Vatican
City, 7 July 2013 (VIS) – The joy of consolation, the Cross and
prayer were the reference points in Christian mission proposed by
Pope Francis to the young seminarians, novices and all those who
participated in Mass celebrated this morning in St. Peter's Basilica.
A broad summary of the Holy Father's homily is given below:
“You
are seminarians, novices, young people on a vocational journey, from
every part of the world. You represent the Church’s youth! If the
Church is the Bride of Christ, you in a certain sense represent the
moment of betrothal, the Spring of vocation, the season of discovery
… in which foundations are laid for the future. … Today the word
of God speaks to us of mission. … What are the reference points of
Christian mission? The readings we have heard suggest three: the joy
of consolation, the Cross and prayer.
“The
first element: the joy of consolation. The prophet Isaiah is
addressing a people that has been through a dark period of exile, a
very difficult trial. But now the time of consolation has come for
Jerusalem; sadness and fear must give way to joy. ... What is the
reason for this invitation to joy? Because the Lord is going to pour
out over the Holy City and its inhabitants a 'cascade' of
consolation, a veritable overflow of consolation, a cascade of
maternal tenderness: 'You shall be carried upon her hip and dandled
upon her knees'. As when a mother takes her child upon her knee and
caresses him or her: so the Lord will do and does with us. This is
the cascade of tenderness which gives us much consolation. … Every
Christian, and especially you and I, is called to be a bearer of this
message of hope that gives serenity and joy: God’s consolation, his
tenderness towards all. But if we first experience the joy of being
consoled by him, of being loved by him, then we can bring that joy to
others. This is important if our mission is to be fruitful: to feel
God’s consolation and to pass it on to others! I have occasionally
met consecrated persons who are afraid of the consolations of God,
and … the poor things, they were tormented, because they are afraid
of this divine tenderness. But do not be afraid. Do not be afraid of
the consolations of the Lord. We must find the Lord who consoles us
and go to console the people of God. This is the mission. People
today certainly need words, but most of all they need us to bear
witness to the mercy and tenderness of the Lord, which warms the
heart, rekindles hope, and attracts people towards the good. What a
joy it is to bring God’s consolation to others!
“The
second reference point of mission is the Cross of Christ. Saint Paul,
writing to the Galatians, says: 'Far be it from me to glory except in
the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ'. … In his ministry Paul
experienced suffering, weakness and defeat, but also joy and
consolation. This is the Paschal mystery of Jesus: the mystery of
death and resurrection. ... In the hour of darkness, in the hour of
trial, the dawn of light and salvation is already present and
operative. The Paschal mystery is the beating heart of the Church’s
mission! And if we remain within this mystery, we are sheltered both
from a worldly and triumphalistic view of mission and from the
discouragement that can result from trials and failures. Pastoral
fruitfulness, the fruitfulness of the Gospel proclamation is measured
neither by success nor by failure according to the criteria of human
evaluation, but by conforming to the logic of the Cross of Jesus,
which is the logic of stepping outside oneself and offering oneself,
the logic of love. It is the Cross – always the Cross that is
present with Christ, because at times we are offered the Cross
without Christ: this has no purpose! … It is from the Cross, the
supreme act of mercy and love, that we are reborn as a 'new
creation'.
“Finally
the third element: prayer. In the Gospel we heard: 'Pray therefore
the Lord of the harvest, to send out labourers into his harvest'. The
labourers for the harvest are not chosen through advertising
campaigns or appeals of service and generosity, but they are 'chosen'
and 'sent' by God. It is He who chooses, it is He who sends ... it is
He who gives the mission. For this, prayer is important. The Church,
as Benedict XVI has often reiterated, is not ours, but God’s; and
how many times do we, consecrated men and women, think that the
Church is ours! We make of it… something that we invent in our
minds. But it is not ours!, it is God’s. The field to be cultivated
is His. The mission is grace. And if the Apostle is born of prayer,
he finds in prayer the light and strength of his action”.
“Dear
seminarians, dear novices, dear young people discerning your
vocations. … Listen well: 'evangelization is done on one’s
knees'. Always be men and women of prayer! Without a constant
relationship with God, the mission becomes a job. But for what do you
work? As a tailor, a cook, a priest – is your job being a priest,
being a sister? No. It is not a job, but rather something else. The
risk of activism, of relying too much on structures, is an
ever-present danger. If we look towards Jesus, we see that prior to
any important decision or event he recollected himself in intense and
prolonged prayer. Let us cultivate the contemplative dimension, even
amid the whirlwind of more urgent and heavy duties. And the more the
mission calls you to go out to the margins of existence, let your
heart be the more closely united to Christ’s heart, full of mercy
and love. Herein lies the secret of pastoral fruitfulness, of the
fruitfulness of a disciple of the Lord!
“Jesus
sends his followers out with no 'purse, no bag, no sandals'. The
spread of the Gospel is not guaranteed by the number of persons, nor
by the prestige of the institution, nor by the quantity of available
resources. What counts is being permeated by the love of Christ,
allowing oneself be led by the Holy Spirit and to graft one’s own
life onto the tree of life, which is the Lord’s Cross.
“Dear
friends, with great confidence I entrust you to the intercession of
Mary Most Holy. She is the Mother who helps us to take life
decisions freely and without fear. May she help you to bear witness
to the joy of God’s consolation, without being afraid of joy, she
will help you to conform yourselves to the logic of love of the
Cross, to grow in ever deeper union with the Lord in prayer. Then
your lives will be rich and fruitful!”
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