This is an opening talk for the PHN conference at Canção Nova this past weekend where the theme was true friendship.-ed
“Friends to return to love.” The challenge, of this year, is to sustain this truth that, for all time, the world wants to knock down.
“Friends” we find each hour, friend from ballads, of cigarettes, of prostitution…But the challenge that brings us, in this PHN, is much different: “friends to return to love.”
The liturgy invites us to return to love. The first reading tell us that the King Hezekiah, was stricken with a mortal wound, with the “foot in the grave.” Therefore, he received a visit from the prophet Isaiah. Pardon the expression, but how many are not, here at this PHN, not only with their “foot in the grave”, but with their whole being?
The Word of God, tells us that, before this mortal wound, the prophet orders the king that he “arrange your house, because you are going to die and you will not live.” And what does Hezekiah do? He collects himself in prayer.
The fortune of Hezekiah is that he was a man of God. He lived an intimacy with the Lord.
For two times, when threatened by the King of Assyria, Hezekiah, went to the Temple to seek God. He did not despair before the attack by his enemy; before, he put himself in prayer before the Lord.
When the Word says to us that Hezekiah “he turned himself against the wall” – Before the exhortation of the prophet –, this is not to say that he was acting as a spoiled child, that did not want to hear a ” no” fro others and, therefore, therefore, sulking remained looking at the wall. NO! This means that Hezekiah collected himself in prayer. Something much different than the posture of many at this PHN and that act as “little sons of the father”: spoiled, broken, sulking
You came here as a boy, but will leave from here, from this retreat, as a man. The Lord will revive you these days.Prepare yourself and know that it is not to “remain” with God, as so many youth do, in this social game of today, (remaining with one person and later with another and then another), but it is, before all, an intimate and profound relationship with the Lord. A durable relationship.
Hezekiah prayed and God responded to him. The King was with “his foot in the grave“. And, thanks to the exhortation of the prophet, the Lord helped him.
My brothers and sisters, there are friends that throw us in the grave.
On the other hand, there are friends that bring us to the grave.
Many will arrive here “reeking” rotting from inside. Who wants to prove this? It is to go to confession. There, you perceive all the damage that sin does in the human soul.
The Gospel shows us that some friendships bring us to the grave. See the example of the pharisees: they called the Lord “Teacher” but in truth they lived ploltting traps for Jesus. Before this, I ask you: “What type of friendship are you seeking here in PHN?”
Fr. Fabricio Andrade
translated from Portuguese