Vatican City, 9 July 2015 (VIS) –
Pope Francis visit to Ecuador concluded yesterday with two events.
The first was his visit to the Missionaries of Charity rest home for
the elderly, located 21 kilometres from the capital Quito, and close
to the highway leading to the airport. The Holy Father was received
by the Superior, who accompanied him to the chapel in the Centre to
pray with the rest of the small community of ten brethren, and
subsequently greeted the residents, around seventy people, in the
courtyard. He did not pronounce a discourse, but simply expressed his
closeness to the elderly present.
The Pope then transferred to the
National Marian shrine of El Quinche, home of the wooden image of the
Virgin of El Quinche, carved at the end of the sixteenth century by
the artist Diego de Robles, and which in the second week of November
attracts more than 800,000 faithful who depart from the village of
Calderon on a nocturnal pilgrimage, reaching the church at dawn.
In El Quinche, the last of Pope
Francis' visits in Ecuador, he met with clergy, men and women
religious, and seminarians. He handed the discourse he had prepared
for the occasion (reproduced below) to Bishop Celmo Lazzari C.S.I.,
representative for consecrated life in the Ecuadorian Episcopal
Conference, and made some unscripted comments to those present,
highlighting the spiritual richness that he had encountered in
Ecuador and asking all to remember the importance of gratuity and
service in life.
“All this wealth you have –
spiritual wealth, piety, depth – comes from having had the courage,
as there have been some very difficult moments, to consecrate the
nation to the Heart of Christ”, said the Pope, “this divine and
human Heart that loves us so much. And afterwards, a few years later,
the consecration to the Heart of Mary. Do not forget: this
consecration is a milestone in the history of the people of Ecuador.
“Today I am to speak to the priests,
seminarians, women and men religious, and to say something to them. I
thought about the Virgin, I thought about Mary … Mary never took
centre stage. She was a disciple all through her life. The first
disciple of her Son. And she was aware that everything she had was
due to the pure gratuity of God. She was aware of this gratuity.
Therefore, men and women religious, priests, seminarians, in all the
days to come, take the path back to the gratuitousness with which God
chose you. … We are subject to God's gratuitousness. If we forget
this, slowly, we gradually move away from the basis from which Mary
never wavered: God's gratuitousness.
“A second thing I wanted to say to
you is to take care of your health, but most of all take care not to
fall into a sort of spiritual Alzheimer's: do not lose your memory,
especially the memory of where you are from. St. Paul intuited this
danger, and to his dearest son, the bishop Timothy, to whom he gave
pastoral counsel, he said: 'Do not forget the faith of your
grandmother and your mother'. That is, 'Do not forget where you come
from, do not forget your roots, do not feel as if you have been
promoted'. Gratuity is a grace that cannot co-exist with promotion
and, when a priest, a seminarian, a man or woman religious, embarks
upon a career – a human career – he or she begins to sicken with
spiritual Alzheimer's and begins to lose the memory of where he or
she is from”.
Francis suggested two basic principles
to the priests and consecrated persons. “Every day, renew the
feeling that everything is free, the feeling of the gratuity with
which each one of you was chosen – none of us deserved this – and
ask for the grace of not losing your memory, of not feeling more
important. And these two principles will revive two attitudes. First,
that of service. God chose me, but why? To serve … and there is
nothing else, to serve when we are tired, when people annoy us. …
An old priest, who was a genius all his life, said to me, 'the holy
faithful People of God are essentially Olympian, or rather, they do
what they want, and can be ontologically tiresome'. And this contains
much wisdom, as taking the path of service means allowing oneself to
be troubled without losing patience.
“Service, mixed with gratuity and
then … that of Jesus: 'Freely you have received; freely give'.
Please, please,” he repeated, “do not expect something in return;
please, let your ministry be freely given. And the second attitude …
is that of joy and cheer. And it is a gift from Jesus … that He
gives to us if we ask for it and if we do not forget these two
pillars of our priestly or religious life: the sense of gratuity and
not losing the memory of where we come from. May God Almighty, the
Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, bless you. And please, please, I
ask you to pray for me, as I am very often tempted to forget the
gratuity with which God chose me and of forgetting where I come from.
Pray for me”.
The following is the written discourse
the Pope gave to the bishop:
“I place at the feet of Our Lady of
Quinche the vivid experiences of my visit. I entrust to her heart the
elderly and the sick whom I visited in the house of the Sisters of
Charity, as well as the other meetings I have had. I entrust all of
them to Mary’s heart; but at the same time I commend them to the
hearts of each you, the priests, men and women religious, and
seminarians. As those called to labour in the vineyard of the Lord,
may you be protectors of all the experiences, the joys and sorrows of
the Ecuadorian people. I thank Bishop Lazzari, Father Mina and Sister
Sandoval for their words, which lead me to share some thoughts on our
common concern for God’s People.
“In the Gospel, the Lord invites us
to accept our mission without placing conditions. It is an important
message which we must never forget. Here, in this Sanctuary dedicated
to Our Lady of the Presentation, it resounds in a special way. Mary
is an example of discipleship for us who, like her, have received a
vocation. Her trusting response, 'Be it done unto me according to
your word', reminds us of her words at the wedding feast of Cana: 'Do
whatever he tells you'. Her example is an invitation to serve as she
served.
“In the Presentation of the Virgin we
find some suggestions for our own call. The child Mary was a gift
from God to her parents and to all her people who were looking for
liberation. This is something we see over and over again in the
Scriptures. God responds to the cry of his people, sending a little
child to bring salvation and to restore hope to elderly parents. The
word of God tells us that, in the history of Israel, judges, prophets
and kings are God’s gifts to his people, bringing them his
tenderness and mercy. They are signs of God’s gratuitousness. It is
he has chose them, who personally chose them and sent them. Realising
this helps us to move beyond our self-centredness and to understand
that we no longer belong to ourselves, that our vocation calls us to
let go of all selfishness, all seeking of material gain or emotional
rewards, as the Gospel has told us. We are not hired workers, but
servants. We have not come to be served, but to serve, and we do so
with complete detachment, without walking stick or bag.
“Some traditions about devotion to
Our Lady of Quinche relate that Diego de Robles made the image after
being commissioned by the indigenous Lumbici people. Diego did not do
this out of piety, but for economic benefit. Since the Lumbici were
unable to pay him, he brought the image to Oyacachi and exchanged it
for cedar planks. But Diego ignored their earnest plea that he also
make an altar for the image, until, after falling from his horse and
in danger of death, he felt the protection of the Virgin Mary. So he
went back to the town and built the foot of the image. All of us have
had the experience of a God who brings us to the cross, who calls us
in the midst of our faults and failings. May pride and worldliness
not make us forget what God has rescued us from! May the Our Lady of
Quinche make us leave behind ambition, selfish interests, and
excessive concern about ourselves!
“The 'authority' which the Apostles
receive from Jesus is not for their own benefit: our gifts are meant
to be used to renew and build up the Church. Do not refuse to share,
do not hesitate to give, do not be caught up in your own comforts,
but be like a spring which spills over and refreshes others,
especially those burdened by sin, disappointment and resentment.
“Something else that Our Lady’s
Presentation makes me think of is perseverance. In the evocative
iconography associated with this feast, the Child Mary is shown
moving away from her parents as she climbs the steps of the Temple.
Mary does not look back and, in a clear reference to the evangelical
admonition, she moves forward with determination. We, like the
disciples in the Gospel, also need to move forward as we bring to all
peoples and places the Good News of Jesus. Perseverance in mission is
not about going from house to house, looking for a place where we
will be more comfortably welcomed. It means casting our lot with
Jesus to the end. Some stories of the apparition of Our Lady of
Quinche speak of 'a woman with a child in her arms' who appeared on
several successive evenings to the natives of Oyacachi when they were
fleeing from attacks by bears. Mary kept appearing to her children,
but they didn’t believe her, they didn’t trust this woman, even
though they admired her perseverance in coming each evening at
sunset. To persevere even though we are rejected, despite the
darkness and growing uncertainty and dangers – this is what we are
called to do, in the knowledge that we are not alone, that God’s
Holy People walks with us.
“In some sense, the image of the
child Mary ascending the steps of the Temple reminds us of the
Church, which accompanies and supports every missionary disciple.
Mary is with her parents, who handed on to her the memory of the
faith and now generously offer her to the Lord so that she can follow
in his way. She is part of a community, represented by the 'maiden
companions' who escort her with lamps alight; in those companions the
Fathers of the Church saw a foreshadowing of all those who, in
imitation of Mary, seek wholeheartedly to become friends of God.
Finally, she is received by the waiting priests, who remind us that
the Church’s pastors must welcome everyone with tender love and
help to discern every spirit and every calling.
“So let us walk together, helping one
another, as we humbly implore the gift of perseverance in God’s
service. The apparition of Our Lady of Quinche was a moment of
encounter, of communion, so that this place which from Incan times
has been a place where people of various ethnicities have settled.
How beautiful it is when the Church perseveres in her efforts to be a
house and a school of communion, when we cultivate what I like to
call “the culture of encounter”! The image of Our Lady’s
Presentation tells us that, after being blessed by the priests, the
child Mary began to dance at the foot of the altar. I think of the
joy expressed in the imagery of the wedding feast, of the friend of
the bridegroom, of the bride bedecked with her jewels. It is the
happiness of all those who have discovered a treasure and left
everything behind in order to gain it. To find the Lord, to dwell in
his house, to share in his life, commits us to proclaiming his
Kingdom and bringing his salvation to all. Crossing the threshold of
the Temple means becoming, like Mary, temples of the Lord and setting
out to bring the good news to our brothers and sisters. Our Lady, as
the first missionary disciple, once she had received the message of
the angel, left with haste to a town of Judah to share this
incredible joy, which led St. John the Baptist to leap in his
mother’s womb. The one who hears the Lord’s voice 'leaps with
joy' and becomes for his or her own time a herald of his joy. The joy
of evangelisation leads the Church to go forth, like Mary.
“There are many reasons offered for
the translation of the shrine from Oyacachi to this place. There is
one which I find particularly convincing: 'for many people, this
place has always been easier to reach'. That was the idea of the
Archbishop of Quito, Fray Luis Lopez de Solis, when he ordered the
building of a shrine capable of attracting and embracing everyone. A
Church on the move is a Church which is close to people, overcoming
obstacles, leaving its own comfort behind and daring to reach out to
the peripheries which need the light of the Gospel.
“Let us now turn to the tasks which
await us, urged on by the holy people which God has entrusted to our
care. Among those tasks, let us not neglect to care for, encourage
and guide the popular devotions which are so powerfully felt in this
holy place and which are widespread in the countries of Latin
America. The faithful express the faith in their own language, and
they show their deepest feelings of sadness, uncertainty, joy,
failure, and thanksgiving in various devotions: processions, votive
lights, flowers, and hymns. All of these are beautiful expressions of
their faith in the Lord and their love for his Mother, who is also
our Mother.
“Here in Quinche, the story of God
and man converge in the life of one woman, Mary. They come together
in one home, our common home, our sister, mother earth. The
traditions of this devotion speak of cedar trees, bears, the crevasse
in the rock which here became the first home of the Mother of God.
They speak to us of a 'yesterday' when birds surrounded this place,
and of a 'today' of flowers which adorn its surroundings. The origins
of this devotion bring us back to a time of simple and 'serene
harmony with creation', when one could contemplate 'the Creator who
lives among us and surrounds us, whose presence ‘must not be
contrived but found, uncovered'. God’s presence is revealed in the
created world, in his beloved Son, and in the Eucharist which enables
each Christian to know him or her self as living members of the
Church and an active participant in her mission. And it is present in
Our Lady of Quinche, who from the first proclamation of the faith
until our own day has accompanied the indigenous peoples. To her we
entrust our vocation; may she make us a gift to our people; may she
grant us perseverance in our commitment and in the joy of going forth
to bring the Gospel of her Son Jesus, together with our shepherds, to
the fringes, the peripheries of our beloved Ecuador”.