Living in New Times
The Marist Brothers of Spain have chosen a motto and poster for the first course to be given by their Mission Teams. The poster is the work of Marga Cuerva, a student at the FMS school in Igualada, Barcelona. The central image of the poster (seed-heart-clock) nicely captures the spirit of the motto. The seed suggests things that are key: the essence of life/the force of time (a force hidden until the seed is planted, and then it grows and evolves with the passage of time)/the plant that gives new life. The idea of RENEWAL: getting beyond one?s little world, growing. In the seed is already found the life of the new plant . . . pro-vided it dies (an essential theme of the Gospel).
The heart. The seed takes the form of a heart, the place in which, symbolically, lies all our potential as persons. The heart as the seed of our lives: when does it beat strongly? When does it lie cold?
The clock. The seed-as-heart is also a clock, image of TIME. In the spot where one expects to find the hour, one finds instead various life situations that can be nerve centers for new life (being with others, being for others, being with oneself ?). The hands of the watch, rather than indicating the exact time to perform an action, suggest, compass-like, the possible directions one might take. It is an invitation to live. LIVE! This is the time which the heart experiences, the kairos, the time of opportunity, the moments when we experience life in its fullness.
The seed-heart-clock lies deeply rooted in mother earth, herself lying under the warmth of the sun (God). The earth both receives and gives that which is needed for growth. In its turn, the earth is the image of real things. The sun nourishes, gives light and makes it possible for the plant to burst through the surface of the earth. Earth and sun enable the seed to grow. The burgeoning plant seeks the sun and bends according to the direction of the sun. When time is experienced in a heartfelt way, one senses that a NEW kind of fruit is growing in a new type of soil, a seed that germinates and produces a new type of plant. Another world is coming to birth in new forms (different continents, the dominant green colors . . .). All is possible.