Francesco Productions

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Thursday, March 11, 2010

Dear Friends of Francesco,

Greetings, peace and Blessings to you and all your family and friends. A good Scripture for Lenten reading, meditation, contemplation and action planning - also for any/every time and season – is Isaiah 7. There’s a dynamic there that serves a dual function. First, it shows us the root source of our true liberation. Secondly, it shows us the root source of all our troubles. Check it out – God said:

Listen to my voice…Walk in all the ways that I command you, so that you may prosper.

Obedience is the root source of our true and authentic liberation. However, the second part is the root source of all our troubles. Isaiah said:

They obeyed not, nor did they pay heed.

So there you have it – the dynamic of obedience/disobedience. Ultimately, this is the dynamic of love/non-love. At the end of the day it all boils down to love, love yes or love no. The foundation of all of our brokenness, woundedness and all of our troubles is non-love. It seems kinda black and white and in a certain sense it is, and when these colors are true, they make grey. The grey I’m referring to is in no way shape or form suggesting or even hinting at some kind of relativism. No. The grey I’m referring to is linked to the capacity we’ve been given for the more of love.

In Matthew 5:37 Jesus said, “Simply let your 'Yes' be 'Yes,' and your 'No,' 'No'; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.” There’s the black and white. And in Matthew 21:28-32 Jesus gives us a parable of two sons: “What do you think? There was a man who had two sons. He went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work today in the vineyard.’ “‘I will not,’ he answered, but later he changed his mind and went. “Then the father went to the other son and said the same thing. He answered, ‘I will, sir,’ but he did not go. “Which of the two did what his father wanted?” “The first,” they answered. Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you. For John came to you to show you the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did. And even after you saw this, you did not repent and believe him.”

There’s the grey – one son said yes and did no and the other said no and did yes. This grey is the dynamic of black and white working to make love real in the ongoing conversion of all of us to the fullness and perfection of love. As it is with all things, this dynamic can be used or not used for good, for the greater and greatest good - love.

B16 said, “Man is constitutionally oriented toward ‘being more’ (Caritas in Veritate #14). While this is true, it’s at least as difficult as it is true and may even be more difficult than it is true! It’s so difficult for us to love with the Love with which we have been loved. It’s so difficult for us to love like Jesus has loved us. It’s so difficult for us to be more and more completely engaged in the blacks, whites and grays of the dynamics of love. And yet, this love/Love is the fundamental innate nature of our vocation, of the vocation of every human person on the planet without exception (thanks JP…). It would be really cruel on the part of God who is Love to command us to walk in this way if we have not been given the capacity to do so in the first place. The great JPII put it like this: “To imitate and live out the love of Christ is not possible for man by his own strength alone. He becomes capable of this love only by virtue of a gift received. As the Lord Jesus receives the love of his Father, so he in turn freely communicates that love to his disciples: ‘As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you; abide in my love’ (Jn 15:9) (Splendor of the Truth #22).”

May the remaining time we have in this season of Lent and the remaining time we have in this world be a time of striving for, remaining in this love, with the gift of Love we have received to be lived and given away for fully and freely…with love and prayers in Jesus and Mary for you and all your family and friends, needs and intentions, now, always and forever….

Lord willin talk to ya’ll next week…