I happened to be in Rome on the day of the feast of the foundation of the "Consolata Missionaries"
I was asked to preside and preach at the celebration of Mass with the community and missionaries attending an ongoing formation course. Below, a short summary of the homily
I was asked to preside and preach at the celebration of Mass with the community and missionaries attending an ongoing formation course. Below, a short summary of the homily
"When Fr Daniel Bertea IMC asked me to preside and preach at today's celebration I started wondering in my mind which ones the readings would be.
I said to myself: "it will certainly be the end of the Gospel where the Risen Jesus sends the apostles all over the world".
I was wrong. Today's passage is taken from the Gospel of John where Jesus keeps on repeating just one thing: "remain in me". Interesting enough, it is not about going but about remaining.
This made me think that our call is not about "doing" but about "being".
Many times I thought of our call as: going, preaching, baptizing, building, visiting and so on. Today's passage instead points to something different. Our call is to be one with the One who called us. It is from this being one with him, it is from our daily experience of the Risen Lord, that our call to be sent comes.
In Evangelii Gaudium Pope Francis calls every Christian to renew this experience daily. It could not be otherwise because our being sent is not a private property of a certain missionary community but the call of the whole Church as "baptized and sent". It is for this reason that, in the diocese of Manzini, when Pope Francis called the Church to celebrate an Extraordinary Missionary Month we chose to extend it to the whole year.
We, Consolata Missionaries, carry a personal experience of Jesus that we want to share with others. It is seen in the way we serve, in the way we relate with the people, the way we involve everyone in what we do.
Today, we thank God for this call. May He help us discover it always new."
