An encounter of renewed love

Santiago (Chile). The Mother General of the Institute of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, Sister Chiara Cazzuola, sends her Easter greeting message to the FMA, the Educating Communities and the Salesian Family, from Santiago, Chile, where she was on the occasion of the CICSAL Intersectorial Seminar:

I decided to send you my Easter message from this ‘holy land’, where the first missionaries from Uruguay and Patagonia arrived.

Also in this reality, the Institute developed in a truly wonderful way, made fruitful by the offering of Mother Mazzarello who had confided to a young missionary, “I offered myself as a victim to the Lord.” Don Bosco had commented, “The victim was pleasing to God and was accepted.”

Laura Vicuña, our Laurita was born here. She is a beautiful flower that fills with her perfume our ‘home’ as big as the world. This year we celebrate one hundred and twenty years of her ‘Easter’, of her dies natalis.

Laura, was a little girl capable of loving immeasurably, to the point of giving her life for the salvation of her mother. She is like Jesus whom we contemplate in the light of the Paschal Mystery, and Mother Mazzarello who made of her existence an offering “pleasing to God.”

The short life of Laura, immerses us in the paschal energy of the unstoppable and fruitful love, in the splendor of His Victory over every form of evil.

We know that the encounter with the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians in Junín de los Andes marks her human growth and her ever-increasing spiritual journey. Her life was a poem of purity, of sacrifice, of filial love, as is read on her tomb.

The supreme gift to which Laura reaches, marks the culmination of a coherent existence that takes place in a continuous striving for love. Giving one’s life, as Jesus had done, is the greatest gesture of love that she feels she must do for her dear mother! That’s why it seems important to me to join her ‘Easter’ to the Easter of Jesus with whom Laura always measured herself and with sure faith.

In the Easter Vigil, we will read the Gospel of Mark 16:1-7, in which the story of what happens on the first day of the week, at dawn, fully involves us in this solicitous ‘going’ of women to the Tomb. It seems that their only concern is how to roll the stone from the entrance to the tomb where Jesus was buried. But the stone has already been removed, so they come in and see “a young man in white robes” and they are frightened. The Angel reassured them, “You seek Jesus of Nazareth, the crucified. He is risen. He is not here. He goes before you to Galilee; there you will see him.”

The Angel entrusts the women with the mission of bringing this surprising news to the disciples and, above all, to Peter to announce to him what can make him be born again, after his very heavy betrayal. The Church, the People of God of which we are a living part, knows that the Risen Lord precedes her where she is sent to proclaim Him. The assurance, “He precedes you in Galilee,” resounds like the promise of a presence that will never fail, that is always with us. It resounds like an invitation to meet the Lord in everyday life, in the fabric of relationships, in history, in the depth of human events, in the deserts of existence.

These are the situations, the places where the Risen One lets himself be met and seen, where He makes an appointment for those who want to follow Him, for those who learn from His risen humanity to make themselves and the world around Him more human.

Laura lived this experience in depth. Her young age was not an impediment to offering herself to God and proclaiming Him with an authentic witness. From the Lord Jesus alive in the Eucharist, she drew the strength to overcome fears, violence, and illness. It was the encounter with the Risen One that guided the total gift of herself in a decisive, determined way. Giving her life for the salvation of her mother was for her the truest demonstration of her love for the one who had birthed her.

On this Easter 2024, we too wish to live intensely our encounter with the Risen Jesus; an encounter of renewed love, in the awareness that He is the Lord of our lives and that we cannot keep the joy of having met Him for ourselves alone. Like the women of the Gospel, we want to ‘run’ to proclaim Him with enthusiasm, with faith, with our own life of ‘risen women’. This experience will transform fear into trust, flight into faithful sequela, silence into joyful proclamation, expectation into a new transfiguration.

Love is the common vocation to which we are all called, and to the extent and depth of this love lies the greatness and value of an existence, whether short or long.  Laura loved without measure, to the point of consciously giving her life until she reached a surprising degree of holiness. She loved without expecting anything in return, only looking for the true good, so that someone else (in her case her mother) would have life to an overflowing extent for eternity.

Dear Sisters, we hope that in everyone, the joy of the Resurrection may shine to be that small ‘point of light’ that illuminates the present and any place and situation in which we find ourselves. Only the Light of the Risen One can open hope to the entire human family that has an urgent and extreme need of it today.

Best wishes for a holy Easter to each one of you, to your families, to the Educating Communities, to the Salesian Family, to the young people who are so dear to us. A special greeting to the Rector Major of the Salesians, Cardinal Ángel Fernández Artime, whom we accompany with prayer for the Episcopal Ordination to be held on 20 April.

Let us continue to invoke the gift of peace throughout the world and support with our prayers and offerings the communities sorely tried by war, violence and injustice, by poverty.

To Mary, Mother of the Risen One, we entrust all people, especially children, young people, and families, who live in situations of hardship and who are waiting for a better, more serene future.

May all enjoy the fullness and joy of Easter. Best wishes!

Santiago del Cile, 12 March 2024

Sister Chiara Cazzuola FMA
Superior General of the FMA Institute

PDF Text