COMMUNION AND CONVERSION
“…that they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believeyou sent me…” Jn 17:21
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
What word has entered into our interiors and into our hearts, to the point of wounding them? “That all may be one…so that the world may believe…” Jn 17:21. We have placed our faltering feet on this solid rock, and so we proceed with certainty along the way that has opened up for our community. .
Communion and Conversion: two calls that become one; to make of unity, of communion, our Word of Conversion for man, since it is only from unity that a credible testimony can be given. Unity is a powerful ímpetus in a world so individualist and desirous of love. It can cause to emerge the question about God and the necessity to return to him.
There is no communion kinder or more attractive than that of the Father and the Son. There we find our origin as well as our meaning and ultimate destiny. To live is nothing other than to be destined to experience this communion (“like us” Jn 17:21) and to enter into it (“in us” Jn 17:21) This is the meaning of human life and the reality of Eternal Life. (Jn 17:3)
Here on earth we have been called to live this communion as do the Father and the Son, in the Holy Spirit. All of existence is communion in the image of the Divine Communion, until it arrives at its perfection, to which we belong, in which we move and have our being. (Acts 17:28)
The aim of our community is nothing less than to live here on earth the communion of Heaven, to make it our way of life. We want to work towards communion and unity in every aspect of our small and humble existence: in the center of our own relationships in community, in our society, the places where we live, the relationships with our brothers and sisters, with each human person both near and far, the people with whom we come in contact, and, above all, with those who most have difficulty in living this reality and suffer as a result.
Communion is in itself an answer to the urgent need that man has to chase away loneliness, egoism, and individualism. It is a response to the necessity to live with,and, in that essential space, to love and be loved. It responds to the urgent necessity of man to be accepted in his poverty and limitations, to be embraced closely… …until they are united into one (Didache, 4), because that is how God wants it to be for the human person.
However, the response to this urgent need is only possible through returning to the Source of Communion, that is, to God. The Church must show this communion to man from the communion to which she herself is called. For this reason unity among Christians is an urgency and cannot be postponed, because it refers back to the question of God himself. It makes reference to the primary vocation to which man is called and which God himself is.
No conversion, no return to God, will be possible without the testimony of unity, concord, love, and communion among those of us who believe. Only this communion is worthy of faith. Love alone is worthy of faith.
We have to travel the path of conversion in communion, and not only for the world to return to God. Along the path of communion it is we ourselves who are requiredto live a spirituality of a continuous conversion, so that love and concord might triumph over our differences and distances.
This is for us a gift, but also our task. If the purpose of our lives is to inspire in man a return to God, it must testify to who God is in himself.. Communion in the interior life of the community, in the social and ecclesial fabric, and in the very fiber of human life- this is our special field of work, “our mission field and life's labor”Above all this work is directed towards those who are distanced from God, with the end that they might return to him..
Communion is both the point of attraction and the very path for the soul's return. Communion, like love, is the pilgrim's path'of the return to God. It reflects the beauty and the brilliance of the face of God and is the open road between craggy mountains or concrete walls, by which we gain access to Truth, to Beauty, to Goodness, to Unity, and to God himself. Every part of our small lives, all of our apostolic endeavors, rest upon these two pillars and are commited to these two goals: communion and conversion.
We respond, therefore, briefly, to so many questions that have been asked by you who observe and want to know about us. All of this flows directly from the Gospels, Saint Augustine, and the mendicant tradition of our order (Order of St. Augustine). It has the same root of the ancient tree as well as the freshness of the youngest branches. Now that you know what it is we desire, pray for us, please, that we might achieve it.
M. Prado and Comunidad de la Conversión
