UNISINOS – RESIDÊNCIA CONCEIÇÃO
Residência Conceição 29 November, 2021 LI:3
UNISINOS
Cx. P. 101
93.022-630 São Leopoldo, RS e-mail: [email protected]
BRAZIL http://www.egfbenya.com
Dear Benefactors, Family, Colleagues, Friends and Collaborators,
Preservation, Self-Preservation; these are in-created mechanisms, dynamics of existence. Every species and each creature within a species is born with these mechanisms. They are essential for existence. We have an instinct for them. The natural propensity or drive for existence is an essential drive in all extant creatures. Without existence, they go extinct.
However as transcending creatures we are called to proceed beyond mere existence. We are Called to LIVE and to live life completely, to go beyond ourselves, to transcend ourselves. The openness to that Call is also in-created within us. It is always with us notwithstanding our perception or response to it.
A definite tension exists between the dynamic of Self-preservation and the Call to Transcendence. This also remains with us all our lives. It has its positive and negative aspects. Our development throughout life depends to a high degree on how we handle that tension. Every saint who has navigated creation has had to manage that tension.
No one manages it perfectly. Temptations abound: close one’s self from all that is external to us, or throw one’s self to suicide. Both are extremes. Both are degeneracies because both deny transcendence. Yet both are forces in every life.
It is the “transcendence of one’s self” to which Almighty God calls us. We must learn it one way or another, and the profane world is no help in that learning process. That is why Almighty God Himself had to become one us, a man among us; to show, teach and redeem us. He lowered Himself to our situation, BUT immortalizing us.
We celebrate the anniversary of His arrival each year at this time in the Hanukkah-Yuletide-Christmas season; the birth of the Redeemer, Jesus Christ. I pray that you have a most:
Joyous Hanukkah-Yuletide-Christmas season and a Blessed New Year of 2022!
In the grateful Love of Jesus Christ, I remain
Pe. Ed Benya, S.J.