As we begin a new CANA year, each couple has freely chosen its own personal path as a couple, in consultation with their leaders, centered on the following four dimensions: Couples & Families, Mission, Fraternity, and Personal Relationship with Christ.
Here is a partial and limited reflection—one that may resonate with us—on how to live out two specific dimensions: Growing in our personal relationship with Christ and Sharing fraternal life within a fraternity.
Growing in our relationship with Christ
Of course, this involves praying personally, praying in a group, and going on a retreat… But above all, in all these moments in His presence, it is about allowing ourselves to be transformed by Him.
Gregory of Nyssa, that 4th-century Church Father, offers us a magnificent analogy that shows us how God’s grace works in us:
To shape us in His image through His grace, God works like a sculptor: This sculptor does not create a sculpture from a block of stone or a block of wood. He removes what He has hidden.
Sculpture is a craft in which one carves away and adds nothing to reveal the image that the sculptor has seen but that others have not seen, because they saw only a block of stone or a block of wood.
Such is the work of grace in the human heart: to restore to it the dignity of the image and likeness—not by adding, but by simplifying.
And the more we consent to walk this path of detachment, simplification, and stripping away, the more we turn inward to better step outside ourselves; for the most intimate part of ourselves is the movement of transcendence that turns us toward God by turning us toward our brothers and sisters—what Saint Augustine would call the desire for God.
“Beloved, we are now children of God, and what we will be has not yet been revealed; but we know that when it is revealed, we will be like him, because we will see him as he is.” 1 Jn 3,2
To choose to grow in fraternity, simply by being ourselves.
Indeed, sharing with others does not come naturally in our societies. But while the world pushes us toward isolation within our armor of performance—and sometimes withdrawal—the Gospel invites us to an invisible revolution: that of sharing our vulnerabilities.
Through His words, “Give me a drink,” Jesus reveals to the Samaritan woman her lack and her vulnerability; but through this authenticity, He enters into a deep relationship with her.
For in truth, what truly binds us to one another? It is not the number of our degrees, nor the extent of our wealth, nor our flaunted successes… What truly binds us together are our shortcomings, our expectations, our doubts, and our search for a greater and more sincere love.
True brotherhood does not arise from the pooling of our strengths, but from the boldness of our words, from acknowledging where we stand, and from the courage to share even our wounds.
As long as I believe myself to be strong, I have no need for others; the risk of my presence in a community is that I will exploit others—or worse, be exploited myself.
But as soon as I agree to dare to share sincerely, to reveal my own flaws as well, the other person becomes my brother, for he, too, has his own.
In this society that wants us to be “self-sufficient” and “connected,” the risk is that we will die of thirst right next to the spring. True connection is not digital; it is “sacramental”—it happens when a man or a woman dares to say before his or her brothers and sisters, “I need you.”
For as we well know, we are all “the poor in the presence of other poor,” yet we are happy and enriched by the revelation of the Father’s love for each of us and by the presence of Jesus in our lives!
“Be full of humility, gentleness, and patience; bear with one another in love; and make every effort to maintain unity in the Spirit through the bond of peace.” Ep 4, 2-3
Here’s to a great year together at CANA!