EVANGELII GAUDIUM - page 205

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for that person. Appearances notwithstanding,
every person is immensely holy and deserves our
love. Consequently, if I can help at least one per-
son to have a better life, that already justifies the
offering of my life. It is a wonderful thing to
be God’s faithful people. We achieve fulfilment
when we break down walls and our heart is filled
with faces and names!
The mysterious working of the risen Christ and his Spirit
275. In the second chapter, we reflected on
that lack of deep spirituality which turns into
pessimism, fatalism, and mistrust. Some people
do not commit themselves to mission because
they think that nothing will change and that it
is useless to make the effort. They think: “Why
should I deny myself my comforts and pleasures
if I won’t see any significant result?” This atti-
tude makes it impossible to be a missionary. It
is only a malicious excuse for remaining caught
up in comfort, laziness, vague dissatisfaction and
empty selfishness. It is a self-destructive attitude,
for “man cannot live without hope: life would
become meaningless and unbearable”.
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If we
think that things are not going to change, we need
to recall that Jesus Christ has triumphed over sin
and death and is now almighty. Jesus Christ truly
lives. Put another way,
“ 
if Christ has not been
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 S
econd
S
pecial
A
ssembly
for
E
urope
of
the
S
ynod
of
B
ishops
, Final Message, 1:
L’Osservatore Romano
, Weekly En-
glish-language edition, 27 October 1999, 5.
1...,195,196,197,198,199,200,201,202,203,204 206,207,208,209,210,211,212,213,214,215,...224
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