Christian communities: echo of Jesus’s voice

Abstract

This article is an exercise of reflection in Practical Theology, from the interpellations of the Apostolic Exhortation Gaudete et Exsultate (GE) of Pope Francis on the call to holiness, and from the research work about the call of Paul on the way to Damascus and his experience with the early Christian communities. It establishes a relationship with current reports of homosexuals or transsexuals who wish to live the gospel values, but who feel persecuted in their condition. The purpose of this article is to stimulate a reflection on the Pauline experience which, in pursuing Christian communities in the name of an ideal of religious life, hears the voice of Jesus who says: "Saul, Saul why do you persecute me?" (Acts 9, 4). It applies epoché, proper to the phenomenological method, to let come to light and to our ears the often muted cry of people who seek to live the Christian values and a way of sanctity without denying their own condition. These are reverberated in the voice of Jesus and cry, "Why do you persecute us?" Strategically suspending the tables of pre-established values, this work wishes to show the theological-pastoral reasons that presuppose, in applying the "mercy principle" (cf. GE, 46), listening to these voices.