Fr. Thomas speaks on what fosters life and growth: In 1968 and 1969 I was in summer school at the University of Notre Dame, IN. Vatican II was in its initial implementation and a lot was going on both in the Church and in a revolution affecting American culture. A short video was shown to us with this theme: a very elderly woman, living alone in a non-descript apartment in some high rise of a major city, consisting of asphalt, brick and concrete. Her major concern was the fostering of the growth of a tiny seedling, giving it water, sunshine in her window, and tender loving care. It was a silent video, so that the focus would be on new life coming to birth by means of the tender loving care of old life with the influence they had on one another. Quite appropriate for the dynamic of Vatican II, a dynamic that is still valid today.
One teaching from this short video was sympathetic concern and sensitivity to another’s condition as a quality of good leadership. Pope Francis exhibits this quality. In his first encyclical Laudato Si. we find sympathetic concern and sensitivity for our common home, creation. In synodality we find sympathetic concern and sensitivity in listening to one another to discern what the Spirit is saying to the Church, today
A consequence of sympathetic concern and sensitivity is a bonding with the needs and sufferings of another in order to enter into the mystery of the Glory of God. The Gospel of John presents Christ’s passion and death as revealing God’s Glory. By participating in another’s sufferings and needs, we enter God’s Glory. Sympathetic concern and sensitivity for another bonds us with Christ Crucified; bonds us with Divinity.
Prayers and Blessings,
Your brothers of New Clairvaux
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