Abide In My Love

Faithful Disciples of Christ Crucified

At the end of this celebration something will be added at the end of your name. You will put “FdCC”. It means for us Canossian Sons and Daughters of Charity, Servants of the Poor, not “For donation Call Canossian” as other would say. Though this is a joke but there is something truth in it that we need to be aware of because this could be a tendency for us religious especially in the context in our country where we have still the esteem and hidden power. It is easy to create our personal fans club and cater only to those who can give us in return. No. We are Canossian not after for donation (baka maNapoles tayo nyan!) We are Canossian with a DNA of Charity as Sons and Daughters of Christ Crucified. We are only faithful to our name when we serve the poor, the young and the little ones. Our FDCC could also mean Faithful Disciple of Christ Crucified. We are, indeed a faithful disciple of Christ when we are crucified like him. The cross is the measure of our discipleship. Without the cross we can never be a Canossian.

 
For without me, you are able to do nothing
 
One night while I was working with my computer, a young girl whom I know in one of the parishes that I served, sent me a private message asking, “Father, ano po ang tanda na handa na akong magmahal?” I told her, “Kung handa ka na masugatan at masaktan dahil ang sakit ang sukatan na ikaw ay nagmamahal.” And she responded, “Agad-agad! ‘Di ba pwede mabagok at madapa muna? Hirap naman yan Father.” 

Totoo mga kapatid, napakahirap magmahal lalo na pagsarili lang natin ang hinuhugutan ng lakas. This is the reason why Jesus insisted to his disciples “…abide in me. For without me, you are able to do nothing.” Our strength to love is not ours but of Jesus on the Cross.
Just like the branches, we need to be faithful to the vine otherwise it is impossible to live. Thus for us Canossian, we cannot live without the cross of Jesus. We need to be faithful not because we cannot sin or fail but because Jesus is always faithful to us. That is why we journey this path because we are so certain that Jesus loved us so much, a love that is super abundant that nobody can separate us from him, as St. Paul said. Not our limitations, not rejections and trials, not any persecutions, and even the difficulty of living a communitarian life, etc., nobody can separate us from the love of God. This is because we are specially chosen, not us who chose Jesus, as the gospel said, to bear much fruit.

If anyone does not abide in me …will be cast away, wither, burns into the fire -
Now a day, individualism and mediocrity haunted our religious life like cancer that cuts us away from the vine, Jesus.
When we are so self sufficient, thinking that we are always the best and better than the other that seemingly we do not need our brothers and sisters, we are isolating ourselves from the community. We are the branches that are cast away from the vine. Sometimes when we are tired and the demands of our ministry is so difficult or we want to insist of our own idea that it seems a matter of life and death that we cannot let go as if we are the only savior of the world, this is idolatry that tends us to wither and soon our vocation will die.

Sabi nga ng isang pari, “Pagmasungit ka na at ang mukha mo ay di na pari o madre, mukha ka ng tigre, yan ng tanda na ang buhay reliheyoso mo ay di na healthy!”

Our Vows are our lifeguard. Living Poverty is indeed solidarity to those who are in need and relying only constantly to the Lord. Living our Chastity is indeed giving us the great satisfaction that only Jesus can fill the emptiness of our hearts. Living our Obedience is constantly listening to Jesus and doing his will for the fulfillment of the greater picture of the plan of God. Living faithfully our vows anchors us to our real identity of giving our life like Jesus on the Cross.

Anyone abides in me and my word …ask and it shall be done to you

Jesus invites his disciples to be faithful to him and everything will be realized. It is the same for us, faithfulness is imperative otherwise we will just live in mediocrity. Faithfulness is painful, continuously hurting because it entails for us, in spite of the demands of our ministry and mission, staying consistently beside our real foundress as St. Magdalene told us, our Lady of Sorrows at the foot of the Cross. Mary is our example of faithfulness. St. Magdalene left her palace to be with the poor, serve the poor and live with the poor for Jesus. 

While others run away from the cross, a real disciple will firmly stay no matter what the cost, more so for us Canossians because it is demanded in our name to be constantly breathing charity and be charity. But we are not alone; we have a family, our community. Just like our biological family, we do not choose each other nor we are together because we like each other. Bonus na lang yan kung mayron! In our religious family, we are here because of Jesus who died on the cross and resurrected, who loved us till the end. It is Jesus the reason of our vocation and the measure of our mission. Kaya pwede ba ‘wag masyadong maghanap ng fans sa community kasi di’ show biz and religious life!

As the Father loved me, so I have loved you…love one another

Manytimes our religious life is like a ping-pong ball. Kung san papaluin doon din ang direksyon o katulad ng agos ng tubig sa ilog, sunodsunoran lang sa ikot ng mundo at hatak ng buwan. Kaya pagmarami ng pagsubok at paghindi na maganda ang buhay at masakit na, suko na. Pagmarami ng rejections at betrayal, ayaw na. No. Our religious life is not sunod sa uso o sa nakakarami.
We have a prophetic role. We are signs of the coming of the kingdom. Everything in us points to who we are. If Jesus did not give up, how can we? Our foundress is constantly inviting us to look and contemplate Jesus on the cross as our example, “Inspice et fac secundum exemplar.” She urges us to make Jesus known and loved.

Thus it is important to remember that the measure of our love is not because others are lovable or worthy of our love. We love because we are loved and it is our faith of the overflowing love of the Father in Jesus that gives us strength to move on in spite of the seeming unproductive effort that we have in our ministry. Because Jesus loved us and we have our community with us, there is no reason for us to go with out a smile in our lips, because in faith, a Canossian is joyful religious missionary. We pray that as we go along in our formative journey, we will bring the joyfulness of life. Kasi bawal sa Canossian ang masungit!