Persecution and Inappearance: from one's Core to the terraces

(Mt 10:26-33)

The all-important Oneness does not let us "resume": however, it makes us be Reborn.

Christ's proposal subverts the quietism and meaning of personal and social life.

The disciple of the Truth is exposed to attack.

There is no set orientation. But in states of discomfort, in defeat, in humiliation, a malleable energy world acts, which brings out innate capacities; it activates the person to fly with his own wings.

It is a source of origin, which wherever we go, we do not shake off. Because here we are ourselves; in the centre of our Mission, not homologated under conventions and accommodations.

In this way, belonging to the Church is not a safe haven and shelter from every storm.

The faithful must not be astounded by the trials, sufferings, isolation, blackmail - ploys of those who use power [or established religiosity itself] for their own gain and as a weapon.

The fear of being marginalised cannot drive us to hide the truth, which is a factor of recognition for us: to lose the connection and neglect to be one with it would be worse than torture.

To be honest, what makes us cowardly, unfaithful, diplomatic and weak - hence useless and irrelevant - is often much less of a danger to life, property, or our smallest freedoms.

Purposes that are too close do not unite man and the world with God. They do not confirm the rightness and conformity of the great End and Source: continuous Presence that accompanies our particular activity.

Many are the "falling hairs", but each of them has an original physiognomy: it "is" in a special way, it has its own place and meaning.

The personal Calling remains constitutive of the unrepeatable essence that opens to the commitment of Oneness.

It opens to the task of 'rebirth': in the time of the global crisis, not of 'recovery as before' - but of exceptional astonishment in the new genesis of each person, and of the earth.

It is unprecedented character, even with ourselves. Cipher of the grammar of our daily language, of interacting in the world.

And in the soul, of listening to God who reveals himself by triggering vital energies [complete because discordant]. With its unthinking healing processes, without formula.

The genuine Vocation - unrepeatable to the end, whatever the cost - is the only path to take to read and encounter the 'genius of time' before problems.

Personal Atypicality fertilised by Mystery is a kind of impulse that transforms crises into opportunities.

Willingness-factor of recognition that accompanies and orients us in them; with the help of simplicity, for a new blossoming.

Here, even in seemingly insignificant or downright critical situations, we can perceive the energy of inner resources - left free to act and nurture all opposing situations.

By treading the paths of the unusual, we will become flexible; we will ride the waves of unexpected change.

But right there we will be totally ourselves: cosmic and divine intention, immeasurably important.

The encyclical Fratelli Tutti rails against "a model of globalisation that consciously aims at one-dimensional uniformity and seeks to eliminate all differences and traditions in a superficial quest for unity. If globalisation claims to make everyone equal, as if it were a sphere, it destroys the distinctiveness of each person and each people. This false universalist dream ends up depriving the world of the variety of its colours, its beauty and ultimately its humanity. Because the future is not monochromatic, but, if we have the courage, it is possible to look at it in the variety and diversity of the contributions that each person can make. How much our human family needs to learn to live together in harmony and peace without us all being equal!" (n.100)

It is good to rejoice in the dissimilarities that inhabit us, in the variety of contributions and points of view that each one can communicate - important: also in the view of difficulties and ways of solving them.

The mature, integral man, in the diversification and variety of knowledge, in the dissimilarity of approaches and processes, in the versatility of channels of expression, is more complete.

Today, even in a culture strongly marked by communitarian anthropology, such as that of Africa, one realises perfectly well the value of what is personal and unprecedented - even in favour of ties:

"A day will come when you too will have to share your knowledge of things and men. You will bear singular witness to a unique event revealed to you alone, in a language as yet unseen. And you will tell your brothers the unspeakable wisdom of your heart' [Irénée Guilane Dioh].A similarly African oral tradition - ceremonial and personalistic - indeed reads:

"The outward initiation is the opening of the eyes, all the teaching that is given during the traditional ceremonies or periods of retreat that follow. But this teaching one must then live it, assimilate it, make it bear fruit, adding to it one's own personal observations, one's own understanding, one's own experience'.

The scene of the spontaneous examples that Jesus draws from nature is also an echo of the conciliatory life dreamt for us by the Father.

It introduces us to the Happiness that makes one aware of existing, in all personal reality.

In fact, the Gospel passage shows the value of genuine, silent, unremarkable things, which nevertheless inhabit us - they are not 'shadows'. And we perceive them without effort or cerebral commitment.

In the time of epochal choices, of the emergency that seems to checkmate us - but wants to make us less artificial - this awareness can overturn our judgement of substance, of 'the small' and 'the great'.

Indeed, for the adventure of love there is no accounting.

'Heaven' that conquers death is in God and in reality the 'place' for each of us without lacerations.

The afterlife is not imprecise.

One does not have to distort oneself for consensus... much less for a constellated firmament.

The destiny of exceptional Uniqueness does not go to ruin: it is precious and dear, as every singularity is in nature.

One must glimpse its Beauty, future and already present.

With immediate gain marginalised, or any social guarantee that does not concern the value of littleness - there will be no more need to identify oneself with the skeletons of established [or fashionable] thought and manners.

Nor will it matter to place oneself above and in front: rather, in the background; already rich and perfect, in the intimate sense of fullness of being.

Thus we will not have to trample on each other (cf. Lk 12:1)... even to meet Jesus.

In short:

"We are absolutely lost if we lack this particular individuality, the only thing we can truly say is ours - and whose loss is also a loss for the whole world. It is most precious also because it is not universal' [Rabindranath Tagore].

Indeed, even in a relationship of deep love and coexistence "there is a need to free oneself from the obligation to be equal" (Amoris Laetitia, no.139).

To internalise and live the message:

Did a persecution happen to you that - while you would have preferred other near goals - brought out precisely the uniqueness of your vocational physiognomy?

For Jesus we are not a "mass", a "multitude"! We are individual "persons" with an eternal value, both as creatures and as re-deemed persons! He knows us! He knows me, and loves me and gave himself for me! (Gal 2:20) [John Paul II]

Uniqueness

11. “Each in his or her own way” the Council says. We should not grow discouraged before examples of holiness that appear unattainable. There are some testimonies that may prove helpful and inspiring, but that we are not meant to copy, for that could even lead us astray from the one specific path that the Lord has in mind for us. The important thing is that each believer discern his or her own path, that they bring out the very best of themselves, the most personal gifts that God has placed in their hearts (cf. 1 Cor 12:7), rather than hopelessly trying to imitate something not meant for them. We are all called to be witnesses, but there are many actual ways of bearing witness. Indeed, when the great mystic, Saint John of the Cross, wrote his Spiritual Canticle, he preferred to avoid hard and fast rules for all. He explained that his verses were composed so that everyone could benefit from them “in his or her own way”. For God’s life is communicated “to some in one way and to others in another”.

[Gaudete et Exsultate]