Another of our extracts from 'Fit for Mission? - Parishes' by Bishop O'Donaghue of Lancaster. Click on the 'label' FFM Parishes to see others. See the 'Fit for Mission?' website and download the full document. The previous title in the series, 'Fit for Mission? - Schools' is downloadable here (pdf). This generated a Facebook support group.
From section 10.8.3, p76f:
Pope Benedict XVI makes it clear that the Church’s action for justice and love is quite distinctive. Our work for charity and social justice is done in the name and power of Jesus Christ. This is not the same as saying this work is done in the spirit of Gandhi or Martin Luther King, no matter how praiseworthy. When Christians work in the spirit of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, we do it ‘in Christ’, so that He is present and active in ways beyond our comprehension.
Practical activity will always be insufficient, unless it visibly expresses a love for man, a love nourished by an encounter with Christ. My deep personal sharing in the needs and sufferings of others becomes a sharing of my very self with them: if my gift is not to prove a source of humiliation, I must give to others not only something that is my own, but my very self; I must be personally present in my gift. (Pope Benedict XVI, Deus Caritas Est, 34).
Monday, September 22, 2008
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