Witnesses to Hospitality: The Power of Faith

   

Todayour Religious family is celebrating the liturgical memory of the 95 Brothers martyredduring the 1936 civil war in Spain. By their martyrdom, these Brothers demonstratedthat they had truly encountered Christ and had received from Him the grace of themartyrdom of blood: indeed, the word "martyr" comes from the Greek martyr,which means "a witness". Witnesses are people who have been present atsome event or happening (that has taught them the learned the things theyrecount or report), and they bear witness not from hearsay or because they haveread about them or from their personal deductions, but as a result of their owndirect experience. By practising their hospitaller mission, our Brother martyrsserved by the bedside of the sick in the manner inspired by the Gospel, imitatingthe work of Jesus, who heals, cures and saves. Their way of living hospitalitywas totally fashioned by their charismatic mission, taking the form ofpractical acts of mercy and love, convinced that whatever we do for others wedo for Jesus: "in so far as you did this to one of the least of thesebrothers of mine, you did it to me" (Mt 25:40). The anniversary we arecelebrating is not only to recall their martyrdom, but to remind us all that practisingthe charism of John of God is not only an act of witness of a highly symbolicvalue, but of great human and spiritual value, which also entails total self-givingto the point of giving our lives for Christ and for our fellow brothers andsisters.

 

 

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