June 17, 2005
Brotherhood
From every nation on earth, no matter what language, God calls our hearts to turn back to Him and asks us to show others that same mercy. Our Father calls us into a familial relationship with Himself and His children. He designs unique roles and supplies all the gifts needed to accomplish these plans. His plans are for the up building of all His creatures, but specifically and profoundly those manifesting His image. Most of creation accomplishes this through instinct for survival, but we, made in His image and likeness, are given the higher gift of Will, most perfectly revealed in the person of Jesus Christ.
Jesus perfectly accomplished the Father’s plan. ( Col. 2:9-10) His life pointed to the One He spoke of. His love for the Father was mysteriously and concretely shown by His sacrificial love for His brothers, sisters, and all who might one day become adopted children of God.
A brother’s life is a call to that same prophetic role, a role of pronouncing God’s view of a situation. We publicly witness God’s plan of familial relationships. (1 Jn 3:1-2) Our life as a brother has gifts specifically given to aid our fruitfulness. (Eph 4:11-12) The public gifts of obedience, chastity, and poverty which a brother receives aid the individual gifts he already possesses. Our obedience witnesses to the fact that it is His work and vision that is accomplished in spite of our lack of full understanding or strength. Chastity offers us the freedom to remain in son and brother relationships. Our Father gives us an undivided heart to work in His vineyard. We sow seeds and reap fruit in His time and season awaiting the consummation of Christ and His bride, the Church. Our poverty witnesses to a son’s concrete dependence upon the Father as the provider of all our material and spiritual needs. Brothers are not providers; we only pass on what we have received.
Our holy father, Saint Francis, embraced the Mother of the Lord Jesus with indescribable love because, as he said, it was she who made the Lord of majesty our brother, and through her we found mercy. After Christ, he placed himself and his friars under Mary’s protection. (LM 3) Following his footsteps, we place ourselves in this school of Mary. She teaches by obtaining for us in abundance the gifts of the Holy Spirit, even as she offers us the incomparable example of her own “Pilgrimage of faith”. (RVM 14) Through her maternal intercession, we are able to grasp more and more our Father’s house. We hear: “walk through Sion, walk all around it; count the number of its towers. Review all its ramparts, examine its castles, that you may tell the next generation that such is our God.” (Ps 48: 12-14)
Br. John Paul Ouellette, CFR
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