Saint Gertrude Parish - Lasne

Believing in the death and resurrection of Christ and living the Easter spirituality nourishes hope in life and encourages us to invest in goodness. In particular, it helps us to love and nurture fraternity, which is undoubtedly one of the great challenges of contemporary humanity, as Pope Francis has clearly seen.

Fraternity is born from a profoundly human fact. We are capable of relationships and, if we so choose, we know how to build authentic bonds with one another. Without relationships, which support and enrich us from the beginning of our lives, we could not survive, grow, or learn. These relationships are many, different in their forms and depth. But it is certain that our humanity fully blossoms when we are and live together, when we manage to experience authentic, informal connections with those around us. If we withdraw into ourselves, we risk becoming ill from loneliness, and even from a narcissism that only cares for others out of self-interest. The other is then reduced to someone from whom we can profit, without us ever being truly willing to give, to give of ourselves.

The brotherhood given by the risen Christ frees us from the negative forces of selfishness, division, and abuse of power, and leads us back to our original vocation, in the name of a love and hope that are renewed each day. The Risen One has shown us the way to follow with Him, to feel like brothers and sisters, to be “all brothers and sisters.”