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A couple of years ago, a dear Pastor, Charles Stanley, sent me his Christmas magazine ('In Touch'), where he wrote some inspired words about a classic hymn: Love Found a Way. Below, after the transcription of that lyric, I would like to reflect about that, and share with you my hope that one day, out of a deep love for Christ and for every human being, we will find a new and more energetic way to destroy shameful barriers and build more bridges, especially among us, Christians: Our credibility and the whole Christian message’s credibility will be proportional to the degree of our Unity. Definitively we have the greatest message the world has ever heard. Nevertheless, only love, mutual love and deep love for all, but especially among us, until the fulfillment of the Testament of Jesus, That They May Be One, will make the world believe that God's love really found a marvelous way to be Emmanuel (God with us), and really has already saved us in every sense and dimension that really matters. As He told us, everything and every event will ended up in profit for those who really pursue the Will of God.

Wonderful love that rescued me,
Sunk deep in sin,
Guilty and vile as I could be -- no hope within;
When every ray o light had fled -- O glorious day!
Raising my soul from out the dead,
love found a way.
Love found a way to redeem my soul,
Love found a way that could make me whole;
Love sent my Lord to the cross of shame,
Love found a way -- O praise His holy name!

In fact, I sincerely believe Love not only found a way, but also continues to find new ways now and in the future. Real Love is stronger than death, it is ingenious, unconditional and faithfully constant; it is persistent to the end. But only that initial "Way" of redemption, His decisive Way, is perfect, absolute and it is irreversible. It divides the entire human history in two worlds, for ever: After or before Jesus Christ. The incarnation, sacrifice, death and resurrection of the Messiah, out of an abysmal kind of Love, found The Way, the only WAY, and not just a way. All other authentically good "ways" were, are and will always be direct or indirect consequences of this priceless, merciful, awesome  "Christmas" WAY: The Christian WAY.  Almost 500 years ago, Luís de Camões, the greatest writer in my mother language (Portuguese), wrote a little poem (in the middle of thousands) called ‘Refugio’:

“You! You who seek serenity in the wide tempestuous sea of the world,
cease and abandon all hope of ever finding peace,
except in Jesus Christ, God Crucified.
If wealth absorbs your thoughts and preoccupies your nights,
God is the greatest treasure of all;
And if you’re looking for beauty, always recall
that God alone is the Beauty that satisfies.
If you seek delights to set your heart on fire,
remember that God’s the sweetest of all, Who rewards
His followers with victory at last;
If honor and glory are what you most desire,
no greater honor or glory has ever surpassed
humbly serving the highest Lord of Lords”.

All real, unfixable problems of humanity are already solved for more than 2000 years. The real solution, the final solution is not an economic system or some governmental model; it's a messianic Person that granted us Himself and His messianic Kingdom. Depend on each one of us to receive it or not, consciously, independently of other people levels of commitments or refusal. Ultimately each one of us is let alone to decided...  Salvation is an individual responsibility, without being a duty, because it's the only absolute "Human Right", in my opinion. "What can a man profit for, if he wins the whole world, but loses his own soul?"  Fr. Leo Clifford, speaking about such astonish responsibility, wisely explains why the devil never waste time trying to convince us to deny the existence of God and His final Justice: Because he knows our being, deep inside, ‘instinctively’ tell us otherwise. Even people that deny God, probably are lying to themselves or secretly don’t want His existence, like a mini-god facing “unfair” competition. So he tempt us by just lying that there is no hurry: "You are healthy, young, busy with your business, just don't hurry, you have plenty of time to worry about this stuff of prayer, sin, salvation…”  In reality we, Human Persons, only have today. Who guaranties that today is not the last day of our lives?  In fact we cannot live one single day from bread alone; only The Word of God has the power to generate full life. Only those who prays consistently, seeking first the Kingdom of God, being instruments of His Justice, will find life worth living, in it's fullness.

It also depends on each one of us to understand that it's impossible to really receive Him as a personal Savior, without receiving Him as Master, Maestro and Model. He taught and He practiced. He taught and practiced when washing other brother's feet, did we? do we? He taught and practiced, when forgave and also excused the criminals (us) during (not after), the atrocity of the crucifixion; do we forgive…at least after? Or, at the very least, after many years? Do we? He never seeks for power nor seek to be served. He came to serve but we frequently say, by omission, fear, pride, indifference or susceptibility: I don’t want to serve, I cannot serve or I will not  serve. And we say it in a thousands of ways.

In my oppinion, the worse problem in history after Christ "found" for us the perfect "Way", is not the presence of evil in itself, but the fact that we, "christians", are not enough Christians. We are divided among us because we do not really follow Jesus Christ. We follow ourselves, our fears and ideologies... Most of the time we follow Pontius Pilatus, since we are professional "hand-washers"! Probably, in the future, science will help humanity to better understand some sort of mysterious genetic tragedy, combined with a rare but true satanic possession, able to create monsters like the psychopath Adolf Hitler, Stalin, Saddam Hussein, Enver Hoxha, Idi Amin Dada, Fidel Castro, Slobodan Milosevic etc., therefore rendering them, maybe, potentially innocent. Nevertheless, the real problem will always be the omission of those who call themselves... Christians, but did not to really stop such horrific universal threat, at the beginning. It is shameful to admit, in different levels, how deep is our guilt, because the sin of omission. Definitely, the opposite of love, is not hate, but indifference. And being divided among us, we cowardly allow that kind of monster to grow, in the same way we allow even worse monsters to grow at the present time. To wit a few, if not enough to recall the universal explosion of chemical dependency, narcotic-traffic, racism, pedophilia, pornography, abortion, euthanasia, human traffic, corruption, etc.; now we have terrible new universal threats, like unimaginable categories of terrorism, based on mass-murderers/suicide jihadist-militias of terrorists; men-made ecologic catastrophes; the evil use of the Internet; traffic of human organs; international financial speculation; the repulsive and arrogant destruction of pre-borne human lives in the name of science(!); plus the inevitable and gradual self-destruction, from the root, of any State Judicial System stupid enough to decriminalized “abortion-on-demand”, maybe the most horrendous system of organized crime possible to mankind, now sponsored and protected… by Law (!); a pan-ethnical cleansing holocaust like Darfur, and; particularly, what I would call, the 'genderless involution': An absolutely new ideology, the devastating anti-family radical homosexual ideology, that subtlety but ferociousness is enforcing the global “homosexualization” of the whole culture not only by law, but through every possible means, in every possible place, as discrete as possible, without any major human(!) leader, shaking the very foundation of the civilization even now, in it’s initial phase.

Nevertheless, in spite of such unbelievable yet real scenario of horror,  The Divine Providence do want to partner with us to overcame such  unprecedented evil reality, as much as possible, and fulfill the kind Plan of God, helping us to “enlarge” our hearts and receive together the fullness of benefits His Mercy keep always awaiting for us. As G. K. Chesterton pointed out, “from the moment God The Christ became human, there is nothing authentically human, that cannot be Divinizing”. In order to establish at least a less irresponsible model of partnership with His Divine Providence we, as members of the Kingdom of Christ, although imperfect on earth, need urgently find a way to create a better, peaceful and more just global society, guided by science and based on principles like inter-dependence, solidarity, fair trading and sustainability. In other words, we desperately need to find a way, if possible in a revolutionary speed, to evolve to a new kind of economy, an Economy of Sharing -generous sharing-, an “Economy of Communion”, the only hope humanity will be really able to save the planet for the future generations: “Unlike the consumer economy, based on a culture of having, the Economy of Communion is based on the culture of giving. This might seem to be difficult, ambitious, heroic, but it is not so, because human beings made in the image of God, who is love, find their fulfillment in loving, in giving. This need is in the deepest recesses of their being whether they have faith or not. On this basis, supported by our experience, lies the hope of a universal spreading of the Economy of Communion” (Chiara Lubich, Brazil, 1991).

Jesus promises us, wherever and whenever two or more join together in His name, that He will be present among us, united with us. And if we were able to agree over any thing, asking the Father in His name, He guarantees God The Father will give us, for sure. We have His Word. Why not do that, even physically speaking? And then ask Him to give us His fire, His power, His mercy and His Way, for the glory of God. With His power, if we learn how to network in Jesus Name with courageous creativity, we Christians should be able to make any secular genius of economy look like an idiot.

Take a close look at our Social eBank draft membership basic legal agreement (link at the main page). It harness and empower the Social eDollar primarily as an instrument of Evangelization and integral human promotion without even mentioning the word harness. And please don't worry about the current legal inaccuracy of this draft, it is a poor translation from Portuguese: What really matters is that, after adapted/perfected according to each hosting coutry's Law, it will indeed legally converts each Social-eDollar in exchange medium and accounting element, never a commodity. Let me try to give just one example of many potential consequences: Obviously members will own any product or service purchased with Social-eDollar, but not the Social-eDollar 'medium', and that is absolutely NOT obvious. Many other potential educational, legal and marketing consequences makes it really powerful, for several combined reasons, not so easy to explain here, outside a macro-economy technical context.

The Apostolic nuncio of the Holy See to the United Nations, Archbishop Celestino Migliore, call it "scandal", that the international community "allows extreme poverty to continue", as a result of "lack of imagination and politics of neglect”. So let's help... And let's beg the Holy Spirit to help us to have enough real love to find a way to discern it together, and at least try it together, energetically, in deep unity and synergy. And try it as a laboratory, as prudent as possible, as soon as possible, as simple as possible, as paperless as possible, as inexpensive as possible, as effective as possible, as global as possible, as generous as possible, as open as possible, as modern as possible, as fair as possible, as responsible as possible, as clean as possible, as stable as possible, as secure as possible, as attract to the youth as possible, as fun as possible, as colorful as possible, as cordial as possible, as successful as possible, as 'ambitious' as possible, as fruitful as possible and, finally: As ingenious, organized and perfect as possible; therefore (that’s the key) as holy as possible, because only true love is the internal link for Perfection, in a biblical sense (in contrast with efficiency or profit, the link in a business sense). Love is also ingenious, indeed, and "nothing is more organized than what Loves' organized". (Chiara Lubich).

Let's ask for the wisdom not only to improve what's good or change bad segments of the actual current economy model, like many are doing already, Christians and non Christians of good will, in practical terms; particularly those doing the most good at a global level, like the Focolare Movement is doing quietly and efficiently. And why not ask, above all, to create and start in parallel, from the Mercy of God, some new, less stupid and flexible financial structure? Able to support a supplementary laboratory-model, not a replacement (therefore avoiding any disruption, controversies and ideological contamination). But a lab-net with enough size and technology power to make a social difference, enough volume to wake up sleeping crucial assets and force its circulation from the designed power of  its own private, educational and internal “currency”.

I believe that a "Social-eDollar", in a similar way we conceived it inside the Paul VI Foundation: transnational, educational, social-oriented and complementary e-currency, inside an insurance/liability framework designed to prevent the natural fear of sharing even expensive assets, as a cornerstone of a future kind of “Solidarity Seed Society" to be build around a such Pastoral, Educational, Digital Bank that we just called "Social eBank” is, indeed (I believe) able to integrate strategies and efforts that the international development economic system already knows, but is powerless to incorporate; and also able to avoid some serious problems current models cannot avoid, like massive financial speculation. The one that happened in Argentina a couple of years ago, for example, responsible for the destruction of the economy of the whole nation, was unlikely possible even for a very corrupt country if not involved in war, before the new global economic reality.  In just weeks, the people of Argentina, in order to survive, had to create hundreds of  medieval barter clubs, potentially chaotic, disconnected, each one with different rules, values or vouchers. This is marvelous, evidently, since little or less is always better than nothing; but definitively we need a major and urgent change in a more global, social responsible, enforceable, transparent and efficient pro-life/pro-family economic model, for the improvement of Justice, Education and Peace, as a foundation for the future "Civilization of Life and Love" and consequential Salvation of souls.

Sincerely, seems to me that Love already found A “brand” new way to start a massive improvement of His Kingdom also in this world, in a strategic/substantial way, with long terms consequences in numbers and quality. If not, fine! It’s ok! I also have the right to be wrong. G.K. Chesterton, one of my heroes, used to say that "Christianity was found wanted, without been tried". So, let God be God and let creature be what we really are: limited, ignorant and mortal. The answer, again, is in prayer: “God grant us the serenity to accept the things we cannot change, courage to change the things we can, and the wisdom to know the difference. Living one day at a time, Enjoying one moment at a time, Accepting hardship as the pathway to peace. Taking, as He did, this sinful world as it is, not as we would have it. Trusting that He will make all things right if we surrender to His will. That we may be reasonably happy in this life, and supremely happy with Him forever in the next”. The fulfillment of His Kingdom -as paradise on earth- will never be possible in this world, anyway. As said by St. Paul, "If our hope were restricted only to this world, we (Christians) would be the most miserable people on the face of the earth". And Jesus, after remind us that everything results in benefit of those who love God, already gave us His Way, THE WAY. He gave us Himself through His Church and invited us: "Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood..." already have the best Way, the Eternal Way and the fullness of the Faith. And That’s more than enough: "All the way to Heaven is.. heaven" (St. Catharina of Siena). Let’s adore Him! Let's thank Him, for all…, and forever!

To close this welcome message of hope, please pray with me, as I beg our dear omnipotent Father, in Jesus name, asking for mercy and peace over the entire world. Also, let's ask our Father, for the love of our Lord Jesus, to send us, “again”, The Holy Spirit, so we will learn to be practitioners of His Word, not only listeners, we will learn how to better Love Him and our brothers with all our hearts, strength, soul and, more than ever, intelligence (reason). Unfortunately our Church had to wait for 13 centuries to begin understand, for a miracle of the Holy Spirit in the genius of St. Thomas of Aquinas, the most important theologian in history, that Faith does not contradicts Reason. How desperately we Christian need to understand that. Being born in the present era, knowing what science reveals, facing gigantic challenges ahead, we must recognized  that reason is the partner of faith, per excellence. Keen reason from a honest mind is absolutely indispensable to empower any one committed to fruitfully comply with the mandate of our King: “Seek first, The Kingdom of God and His justice...every other good, specially His Peace, will come by consequence, plus Eternal Heaven”. So help us God to run the extra mile, serving and giving not only money and talents, but ourselves; asking forgiveness and forgiving everybody with real generosity and the radical determination to look back, at the end of our lives, without the need to remorse -in horror!- the same mediocre and wasted life of millions, ‘just’ for have Loved to little, to late, and to low.

Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam!
Fraternally yours, in Jesus name,
sincerely,
Luis Paul S Baron
[email protected]
Washington DC - USA

(Old draft letter & photo currently posted with some orthographic fixes and minor translations updates)