Thank you, teachers!I don't know about you, but I really miss the greetings, the hugs, the kisses of peace. A rite that our liturgy foresees as optional and that has been simplified or directly suppressed due to the pandemic.
Its origins are apostolic and its meaning is very deep: the faithful express with it the ecclesial communion and fraternal charity before taking the body of Christ. For we are the body of Christ! And a body without full unity is a monster like Frankenstein's monster. There is nothing more horrible than decommunion, the effects of which are enmity, envy, hatred and, ultimately, war.
Francisco began the month of July with a ecumenical day of prayer for peace in LebanonThe video is also dedicated to "social friendship," a country particularly in need of communion, whose history is plagued by conflict and which is in the midst of a very serious institutional and social crisis. Likewise, this month's edition of the video published together with the Pope's World Prayer Network is dedicated to "social friendship". In it he asks us to "flee from the social enmity that only destroys and to get out of "polarization", something that - he points out - "is not always easy, especially today when a part of politics, society and the media are determined to create enemies in order to defeat them in a power game".
The Pope, who handles head of state information, is worried and asks for prayer, and that worries me a lot. Political analysts are already openly talking about a cold war between China and the United States, a tension that the pandemic has silenced, but which is latent and threatens with serious consequences worldwide once the wave passes.
With this article I do not intend to be apocalyptic in the popular sense of the term, as something that threatens extermination or devastation; but in the biblical sense. Revelation is the great book of Christian hope because, with disturbing (and often misinterpreted) images, it expresses resistance in the face of the adversary and faith in divine assistance even in the most difficult moments. The secret: to remain firm in faith, in communion as the first communities did in the face of Roman power.
Dissensions within the Christian community are not only normal, but necessary. But sometimes, in the spirit of the world (and I am the first), we can also fall into polarization, easy criticism, malicious judgment, the creation of groups of friends and enemies... Approaching the Gospel from different points of view and sensibilities expresses the richness of the Spirit, who blows as he wills and where he wills, even though no one is free from making mistakes. We are a people of sinners! For this reason, the first medicine against decommunion is humility: never to believe oneself in possession of the absolute truth, to know one's own-and many-limitations, and even, with St. Paul, to consider others superior (cf. Phil 2:3).
Let us not lose communion so that we can bring hope to a world in crisis, that "see how they love one another" may continue to be the light that attracts those who live in darkness. Dear reader, let me address you as my brother and ask your forgiveness if I have offended you in any way. Let us ask together for the gift of peace and let me say to you: Peace be with you!
Journalist. Graduate in Communication Sciences and Bachelor in Religious Sciences. He works in the Diocesan Delegation of Media in Malaga. His numerous "threads" on Twitter about faith and daily life have a great popularity.
