We are not better

The name, Fraternity of Hope, recalls in each of us the definitive belonging to a common project: to be a sign of hope for our time, to bear witness to our being Christians, to live the Gospel fraternally. But being part of a fraternity is not a status that is acquired once and for all. It is a commitment, it is a choice that is renewed every day because the Gospel does not want us to be "placed". Rather, he continually "displaces" us because he asks us to love always and with ever greater intensity because "By this everyone will know that you are my disciples: if you have love for one another (Jn 13:35)". The bond of brothers and sisters that Jesus introduced into human life, asking us to overcome the bond of the flesh, is new: «Here are my mother and my brothers! Because whoever does God's will, for me he is brother, sister and mother (Mk 3,34-35) ". This is fraternity, and it is the work that God carries out to make his Kingdom of God among us, and with us.

We could paraphrase Fraternity of Hope in Hope of Fraternity, because it is hope that sustains living together. Experience tells us that the project is humanly impossible. Even with all good intentions, it doesn't go far. But, behind this impossible, there is God who works, there is his Spirit who works with us and the hope of succeeding is based on his presence. Why is it so difficult to live together according to the gospel? Because the Gospel continually pushes us to break the skin of the old man who is in each of us, it asks for a continuous conversion to embrace a new humanity based exclusively on love. This is the essence of fraternity and the model of new humanity is Jesus, the new Adam. It is he who teaches us fraternal life at the service of the Kingdom, choosing in every moment of his earthly life the greatest even if uncomfortable love, living with meekness, humility, forgiving seventy times seven.
Choosing to link one's life to that of other brothers and sisters in a bond of fraternity, according to the logic of Jesus and the Gospel, is the daily search to learn to live together, one day after another, for a lifetime. It asks us for a continuous commitment to bring together people with different stories who, little by little, learn to coexist, to know each other, to file each other, to respect each other, learn to fall, to get up and to help each other, because in turn they all live times. of darkness, of fragility, of tiredness. The life of fraternity is not free from disappointments because it continually puts before our eyes what we do not like to see, our limitations and that of others, our and others' inability to love seriously. And then comes the crisis: “but what is the use? We will never succeed, we give up everything because we are not better than the others ".

But when we have the courage to recognize that we are not better than others, perhaps we have taken the first step towards fraternity. Humanly, we have many resources to put into play in the life of fraternity, but over time human resources run out and the expectations that each one has of himself and of others are often disregarded. Then there are our characters, likes and dislikes, essential ideas and frequent conflicts, as in any coexistence.
We are not better than others, we recognize it, we confess it transparently before God and our brothers, but we know well that, where our human strength is exhausted, God's work begins. Jesus lived his earthly life by fraternity with wounded, divided, frightened people. He did not drive out anyone, not even Judas who betrayed him. He held that fragile humanity together, he simply offered himself for them, so that they may be one (Jn 17) and the Holy Spirit made them the Church until today and until the end of time.

Fraternity is a path of humility and responsibility. With humility we recognize that we are not better than others, but we trust in the grace of God that completes what we lack. Responsibly we do not back down because God has chosen to work with us to carry out his Kingdom work.
Let us then continue the road together, healing the wounds that gradually open up, addressing the problems that coexistence poses, with patience and listening, with the desire not to break the communion which, indeed, in moments of crisis can even be strengthened. . Human expectations dissolve in faith and forces are regenerated enough to start again.
Without presumption, without exaltation, feeling last rather than first, trying to love each other, aware that the struggle on this earth will never end. But, as a friend recently reminded us: "Fraternity is the only experience of resurrection that we can live here on earth".


Rosanna Tabasso
NP December 2021