The fraternity us makes possible to live through the brother’s concept beyond the place of a family. Brother is to be more than friend or companion. In the religious life the expression is used very much ” brothers in Christ “. This can suppose a reality or a polite way of speaking. I like it more ” brothers as Jesus “. We are a part of he and he of we.
In the fraternity to be brothers is also to be a support in his mission, in his person as worker, that worries what it does, his illusions, his health, his problems, his happy moments … Not only we are brothers to pray together, or to celebrate the eucharist and to give us the embrace of the peace. We are brothers when the life does problem to itself and when the life flows with simplicity, in the small thing, in Nazareth.
In the review of life we have the space where we put on the table the book opened of our heart. It is important that the book is opened, that could read, that he does not lack pages, though the pages are old, or wrinkled, or spotted …
To be a brother is to be also responsible for the happiness of other brothers, in his life, because to live through the fraternity in the monthly meeting or in a retirement is not difficult. What makes us missionaries is to continue being a brother in every day of our lives. Because of it my mission is also the mission of my brothers, and my difficulties are an object of help of the others, and this way reciprocally.
The fraternity is not only a group of companions priests, with a spirituality, that of the brother Charles, who guides us and gives us a pastoral style and the liturgy. The brothers in the fraternity we must have the freedom to say to us with clarity the things. If not with a perfect communication, yes with a sincere, transparent word, where we could listen to ourselves and some to others. Because of it the review of life is the way where we look in the mirror of the others, where we remove ourselves weighed in our lives that it us paralyzes often, or that provokes his fears or prejudices. The review of life is a space of harmony, where they look at the eyes of the heart, since Jesus was looking.
Charles de FOUCAULD taught us in the complexity of his searches, his changes, to find the God’s will, which is what God wants for the world, for the Church, for our fraternities, for each of us. It is not a medical recipe or psychological consolation. It is to be able to listen to God in the silence, be able to live through the style of Nazareth with the persons of our environment, be religious or not, be Christian or of other confessions. When we help ourselves as brothers to living through this, leaving the theory aside, we are helping to the world to be happier.
We have many challenges in our lives, as priests with many responsibilities, and as missionaries. The Gospel is the way of every day, and it is necessary to fight, as Jesus, against our forces, which we have. The style of mission of the brother Carlos calls us to answering to this challenge. The company us demands to be effective and efficient, and imposes on us a pace that does not do us well. Our spirit, life of prayer, our integral being, is sometimes wounded, damaged. The brothers help us to recover the wounds, to transform, to be new men.
In January, 2019 we will celebrate our General Assembly in Cebu, Philippines, and this topic of the mission like diocesan priests inspired by the charisma of Charles de FOUCAULD is going to be studied, treated, with many calls to our personal lives and to the fraternidades of the world. Let’s not leave it for the last moment …
Spirit and force in the next Month of Nazareth also in Philippines. The Month of Nazareth is the space and time of a great privilege to live through the fraternity in all his extension, finding the others, to the brothers, finding Jesus, living through the desert as the God’s gift that looks for us to give us all his love and they are call us his children.
A big and brotherly embrace.
Aurelio SANZ BAEZA, brother responsible
Perín, Cartagena, Murcia, Spain, 10 June 2018
(Sorry my bad English!)
PDF: Brother is to be also responsible of other one, Open Hands, June 2018