«In your minds you must be the same as Christ Jesus »

Homily for the Salesian missionary departure ceremony

Colle Don Bosco, 25 September 2005

We are gathered here around the altar to celebrate the Eucharist in this Church of Don Bosco, so beautiful and attractive, dominated by the impressive figure of the Risen Jesus Christ as He ascends to heaven after having blessed His disciples and sent them out to the whole world as His witnesses, with the command to teach all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them all that He Himself had taught them, assuring them: “I am with you always; yes to the end of time” (cf. Lk 24,51; Mt 28,19-20).

Even though the choice of the Colle for the new missionary departure ceremony is the result of having to find an alternative to the Basilica of Mary Help of Christians which is now being restored and is the usual setting for this event, I could not think of a more suitable place.

Today we are linking this new Salesian missionary departure ceremony to that of 11 November 1875, when Don Bosco sent the first Salesian missionary expedition to Argentina. 130 years have passed. and with the grace of God. the Congregation has succeeded in sending each year confreres and lay people who have responded to the call of the Lord Jesus and to His plan, making a reality Don Bosco’s dream which was nothing less than to see the young people of all the world find in God the fulness of happiness and of life.

Naturally the situation today – on the social, political, economic, cultural and religious fronts – is very different from that of 130 years ago, and completely different from that of 2000 years ago. Nevertheless, the needs of the world are the same: a human way of living for all the men and women in the world that respects their dignity, a life that has meaning, and a desire for one that is full and indeed eternal. These are needs that only God can satisfy. “Man does not live by bread alone,” the Book of Deuteronomy reminded the people of Israel, always tempted to seek their happiness in material things, without depending on God and observing His commandments.

The world situation today – as John Paul II said in his last address to the Diplomatic Corps accredited to the Holy See, on 10 January 2005 – could be summed up in four words that express mankind’s fundamental needs: food, peace, life and freedom. While in many places the need for material food is urgent just for them to survive, in others there is an abundance of materiial goods and a hunger for affection and transcendence. While in some countries the people enjoy a peace that is the result of a society based on law and order, in others the citizens are sorely tried by the scourges of war, violence, injustice and a lack of security. While in some countries life is the most precious gift and this is seen in the birth of many children and in a population that is very young, in others life is regulated to suit man’s pleasure and is threatened by him from the moment of conception through the policy and practice of abortion to that of death with a movement towards even providing euthanasia. While in some places there is an absence of social freedom, in others there is a restriction of religious freedom.

Therefore the whole world is in need of redemption and salvation, and this is guaranteed only in Jesus, who has redeemed us by shedding His precious blood so that we might have life to the full.

The word of God, which a week ago demonstrated His desire to save everyone, in the parable of the owner of the vineyard seeking workers and looking after them, today offers us pointers for reflection and encouragement in what we are celebrating and to live to the full our vocation as disciples, witnesses to the resurrection and missionaries to the young.

The three parables read in the gospels of today and the two following Sundays have a single theme: the rejection of the Jewish people who did not want to listen to Jesus, and their replacement by the pagans. This is precisely where we fit in: both as those benefitting from the gift of faith and in belonging to the new Israel, the new people of God, while this is also the basis of our being missionaries, and having the possibility of offering to others the same vocation and blessing that we enjoy.

For God no one is sidelined

The parable of the two sons that we have just heard, explains the attitude Jesus adopts towards «those who are despised», the new category of the poor.

Jesus addresses the parable to the chief priests and the elders of the people just as he addressed similar ones to the pharisees (Lk 18,9). With these parables He reaffirms His special love for sinners, for those despised by the ones who consider themselves just. He even goes so far as to say that these «poor ones» are closer to salvation than those who think themselves just and loved by God because they scrupulously carry out all the details of the Law. And He doesn’t just stop at words: He goes into the house of Zaccheus, allows a prostitute to wash His feet, rescues an adultress from being lynched by the «pure ones». These «poor people» are close to salvation because their lives allow God to show His mercy. The parable, therefore, is addressed to those who close their ears to the Good News, to those who on account of their own sense of being just and of their self-sufficiency do not want to recognise God’s presence.

The law of getting your hands dirty

Fidelity to God and justice are not based on simply saying “yes” or on the false privileges or merits that we believe we possess before God, but on deeds. This it is that opens the gates of the Kingdom of Heaven, as Jesus Himself says at the end of the Sermon on the Mount: «It is not anyone who says to me “Lord, Lord” who will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but the person who does the will of my Father in heaven» (Mt 7,21).

It is necessary to have the courage to get our hands dirty and face ridicule in seeking those values associated with freedom, love and man’s happiness. It is on the practical decisions we make that it can be seen if we really belong to the people of God. Words, ideologies can deceive, they can be an illusion or a cover up. The truth of a man can be seen in the things he does. These are unequivocal. Only in this way does a man show what he really is. We can therefore understand the saying of Jesus that so scandalised the orthodox of yesterday and of today: «I tell you solemnly, tax collectoirs and prostitutes are making their way into the kingdom of God before you.» Officially, according to the religious categories and the external moral criteria of the time, they had said «no», but in fact what matters is their total openness: the will to carry out, not in words but in deeds, works of penance. God had not decided at a certain point in time to reject Israel and to adopt the pagan nations. It had been their attitude towards the Messiah that had led to the “chosen ones” of Israel losing the role that had been their before in God’s plan. The way in which they lived their «yes» to the Law had led them to say «no» to the Gospel.

Beyond practices

There is still a widely held assumption about the religious approach of groups and individuals that is exterior and quantitative almost as though it can be measured only in terms of social membership of the Church or attendance at certain easily identifiable religious practices: mass, sacraments, prayer, devotions, alms giving ...

Contributing to this misunderstanding arising have been some socio religious surveys that codify in a conventional manner a measure of religious attitudes and Church membership, which if from a certain point of view oblige us to open our eyes to some sad situations, on the other hand are far from exhausting the complex phenomenon of religious attitudes of either groups or individuals.

Beyond practice and external or juridical membership, there exists a Christian and a gospel presence that has an evident influence among groups of people apparently marginalised and even outside.

As lived by many Christians, religion exists on many levels, and is experienced in different ways. It may be lived as a set of practices, devotions, rituals almost as ends in themselves; as a way of looking at the world and at things; as a criterion for judging people, values, events.

It can appear as a moral code and a norm of behaviour or as the integration of faith and life, that is as a synthesis on the level of judgements and action of the message of the Gospel and the demands and requirements of one’s own personal and community life.

The true Christian works on this integration of faith and life. The «yes» of his faith thus becomes the «yes» of his life; the word and confession on his lips become the the action and the work of his hands and of all that he does.

So the distinction between the «yes» and the «no» is not a matter of practices and the observance of the laws but is to be found in life itself.

And you my dear new missionaries, in order to carry out this mission of evangelisation and the transformation of peoples’ hearts, and through them of the world, you have no better model than Jesus, as Paul presents Him in his letter to the Philippians. In fact, the Apostle invites us to make our own the sentiments of Jesus Christ, that is, to serve our neighbour with great humility. In order to succeed in overcoming our selfishness, and what might lead us to proclaim the gospel with a spirit of competition or moved by conceit, there is no other way than the imitation of Christ, who «though His state was divine yet He did not cling to His equality with God but emptied Himself to assume the condition of a slave, and became as men are, He was humbler yet, even to accepting death, death on a cross.» This then is the model for real inculturation, indispensible for evangelising and getting to the heart of the culture of people, of becoming the leaven in the mass and transforming it. Going on the «missio ad gentes» means stripping oneself of whatever could separate us from the people to whom we are sent, of our presumptions, our know how, our qualifications, our financial resources, etc., and like children humbly beginning to learn their language, getting to know their culture, appreciating everything in them that is good, true, beautiful, in a word, loving them as Christ has loved them, so as to give Himself for them.

This imitation of Christ will become easier and more faithfully lived if you succeed in uniting together missionary commitment and the Eucharist. This is the way of your santification, so that you may be able to live what you celebrate and celebrate what you live. The Eucharist will then become the source of your missionary activity and of your spirituality, and the missionary activity will be the prolongation of the celebration of the Eucharist, completing in your body what is lacking in the passion of Christ.

In this year of the Eucharist, which is drawing to an end, the Lord leaves us the gift and the task of being men and women of the Eucharist.

I entrust each and everyone of you to Mary Help of Christians. May she guide, protect and bless you. Amen.

Fr. Pascual Chávez V.

Colle Don Bosco – 25 September 2005