I miei amici della colonia Bruderhof di Robertsbridge, in Inghilterra, mi hanno inviato la lettera per il periodo quaresimale, che condivido di seguito. Il richiamo a Dio è forte, in un momento dove anche loro stanno praticando il distanziamento sociale. In una colonia dove tutto è condiviso tra i membri tutto appare ancora più surreale: le scuole, i pranzi in comune, i culti, i momenti di aggregazione sono sospesi, snaturando il senso di una comunità. La speranza che questo periodo di prova possa avvicinare a Dio più persone è la consolazione che sottolineano e vogliono condividere. Le parole del loro fondatore, in una lettera del 1933, all'avvento del nazismo, infondono loro sollievo in un momento di prova.
Hereafter the Lent Newsletter of the Darvell Bruderhof community, in Robertsbridge, East Sussex, England.
Dear Friends
Early Easter greetings. We are in the middle of a worldwide crisis caused by the Covid 19 pandemic and experiencing change on a scale that few of us have encountered before. It is in times like this that our faith in the redemptive power of Jesus and our hope in the imminence of his kingdom are at once especially needed and especially powerful.
Here at the Darvell community we are practicing social distancing along with the rest of the country. In practical terms this means that we have had to stop all communal meals and gatherings, close our school and ask our older and vulnerable people to stay at home. As it is for most of the rest of the world, we are in a situation we have never expected or experienced before. We are still able to find ways to show love to each other and to interact from a distance or over the phone. We are more grateful than ever for this life of community.
As the crisis unfolds we hope to find more ways to respond. We have some people who are working to respond to the social needs in our area and are sending people to get involved in the emergency response as well. We are more aware than ever of our human powerlessness in the face of all this; of the need of the world for God’s intervention. It is a cause for great hope and encouragement to hear stories of true selflessness and heroism from so many in the healthcare service, to know of the hundreds of thousands who have volunteered to the emergency services across the nation, and to experience first-hand the care and concern from so many of our neighbours and friends. We truly need each other.
The words below were spoken by Eberhard Arnold in 1933, also during a time of great uncertainty and impending world crisis. For us they express something of the challenge of this particular point in history, the importance of our readiness to be used by Christ.
To be ready is everything. Let us be ready! Our expectation of God's coming shall become an active readiness to stretch out our hands to Him and be crucified with Him--a readiness, on our knees, to be humbled by Him, to lay down all self-determining power so that He alone has power over us. For in the midst of the days of wrath and judgment it is all the more important that the heart of Christ shine forth in the world and in world history. And it was just for this that the Church was sent into the midst of towering waves of most fearsome tumult, into the midst of waves of blood that has been shed and raging breakers, in order to throw itself against the waves and to bring the flag of love to those who without drowning in anger. This is what we should be prepared for. This is what we must be prepared for. Therefore at the same moment that we ask God for the breaking in of His day we plead with God that we shall be sent out, sent not only to a few people whom we meet on our hills, whom we are privileged to meet here, but to all men, to the richest and to the lowliest, to all and particularly to the lowliest, but also as prophets particularly to the richest, just as John the Baptist went to Herod and sacrificed his head. When we ask God to come, when we ask Christ that His way should be followed, when we ask the Holy Spirit to pour out His torrent, that means being ready for everything, and we must all be united in this, for only when we are united in the object of the prayer that we bring before God will it be fulfilled, but then it also quite certainly will be fulfilled.
It is our prayer that a time like this can be a catalyst for many people to consider their lives and to turn to God. This is already happening. May we all be ready for whatever is asked of us.
Nessun commento:
Posta un commento