Thinking about “Contemplate the one who has been struck with pain” is the invitation which the Pope makes us in Lent.

The first ones to contemplate Christ painstricken were Mary and John, the beloved disciple, and we can also affirm that Mary was a beloved disciple, too.

Through this we are shown which the way for the disciple is ... to be at the bottom of the cross contemplating the painstricken, the crucified.

So, the question arises almost naturally what does it mean to be a disciple? ... is it to be static or in motion?...
It is here where one can say that both things are true, both attitudes are appropriate. Contemplation and action, meditation and movement.
Because to be a disciple is to have discovered love, the beloved and to embrace Him. To be a disciple is to put oneself into motion because we have discovered love in every man who suffers, in every painstricken man.
Discover and embrace lonely or excluded children; the newly arrived, the ones set aside by war or hunger, the smallest ones.

It is because we have found the deep sense of love in the cross, in the one who loved us till he gave his life for us, we set ourselves into motion again and again.
Lent should be for us the motivation to walk the way of the disciple, to start discovering our miseries, our pains which are waiting to be healed and the great love God has for us.
Lent is the time to discover that the other is our brother, the one who suffers, the one who is hurt or broken down. Those who are waiting to be cheered up, recognized, loved.
Be a disciple of the Lord, who says to us: “Look, if you want to follow me, you have to know it is not easy, it was not yesterday, it won´t be today. However, I am by your side.”



P. Carlos Gómez, O de M                                       
World Chaplain

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