Carlos Aguiar Gomes Magister
THE MASTER’S LENT MESSAGE FOR 2016
Ash Wednesday, 2016
Braga – Portugal
‘For all of us then, the season of Lent in this Jubilee Year is a favourable time to overcome our existential alienation by listening to God’s word and by practising the works of mercy. In the corporal works of mercy we touch the flesh of Christ in our brothers and sisters who need to be fed, clothed, sheltered, visited; in the spiritual works of mercy – counsel, instruction, forgiveness, admonishment and prayer – we touch more directly our own sinfulness. The corporal and spiritual works of mercy must never be separated. By touching the flesh of the crucified Jesus in the suffering, sinners can receive the gift of realising that they too are poor and in need.’ (Pope Francis’ Message for Lent, 2016) May Lent of 2016 begin under the sign of mercy, as desired by our Holy Father, the Pope. This period of preparation for celebrating the Resurrection of Jesus – ‘Misericordiae vultus’ should be for each one of us a time of prayer and penance, as recommended us by our Rule (ch. VII) which helps us in our purification and should be a path leading to a community which lives at one with Our Lord’s desire: ‘Ut sint unum…’ like the Most Holy Trinity, a community of full love, one with others and with those who are faraway and even with those who hate us. My brothers and friends, if we cannot make an effort of this sort, who are we? Maybe not even Christians hoping to become saints! If we are not ‘bathed’ in and through MERCY what sort of association are we? And Mercy needs to be lived, in the first place, within our communities, with our brothers and with their faults which are also ours. In a very special way we should read chapter VII of our Rule in conjunction with the Papal Bull ‘Misericordiae vultus’. Like a true MILES I ask myself this question: do all of us – the members of the MSM – know the 14 Works of Mercy, and practise them in a daily and concrete way, insofar as we are an association of the faithful and a community engaged in this world? Not so much individually, but as a coherent group? Is the MSM visible, or are we hiding ourselves with fear or – worse – indifference, because the MSM is not a secret society of people who like wearing a habit and walking in processions with it on? We cannot forget that living in association is a right for all the baptised and that we have a duty to exercise this right, involving as it does making an effort to live as builders of community, whose members, united in life and death, serve our mother, the Holy Church. The MSM’s visibility should be based on prayer and action (never forgetting that, in a certain way, we too are children of St Benedict!) This period of Lent, during the YEAR OF MERCY, invites and even OBLIGES us to ensure that, through our fraternal life in the MSM, the Works of Mercy are lived in a visible way by the whole Community. This is also a requirement of our Rule! Our essential aim is the sanctification of each one of us and the sanctification of the world through and in God’s mercy.
As Master, first servant of the MSM, I invite you all (brothers, sisters and friends) to turn this very rich liturgical period into a time of more intense prayer, and penance as well. May I repeat: let’s read chapter VII of our Rule in a prayerful way. Let us pray that all of us – brothers, sisters and friends of the MSM – follow our pilgrim path as we seek to ‘enlarge the frontiers of God’s Kingdom on earth’ with mercy in our hearts and our actions. In fact, as our Pope wants, we would like our MSM to become an ‘oasis of mercy’, radiating mercy towards this poor world so full of mirages which should make us think about which activities and specific aims will be the way ahead. In our charism, lack of action is a sin. May Our Lady, Queen of Mercy, turn towards us poor sinners with Her eyes of mercy, giving us Her hand and guiding us towards Jesus. May each one of us become ‘merciful like the Father’. Amen Braga, Ash Wednesday, 2016-02-10 The Master First Servant of the MSM Carlos Aguiar Gomes (Miles – pauper – peccator)