Office for Christian Unity
Thursday 25 April 2024
Meditation
We continue to read texts by Fr François Varillon during the Easter season.
The Emmaus Pilgrims
For the disciples of Emmaus, it is clear that the scandal of the cross was something too harsh. And it was inevitable, if it is cut off from Scripture.The hope, which died in these two men, can only be part of a process of liberation. If the event is not grasped in a process of liberation, it might move from having less meaning in the short term and eventually end up meaningless.
We must realise this if we are to understand the crisis of the modern world. To the extent that the people of our time do not see that Christ and the Church are agents of human liberation, how can we expect them to embrace it? On the contrary, in situations where we realised it, the danger will be to reduce this liberation to a purely temporal liberation.And that’s a great danger, because then Christ will appear as an expert in socialism, a prophet of revolution, the one who encourages people to go and liberate themselves by giving them their human dignity, which is enormous, including bread, housing, and so on.
But just because some people nowadays exaggerate and reduce Christ to being the prophet of temporal liberation, we must not cease to understand that his message is essentially one of liberation, that is to say, of freedom, and that to adhere to Christ is to choose him as the teacher of freedom and the educator of freedom. Are you a Christian? Yes, I am a Christian, which means that I have chosen Christ as the teacher of my freedom and the freedom of the world.
François Varillon, La Pâque de Jésus. Vivre le christianisme. T. 3. Bayard Editions, 2000, p. 177
Intercessions
Prepared by our brothers and sisters from the village of Mont Carmel (Avranches)
To be adapted according to your location
Lord, thank you for the recent meeting of ecumenical delegates from La Manche with the new Bishop of Coutances. Thank you for what will be built together over the course of this year. Lord, we entrust to you all these friendships that are being forged.
Lord, we thank you for the opportunity and the joy of being able to welcome the meeting of the Anglican Church of La Manche to our premises in Avranches every Sunday afternoon. Lord, thank you for strengthening our Anglican brothers and sisters.
Lord, we thank you for the opportunity and the joy of being able to welcome the meeting of the Anglican Church of La Manche to our premises in Avranches every Sunday afternoon.Lord, thank you for strengthening our Anglican brothers and sisters.