PATHWAYS OF LIFE

There i was in the car with Daniel Hinckley (my mission dad), husband of Michelle and father of Juan Pablito and newly born Emmanuel! They are volunteers for the Franciscan Friars down here and my beloved friends. So Daniel asked me about the spirituality of the MC Fathers, requesting me to write him a detailed letter once i arrive at Tijuana, sharing all about the spiritual affairs of the order. So i have been thinking about it, and i realized that the mystery in which Blessed Mother Teresa was submerged, the infinite thirst of Christ, is a Divine Revelation and it would take many lifetimes to begin to understand it...but Mother Teresa isnot a saint because she received this revelation, but because she became a channel of the Grace of God and she responded to it by living the message of Redemption, accepting the Cross of suffering and dying in life for Christ and for the poor.
Even though we might not understand the immensity of the Love and Mercy of God, we can touch it and receive it, so that we may live it and give it. It is a Love that produces Thirst; a Love that quenches Thirst.

"God's passionate love for his people—for humanity—is at the same time a forgiving love. It is so great that it turns God against himself, his love against his justice." (Deus Caritas Est, 10; Benedict XVI)

So much Love, even capable of reducing y humilliating itself to the smallest of things created, and the more despised and not appreciated: poverty, thirst, hunger...bread? Such powerful myestery, such abominal Love makes iself possible to be lived because it was translated to a human language through Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh:

"...the mystery of the Cross: so great is God's love for man that by becoming man he follows him even into death, and so reconciles justice and love." (Deus Caritas Est, 10)

For Him who cries out "I Thirst" we now have an answer in the Divine language, translated into the living and active love of charity.
"If i speak in the tongues of men or even angels, but i have no Love, i am nothing but an empty metal, a crashing cymbal." (1 Corinthians 13, 1)
It is not necessary to have all the words, since only 2 were enough to express how we ought to live and die: I THIRST.
All human beings experience thirst, both physiological and spiritual thirst, which allow us to relate closely to the Lord Jesus on the Cross and in the distorted face of the hungry and thirsty for love.

"(No one) can sympathize who is "outside" the suffering of others. "Crucifixion with Christ," through zeal and work, andself-denial, will wnlighten others by reminding them that Our Lord carried His scars with Him to Heaven. When, therefore, He lays His hand affectionately on any heart, he leaves the impression of His nails." (F. Sheen, "The Priest is not his own")

To enter the mystery that lead Mother Teresa to be holy, means to enter, once and for all, into the very life of God in our own suffering humanity and to RESPOND with the Love that moves Heaven and Earth, but it is pronounced with hands of Mercy and compassionate smiles. When we speak this language the meaning of suffering is truly transformed and Heavn is shaken!

"The sick will be assured that their sufferings are not a punishment for their own sins so much as an opportunity to join in reparaton for the sins of the world." (Sheen)

In the case of Daniel and Michelle, as well as all married couples, the call to parenthood is implied and it is not necessary to seek dramatic or exhuberant ways of responding to the cry of Thirsty Love. They respond each day in their very home, loving in the smallest actions their little helpless babies who, just as the poorest of the poor, would die if we were not fulfilling our duty. This is the means for their sanctification and their proclamation of the Gospel!

"Am i not to drink that cup which my Father Himself hasappointed for Me?" (John 18, 11).

Father, mother, son, daughter, missionary, priest, doctor, engineer, street sweeper, student, teacher...does it really matter? YES! but not in the way the world believes. Each one of us has a specific call, but it only makes sense as a call within the universal call to holiness...on whatever side of the Altar you are on Sunday.

"For this is the will of God, your sanctification...But as touching the charity of brotherhood, we have no need to write to you: for yourselves have learned of God to love one another." (1 Thes. 4, 3&9)

In even the smallest things we do today, let us seek the Thirst of Jesus in the poorest of the poor, so that we may respond with love and we will not allow the opportunity to offer Him our hearts, soul and body to drink pass by.

"Anyone who needs me, and whom I can help, is my neighbour." (Benedict XVI)

Mother Teresa of Calcutta, pray for us!
John Paul II, pray for us!