Christian Life Movement

PART 2

In a short time the Movement has extended throughout the world, especially in Latin America. To what do you attribute its growth?

I believe that there is a great hunger for God that must be attended to. Today we live a painful crisis of identity as children of the Church. Only a short while ago Pope Benedict XVI had shown on Latin American soil the existence of a certain weakening in the affiliation to the Church. Some twenty years ago, in Peru, the Servant of God John Paul II had warned of something similar, as he had done in other places. There are many socio-cultural factors that demand a greater coherence in the knowledge of the faith, in the life of the faith, and in the celebration of the faith.

At the same time the existential adherence to Jesus, to his teachings, and to love of the Church go together with the concern to build a more just, fraternal and reconciled society, from the only perspective that can make it possible - the reconciliation with God and with oneself. Only from this dimension will a change be generated that, centered in love and solidarity, carries a reconciling dynamism that constructs a more just and peaceful world. This vision and commitment are part of the worldview and action of the members of the Christian Life Movement.

This perspective directed to the whole human being is rooted in the life of the Movement, but I don’t think its growth can be attributed to it, nor to the pedagogical method with which the itinerary of faith is lived, nor to the sense of communion and brotherhood, but perhaps to the invitation made to each person, that he take responsibility for his own freedom according to his dignity as a human person. Perhaps there is a key there? In hearts so disposed, the loving grace that the Spirit pours out finds an effective cooperation. Ultimately all goodness, everything good, comes from God.

There are those who affirm that the language of the Church doesn’t reach young people. From the Sodalit experience, how would you respond to this criticism?

Pope John Paul II and now Pope Benedict XVI have impelled the process of the New Evangelization. This process allows that the perennial truths of the faith be presented in an existential way that better helps them to be understood, as it also helps people to open themselves to the grace to live them daily giving glory to God. The One who calls to the interior of the person is the Lord Jesus and He does so from his Mission and the fascination that his Mystery produces. Whoever really encounters Him experiences the overwhelming attraction of the Truth. Such an encounter with Him moves one to an affective adherence as much as it does to an adherence to the truth that his Person reveals. It is that the Lord Jesus appeals to the mind with the Truth, his beauty awakens emotion and invites one to follow his path seeking to do good, “as He went about doing good.” Upon encountering Jesus without fear, reason ignites and feelings are enlivened surpassing the ruptures and tensions that burden the person since He, who is the Reconciler, offers the human being the reconciling response to all ruptures, opening the way to the harmony of reason and affection, and in this way recovering the transcendent horizon of existence.

The heart of the Church’s message is the Lord Jesus, and He is the “same yesterday, today and forever.” It is He whom young people search for, even if some are blind before the light, others stumble in the darkness of the world, others allow themselves to be the fascinated by false substitutes. But millions and millions open their heart to Him. Perhaps we have forgotten those millions of young people in Tor Vergata? Or perhaps we don’t perceive the internal search of the immense multitude of youth gathered at the last World Youth Day in Germany?

There is a sense of adventure and of search of the truth, of longing for the infinite, of nostalgia for reconciliation that is rooted in the profundity of each young person. When these interior fibers are touched, young people respond yearning to be and to live authentically, listening to the depth of their hearts. It requires courage and leaving fear behind. There’s a reason the Magisterium of the Church keeps repeating the phrase, “Do not be afraid!”, as a living echo of Jesus. The young people who overcome fear can audaciously live the great adventure of the encounter of friendship with the Lord Jesus. And indeed many do!