PAROQUIA – Nssa Senhora do ROSÁRIO
Residência Nssa. Sra. de Fátima 6 February, 2023 LIII:1
Trav. Carlos Pontes, 171
62.900-000 Russas, Ceará http://www.egfbenya.com
BRASIL e-mail: [email protected]
Dear Collaborators, Family, Colleagues, Friends and Benefactors,
Shortcuts are most attractive. In many circumstances they are a legitimate alternative to a prolonged, drudging, tiring venture where time, patience and assets might well be spent in more efficient ways. However, under some circumstances shortcuts are a temptation to avoid application of necessary assets to a project that demands minute attention. Both circumstances merit careful consideration. Wasting time has no merit, neither does wasting resources.
The temptation to apply wasteful shortcuts has been with us since time in memoriam. Consciously or subconsciously we tend to crave things simple, immediate, clear and short; quite laudable in itself. Yet when that craving interferes with sacramental discernment and virtuous procedure, it becomes a temptation and can be most vicious.
A temptation to shortcut the divine hierarchy within creation led our ancestral “first” parents to commit the “original sin”. It took the presence and action of Almighty God Himself as Savior in human-and-divine natures to rectify the effects of that original sin, and that rectification was nowhere near as simple as was the original fall.
Salvation required promise, message, preparation, delivery, discipline, execution and Love in a dynamic that to this day continues its vigor. It met resistance; human and demonic at every step. The realization of Salvation was anything but guaranteed. A false step, presented and executed as a shortcut, anywhere could have sabotaged the entire venture, and there were plenty of temptations to “shortcuts”.
The Savior Himself encountered temptation to shortcut the Passion of Redemption in the garden of Gethsemane. In His dialogue with The Father Jesus asked that if possible “this cup might pass without my partaking of it”. Suffering for the sake of suffering has no merit. Yet that suffering was necessary. He accepted! He won! We won! We are saved.
Resistance to Salvation continues to this day. As a species we are ENTIRE at conception, yet INCOMPLETE in our form. We are continually challenged to transcend (go beyond) ourselves, arriving at COMPLETION in Eternity. That challenge is mysterious and at times frightening. The process is unique for each of us because the sanctity of each of us is unique. The temptation to a shortcut (to “quit”) is ever-present. Yet we are not alone. We hold Communion with the Savior and with each other.
We celebrate that Communion each year at the Lenten-Easter Season. Join us in spirit iff you wish for this celebration as we thank God in universal communion of Praise and Glory. Grateful to you and for your presence, I wish all of you:
“A Happy and Holy Lenten, Pascal-Easter Season!”
Gratefully in the Love of the Risen Jesus Christ,
Pe. Ed Benya, S.J.