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A great scene from a great movie. It captures the spirit of mission. What is your Instrument?
I got to share a presentation - and play my Instrument - with a group from the Catholic Daughters on Wednesday, and with friends locally on Sunday. I'm always very grateful to share!
An excerpt from an article in ZENIT on Monday, where a new cardinal in Chile shares his thoughts on the current call in the Church:
[Chile] is a country, as are all the countries of Latin America, that is experiencing a very profound, epochal change, a cultural change which calls, therefore, for an intelligent, generous and sometimes very sacrificial evangelization. Because, as in Jesus’ time, the proclamation of the Gospel isn’t easy. However, one who receives it, receives also the new life, the generosity of the new life. What is important is that we pastors be pontiffs in the sense of being bridges, so that Jesus will encounter all the people and people can encounter Jesus.
A good article in the Boston Globe yesterday, on the selections of Cardinals by Pope Francis, and, really, its relation to mission. Here are a few excerpts:
In Haiti, the pope bypassed the leaders of the country’s two archdioceses, who according to the usual logic would have had better claim to the honor, in order to tap the bishop of a small diocese in the country’s southwest, a man who was himself born into a poor family.
In effect, Francis seemed to want his first consistory to embrace the “periphery” in every possible sense.
“It’s the pope’s prerogative to make whoever he wants a cardinal, but it’s fair to say that I was an unusual choice,” Chibly Langlois said in an interview Friday with the Globe.
“I think it’s rooted in the Gospel,” Langlois said, “symbolizing the pope’s determination to leave no stone unturned in reaching out to the poor.”
He said that giving the country a cardinal has stirred the hopes of Haitians of all stripes.
“It’s created tremendous joy, independently of someone’s religion, whether they’re Catholic or Protestant or whatever,” he said. “Haitians feel a craving for somebody to finally notice them, which is why this means so much to the whole country.” ...
Yet Langlois argued that Francis wasn’t just talking to Haitians in this consistory — he was delivering a message to the rest of the church.
“[Pope Francis] chose a small diocese . . . to express that the church needs the poor to set its direction,” he said. “The future of the universal church under this pope runs through the poor.”
...
Asked what affluent believers in countries such as the United State can do to help Haiti, for instance, Langlois said the solution doesn’t begin with opening their wallets but with “opening their eyes and ears.” “You need to take a good look around, and try to understand what’s really happening,” Langlois said.
While expressing gratitude for assistance that’s reached Haiti from the United States and other donor nations, Langlois said that the last thing Haitians need is another foreign power riding in, even with the best of intentions, and dictating to them how to move forward.
“The Haitians are a people who need to be helped, maybe, but we don’t need to be ‘assisted,’ ” Langlois said. “More than anything, Haitians need to be heard. What’s needed is a dialogue, so Haitians can take their future in their own hands.”
In the New Testament, Jesus asserts that in the Kingdom of God “the last shall be first.” If personnel is policy, then judging by his first crop of new cardinals it seems that Pope Francis has gotten the memo.
From Zenit News Agency, the Pope on building bridges through humility and meekness: ******************
Building Bridges Instead of Walls
Pontiff Reflects on the Fruits of Meekness and Humility During Morning Mass
VATICAN CITY, January 24, 2014 (Zenit.org) - Meekness and humility are crucial to fostering dialogue. This was the central theme of Pope Francis’ homily this morning. Through these virtues, the Pope said, one follows the example left by Christ who humbled himself until the end.
The first reading today recalled King Saul’s persecution of David. Although David had an opportunity to kill David, he chose the path that leads to dialogue and makes peace.
“Meekness is necessary in order to dialogue, without shouting,” the Pope said. “It is also necessary to think of the other person has something more than me, and David thought of this: ‘He is the anointed one of the Lord, and is more important than me.’ Humility, meekness. In order to dialogue, it is necessary to do that which we ask for today in prayer, at the beginning of Mass: to do everything for everyone.”
Even though dialogue is difficult, the Holy Father said that it is worse to “create a bridge” with an adversary while holding a growing anger in one’s heart. A Christian, however, has the example of David and Jesus who through an act of humility, conquers hate.
“Jesus has done it: he humbled himself until the end, he has shown us the way,” the Pope said. “And it is necessary that too much time doesn’t pass. When there is a problem, as soon as possible, in the moment in which it can be done, after the storm has passed, come together to dialogue, because time makes the wall grow, the weeds grow and impede the growth of the grain. And when the walls grow, reconciliation is very difficult. It is very difficult!”
Echoing sentiments he expressed several times, the 77 year old Pontiff said that there is no problem if “a few plates fly”, whether in the family or in a community. The important thing is to look for peace as soon as possible. The Holy Father also emphasized that it is better to build a bridge rather than a wall, like the Berlin Wall that divided Germany for so many years. “Even in our hearts, it is possible to become like Berlin and build up a wall against others.”
“I am afraid of these walls, the walls that grow everyday and encourage resentments and hate,” the Pope said.
Concluding his homily, Pope Francis called on the faithful to follow the example of David who chose the path of dialogue with humility, meekness, and sweetness.
“Today”, he said, “we can ask Saint Francis de Sales, doctor of sweetness, that he give all of us the grace to build bridges with the other. No more walls.” (J.A.E.)
Pope Francis today: VATICAN CITY, January 15, 2014 (Zenit.org) - Continuing his catechesis on the Sacrament of Baptism, Pope Francis reminded the faithful that our Baptism calls us to become “missionary disciples” within the Church.
The Pope drew on his Apostolic Exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium, saying that through our Baptism, we are called to be “agents of evangelization.” As such, “the new evangelization calls for the personal involvement” of all who are baptized. Through this calling, the People of God are both disciples and missionaries.
“All of us in the Church are disciples, and we are so always, for our whole life; and we are all missionaries, each one in the place the Lord has assigned to him,” he said.
The Holy Father went on to explain the mystical and missionary dimension of the Christian vocation which are rooted in Baptism. As a community of believers, we are called to share the experience of the love of God to others. “No one,” the Pope said, “is saved on their own.”
Source: http://www.zenit.org/en/articles/pope-francis-no-one-is-saved-on-their-own
Hoping to post more this week. In the meantime, one of my favorite songs to go with a view from the mission for holy week:
“As you go through life You’re never alone, With you on the road Goes Holy Mary
/ Come walk with us Holy Mary, come /
Although some tell you That nothing can change, Fight for a new world Strive for the truth.
If men go through the world Without knowing each other, Never refuse your hand To the one who is with you.
Although your steps might seem Useless for walking, You go along making roads Others will follow.”
"One of the first reasons [I chose the name] was Francis' love for the poor," he explained. "How many poor people there still are in the world! An what great suffering they have to endure!" ...
Pope Francis spoke of his role as Pontiff, that is "bridge-builder," saying that he wants dialogue that will help all peoples to see in others "a brother or sister to be welcomed and embraced."
"My own origins impel me to work for the building of bridges. As you know, my family is of Italian origin; and so this dialogue between places and cultures a great distance apart matters greatly to me, this dialogue between one end of the world and the other...It is not possible to build bridges between people while forgetting God. But the converse is also true: it is not possible to establish true links with God, while ignoring other people... Fighting poverty, both material and spiritual, building peace and constructing bridges: these, as it were, are the reference points for a journey that I want to invite each of the countries here represented to take up." - ZENIT News Agency, 3/23/13
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