Consolata Missionaries in Mongolia |
As we prepare to celebrate "Mission Sunday" I thought of sharing Pope Francis' homily last Sunday at Mass of Thanksgiving for Saints of Canada (François de Laval and Marie de l’Incarnation). It is all about... missionaries! (Thanks Zenit.org)
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We have heard Isaiah’s prophecy: “The Lord God will wipe away the
tears from all faces…” (Is 25:8). These words, full of hope in God,
point us to the goal, they show the future towards which we are
journeying. Along this path the Saints go before us and guide us.
These words also describe the vocation of men and women missionaries.
Missionaries are those who, in docility to the Holy Spirit, have the
courage to live the Gospel. Even this Gospel which we have just heard:
“Go, therefore, into the byways…”, the king tells his servants (Mt
22:9). The servants then go out and assemble all those they find, “both
good and bad”, and bring them to the King’s wedding feast (cf. v. 10).
Missionaries have received this call: they have gone out to call
everyone, in the highways and byways of the world. In this way they
have done immense good for the Church, for once the Church stops moving,
once she becomes closed in on herself, she falls ill, she can be
corrupted, whether by sins or by that false knowledge cut off from God
which is worldly secularism.
Fr Luigi Manco IMC, an Italian Consolata Missionary, missionary in Argentina |
Missionaries have turned their gaze to Christ crucified; they have
received his grace and they have not kept it for themselves. Like Saint
Paul, they have become all things to all people; they have been able to
live in poverty and abundance, in plenty and hunger; they have been
able to do all things in him who strengthens them (cf. Phil 4:12-13).
And with this God-given strength, they have the courage to “go forth”
into the highways of the world with confidence in the Lord who has
called them. This is the life of a missionary. And then to end up far
from home, far from their homeland; many times killed, assassinated! As
has happened, in these days, to many of our brothers and sisters.
The Church’s mission of evangelization is essentially a proclamation
of God’s love, mercy and forgiveness, revealed to us in the life, death
and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Missionaries have served the Church’s
mission by breaking the bread of God’s word for the poor and those far
off, and by bringing to all the gift of the unfathomable love welling up
from the heart of the Saviour.
Such was the case with Saint François de Laval and Saint Marie de
l’Incarnation. Dear pilgrims from Canada, today I would like to leave
you with two words of advice; they are drawn from the Letter to the
Hebrews, but thinking about the missionaries, they will be of great
benefit for your communities.
The first is this, this is what the Word of God says: “Remember your
leaders, those who spoke the word of God to you; consider the outcome of
their way of life, and imitate their faith” (13:7). The memory of the
missionaries sustains us at a time when we are experiencing a scarcity
of labourers in the service of the Gospel. Their example attracts us,
they inspire us to imitate their faith. They are fruitful witnesses who
bring forth life!
The second is this: “Recall those earlier days when, after you had
been enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings… Do not
therefore abandon that confidence of yours; it brings a great reward.
For you need endurance…” (10:32,35-36).
Honouring those who endured suffering to bring us the Gospel means
being ready ourselves to fight the good fight of faith with humility,
meekness, and mercy, in our daily lives. And this bears fruit.
Remembering those who preceded us, who founded our Church. The Church of
Quebec is prolific! Prolific in many missionaries, who went everywhere.
The world was filled with Canadian missionaries, like these two. Now
the advice: that this memory does not lead us to abandon forthrightness.
Do not abandon courage! Perhaps… no, not perhaps. It is true. The devil
is envious and does not tolerate a land that is so prolific in
missionaries.
Our prayer to the Lord is that Quebec returns to this path
of fruitfulness, to giving the world many missionaries. And that these
two who—so to say–founded the Church in Quebec assist us as
intercessors; that the seed which they sowed may grow and give fruit of
new men and women with courage, with foresight, with a heart open to
the call of the Lord. Today we must ask this for your homeland! And they
from heaven will be our intercessors. May Quebec to being that source
of brave and holy missionaries.
This, then, is the joy and the challenge of this pilgrimage of yours:
to commemorate the witnesses, the missionaries of the faith in your
country. Their memory sustains us always in our journey towards the
future, towards the goal, when “the Lord God will wipe away the tears
from all faces…”.
“Let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation” (Is 25:9).