendix - "The questions of Pope Francis" push in this direction also taken directly from his voice, with that style that sometimes also anticipates the objections, but ultimately calls for a sincere and bold authenticity.

Fraternity that caresses the conflict and heals them

This is also an expression of Pope Francis, repeated in front of superiors: "The tenderness helps to overcome the conflicts... You must caress conflicts" (p. 14). That's what Jesus did in the various meetings after the resurrection to his disciples. There are no meetings apologetic type, that is, to give evidence that he is truly risen, it's him.  It is at least the main way that I would give to those theophanies. Rather were times through which he sewed up the trust relationship that had been interrupted by the escape of all  (except John) in front of the capture of the Master and his ignominious death.

There was a sign of guilt and shame in his disciples: right in that supreme suffering had failed to be near him. And the meetings and the words, gestures and peace, encouragement and confidence they need time and patience: could be just a sound scolding  and instead he shared with them the food and the memories, the known gestures and words of promise, who were about to come true after all.

To believe and to live in the resurrection, walking with the Living, also requires precisely this art of "console", to  re-weave ties and affiliations, live sincere appearances and open spaces. This can be seen in the risen Jesus, it says the text of the Letter in its second half, led by the title: "Comfort, comfort my people." It is giving hugs and make the company without presumption, but also to experience the anxiety of love, as happened to the women in that Easter morning. They are to "run" with the news and creating unrest. But even to them do encounter the Risen One, to make them enthusiastic messengers of an event that you could not even wrap still with human words. Because it was an event totally new, unknown, impossible to say in its reality.

It is also through them, the women that Jesus is launching the first signs of fraternity that reassembles fractures, calls for meetings that healed fears and confusion, and joy and announce new identity. How can we continue to walk with the Living without a profound rethinking of the role of faith in the Risen Christ in dialogue with the emotion, the beating of the heart, the courage of restless love of Mary Magdalene and without the fragrance of the perfume of the three Marys? Even without the restless and intuitive love of the young loved that "runs faster"(cf. Jn 20:4).  We still have a long way together and with loving heart.

 

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