Having options is nice but we cannot remain on the level of options and go deeper at the same time. If we want to channel our time and energy, to give shape and purpose to our lives, sooner or later we need to make concrete choices about the specific direction that we want our life to take.

Good commitments are really about freedom ~ true freedom. True freedom is not about having a zillion options or doing what I feel like doing all the time. Ultimately, freedom is about becoming the kind of person I really want to be. There is much to experience and learn about from life, in making choices and committing ourselves to certain options, we deepen and grow both humanly and spiritually.

The most important commitment as Christians is our baptismal commitment, where we pledge to follow Jesus and the Gospel. All other commitments flow from this one. Throughout scripture, God promises to love us, be with us, watch over us and help us.

This time of Lent reminds us, that even if we should fail to keep our commitments, we can always count on God’s promise of love and forgiveness, of renewal and starting again.

“In Greek, the root meaning of repentance

is not the confession of sin but a change of mind.”

~ Tertillian

Throughout human history, God’s presence initiates new relationships. In the depths of despair and silence of God’s people in exile, God spoke a new word ~ an invitation ~ a word that empowered them to shake off their oppression and be free! There is need to share this word that restores communities to life. With those coming out of exile, reorganization required a radical rethinking of both who God was and who they were as God’s people.

In second Isaiah (chapters 40-66) we are given inspiration to dream and see things in a new way, a poetic power to speak a word of comfort and evoke in the imagination of his audience, the astounding message of  ”coming home”, of an end to living exiled. Isaiah recognized that God is doing something new!

It is no surprise that this poetic vision of God’s new creation is the most frequently sited part of the Old Testament for Christians. It also urges those who listen to participate in this new future with God. Spend some time with Isaiah and let his words inspire us to action!

“If we pray to the Lord to forgive us, we ourselves must be forgiving.”

~ St. Polycarp

The zeal of St. Comboni has often been mentioned when speaking about him ~ it was not simply readiness and good will ~ it was continuous growth in holiness and purification. He suffered and accepted many set-backs in his plan of action and in many of his projects. And through all of this, his pastoral action of love matured.

His commitment in the social field and to works of charity were tireless but that was not the whole of his life, at the center and giving him strength was the Heart of Christ, pierced on the Cross. He would say that love is needed to form able missionaries ~ and this is seen in the humble zeal that missionaries live!

In the words of Cardinal Zuber Wako of Khartoum, ” You Comboni Missionaries have holy roots ~ the branches too must be holy. The canonization of Daniel Comboni puts holiness within the charism of the Congregation. I am sure you will make good use of that.”

At the age of 37, St. Comboni was already feeing exhausted, his labors draining his physical energy but he was maturing in spirit: “I can already see and understand that the Cross is such a friend to me, and is always so close to me, I have chosen her for some time now as my inseparable and eternal Spouse.”

In the cross, St. Comboni discovered how to read his life. Also the ills of his time, the difficulties in his missionary work… the depth of suffering he experienced in Africa with it’s slavery, famine conditions, sicknesses and sin. The instrument of death of Jesus has become the means and the sign of Redemption.

Union with this spouse became concrete in acceptance of crosses, he even asked for them, giving thanks when he received them. St. Comboni educates us all in the school of the Cross, what he called the only true knowledge, “basis of a solid foundation for freedom and liberation in Africa.”

“Dust, truly a splendid symbol! This is the image of the commonplace. There is always more than enough of it. One fleck is as good as the next. Dust is the image of anonymity. What does it matter if it is this or that dust? It is all the same. Dust is the symbol of nothingness: because it lies around so loosely, it is easily stirred up, it blows around blindly, is stepped upon and crushed ~ and nobody notices.

Truly then scripture is right. We are dust. We are always in the process of dying. We are the beings who set our course for death, when we set out our life’s journey. We are the only beings who know about this tendency to death ~ and yet, we are just dust.”

* Fr. Karl Rahner

St. Daniel Comboni used to point out three main intentions when he asked for prayers: crosses, funds and personnel for the Mission ~ both men and women, that are clothed in the spirit of Jesus Christ and animated by his love… “It is necessary to hurry with great strides in the ways of God and in holiness, and not stop until we reach the promised land.” He wrote this in 1870 at the age of 39. Near the end of his life, sick in bed, he reminded a confrere, “Carry on as you have done so far, because I know exactly how you want our missionaries: holy and capable, the one without the other is worth little to one who follows the life of an apostle.”

One thing that strikes me about St. Comboni is that he was not born a saint and he even would say, “I am only too certain that I am a long way from holiness”. The Comboni missionary tends to be a person who seems a little rough around the edges but listening to the Spirit, they become purified by the grace of the Heart of Christ. It all becomes part of the spiritual journey ~ of which we are all traveling.