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Each month, an aspect of our
reparative, Eucharistic charism will be explored. In April, the topic
is Eucharist and Mission. The following statement comes from an
international meeting of Handmaids and lay collaborators. Eucharistic Manifesto "The Eucharist is the beating
heart of mission." (Instrumentum Laboris 88) The Eucharistic dynamism which springs from the Eucharist is the beating heart of our mission of reparation: collaboration with Christ through the transforming energy of the Spirit in the re-conducting of the world towards full communion, which the Father dreamed for it. The Eucharist is thus the center, the meaning, "the root and sap of the life of the Institute and of the ACI Family," and the Eucharistic dynamism "enfolds all of life's dimensions," sealing in us a particular way of being and living in the world. This is our greatest treasure, "the inexhaustible fountain" which satisfies our thirst and our hunger. At the same time "it invites us to go beyond pain in order to discover what is good and beautiful in each situation," becoming an imperative towards fraternity, justice and solidarity in our relationship with the world. We believe that the Eucharist is the beating heart of our mission of reparation, joined in this heart in an indivisible unity of life and celebration, action and contemplation, adoration and mission. This heart sends us out towards life, enriched by the inheritance received from Saint Rafaela Maria, with enthusiasm for our goal, committed in our day-to-day reality, from the wellspring of a clear "identity" which invites us to "model our life on that of Jesus-Eucharist" (St. Rafaela): "this is my Body which is given." In these days of the Assembly we have seen that the Eucharistic heartbeat has produced a fresh fervor in us. We have felt deeply grateful for the possibility of this experience and "responsible for transmitting this gift and putting it into practice." So now as we reach the end of the Assembly, we want to "take the Eucharistic pulse" which sends us out anew on mission. Our Eucharistic heartbeat feeds this sap with a harmonious rhythm which needs two indispensable and inseparable movements, in order to allow life to flow through our "Eucharistic body": systole and diastole; contraction and expansion of the heart. Movement of attraction, inclusion and convergence inwards, and movement of dilation and universalization outwards. These two movements will help
us to express the challenges and convictions born of
To strengthen relationships between Handmaids and laity and establish a formation process together (systole) so that we will become a multiplying energy for mission (diastole). To commune with the body of Christ, bread broken in order to embrace our brokenness, our divisions, wounds, struggles, deaths ... (systole), so that we will be transformed into a body open to an inclusive embrace which generates a place at our "table" for everyone, especially the most estranged (diastole). To commune with the body of Christ (systole) demands that our apostolic work be imbued with a clear awareness of just who are those members of this body, and give special care to "those whom unjust structures want to exclude" (diastole). To strengthen our communities so that they may be true "Eucharistic houses": and create "Eucharistic centers" as open places in which to share the Presence which is the motive of our gathering, and to educate for a Eucharistic sensibility (systole), leads us to seek creative new ways of "placing Christ at the adoration of the peoples (St. Rafaela), going out of our houses, introducing him into new environments, taking on the risk of exposing ourselves and entering with him into difficult contexts and to "continue to seek vital new expressions in order to break bread with the most poor and excluded" (diastole).
Called to "be ever more Eucharistic people in our way of being, choosing and relating," (systole), we are invited to be people and communities that offer a Eucharistic witness, and we feel the challenge of using the appropriate communication media in order to transmit and make known Christ in the Eucharist (diastole). Rooted in a Trinitarian God who is the model of all our relationships, showing us the interdependence among all things, "to form and fashion individuals and communities that are coherent, capable of 'drinking from the chalice,' of entering consciously and joyfully into this Eucharistic dynamism of take, give thanks, break and give (systole), will dispose us to commit ourselves in processes of reconciliation, promoting a culture of peace in the midst of a violent world (diastole). Systole and diastole... Eucharistic rhythm of a hear which is the seat of "passion" (ardor, enthusiasm) and "compassion" (vulnerability, profound listening, unconditional welcome, putting ourselves in the other person's situation and skin), where vigor and tenderness meet and mix, and teach us to "suffer with" but also to value and believe in the richness and dignity of the other person.
Systole and diastole... movements of this beating heart, which is a cosmic and universal heart, which lets us be "in this world as in a great temple," (St. Rafaela) and which gives us life in order to continue creating an authentic Eucharistic culture, welcoming the challenge to transform our celebrations in points of commitment and translate our liturgies in outreach towards our brothers and sisters, reverence of creation and true feasts of communion. Systole and diastole...that embrace all of you, those of you who have accompanied the Assembly from a distance, in order to enter into this rhythm, include yourselves in this commitment, and generate concrete guidelines for action imbued with this Eucharistic pulse within each of our local realities, where, like grains of wheat, Handmaids and ACI Family members die and give life. For all of this we believe that the Eucharist is and ought to be the beating heart of our mission of reparation. Eucharistic Assembly, Rome, 28 Jaunary-2 February 2006
Former articles on our Charism:
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our experience and
reflections.
