The Church of Mercy (6 page)

I would like to reflect briefly on the passage from the Acts of the Apostles (5:12–42) that is read in the Liturgy of this Third Sunday of Easter. This text says that the apostles’ first preaching in Jerusalem filled the city with the news that Jesus was truly risen in accordance with the Scriptures and was the Messiah foretold by the prophets. The chief priests and elders of the city were endeavoring to crush the nascent community of believers in Christ and had the apostles thrown into jail, ordering them to stop teaching in his name. But Peter and the other eleven answered, “We must obey God rather than men. The God of our fathers raised Jesus . . . exalted him at his right hand as Leader and Savior. . . . And we are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey him” (Acts 5:29–32). They therefore had the apostles scourged, and once again ordered them to stop speaking in the name of Jesus. And they went away, as Scripture says, “rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name” of Jesus (Acts 5:41).

I ask myself, where did the first disciples find the strength to bear this witness? And that is not all, what was the source of their joy and of their courage to preach despite the obstacles and violence? Let us not forget that the apostles were simple people; they were neither scribes nor doctors of the law, nor did they belong to the class of priests. With their limitations and with the authorities against them, how did they manage to fill Jerusalem with their teaching (see Acts 5:28)? It is clear that only the presence with them of the risen Lord and the action of the Holy Spirit can explain this fact. The Lord who was with them and the Spirit who was impelling them to preach explain this extraordinary fact. Their faith was based on such a strong personal experience of the dead and risen Christ that they feared nothing and no one, and even saw persecution as a cause of honor that enabled them to follow in Jesus’ footsteps and to be like him, witnessing with their life.

The strength of Peter and the other apostles strikes us all. In response to the order to be silent, no longer to teach in the name of Jesus, no longer to proclaim his message, they respond clearly: “We must obey God rather than human beings.” And they remain undeterred even when flogged, ill-treated, and imprisoned. Peter and the apostles proclaim courageously, fearlessly, what they have received: the Gospel of Jesus. And what about us? Are we capable of bringing the word of God into the environment in which we live? Do we know how to speak of Christ, of what he represents for us, in our families, among the people who form part of our daily lives? Faith is born from listening and is strengthened by proclamation.

But let us take a further step. The proclamation made by Peter and the apostles does not merely consist of words: fidelity to Christ affects their whole lives, which are changed, given a new direction. And it is through their lives that they bear witness to the faith and to the proclamation of Christ. In John’s Gospel, Jesus asks Peter three times to feed his flock, to feed it with his love, and he prophesies to him: “When you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will gird you and carry you where you do not wish to go” (John 21:18). These words are addressed first and foremost to those of us who are pastors: we cannot feed God’s flock unless we let ourselves be carried by God’s will even where we would rather not go, unless we are prepared to bear witness to Christ with the gift of ourselves, unreservedly, not in a calculating way, sometimes even at the cost of our lives. But this also applies to everyone: we all have to proclaim and bear witness to the Gospel. We should all ask ourselves: How do I bear witness to Christ through my faith? Do I have the courage of Peter and the other apostles, to think, to choose, and to live as a Christian, obedient to God?

To be sure, the testimony of faith comes in very many forms, just as in a great fresco there is a variety of colors and shades; yet they are all important, even those that do not stand out. In God’s great plan, every detail is important, even yours, even my humble little witness, even the hidden witness of those who live their faith with simplicity in everyday family relationships, work relationships, and friendships. There are the saints of every day, the “hidden” saints, a sort of “middle class of holiness,” as a French author said, that middle class of holiness to which we can all belong. But in different parts of the world, there are also those who suffer, like Peter and the apostles, on account of the Gospel; there are those who give their lives in order to remain faithful to Christ by means of a witness marked by the shedding of their blood. Let us all remember this: one cannot proclaim the Gospel of Jesus without the tangible witness of one’s life. Those who listen to us and observe us must be able to see in our actions what they hear from our lips, and so give glory to God! I am thinking now of some advice that St. Francis of Assisi gave his brothers: preach the Gospel, and if necessary, use words. Preaching with your life, with your witness. Inconsistency on the part of pastors and the faithful between what they say and what they do, between word and manner of life, is undermining the Church’s credibility.

But all this is possible only if we recognize Jesus Christ, because it is he who has called us, he who has invited us to travel his path, he who has chosen us. Proclamation and witness are possible only if we are close to him, just as Peter, John, and the other disciples in the passage from John’s Gospel were gathered around the risen Jesus; there is a daily closeness to him—they know very well who he is; they know him. The evangelist stresses the fact that “no one dared ask him: ‘Who are you?’—they knew it was the Lord” (John 21:12). And this is important for us: living an intense relationship with Jesus, an intimacy of dialogue and of life, in such a way as to recognize him as “the Lord.” Worshipping him! The passage that we heard from the book of Revelation speaks to us of worship: the myriads of angels, all creatures, the living beings, the elders, prostrate themselves before the throne of God and of the Lamb that was slain, namely Christ, to whom be praise, honor, and glory (see Rev. 5:11–14). I would like all of us to ask ourselves this question: You, me, do we worship the Lord? Do we turn to God only to ask him for things, to thank him, or do we also turn to him to worship him?

What does it mean, then, to worship God? It means learning to be with him; it means that we stop trying to dialogue with him; and it means sensing that his presence is the truest, the most good, the most important thing of all. All of us, in our own lives, consciously and perhaps sometimes unconsciously, have a very clear order of priority concerning the things we consider important. Worshipping the Lord means giving him the place that he must have; worshipping the Lord means stating, believing—not only by our words—that he alone truly guides our lives. Worshipping the Lord means that we are convinced before him that he is the only God, the God of our lives, the God of our history.

This has a consequence in our lives: we have to empty ourselves of the many small or great idols that we have and in which we take refuge, on which we often seek to base our security. They are idols that we sometimes keep well hidden; they can be ambition, careerism, a taste for success, placing ourselves at the center, the tendency to dominate others, the claim to be the sole masters of our lives, some sins to which we are bound, and many others. I would like a question to resound in the heart of each one of you, and I would like you to answer it honestly: Have I considered which idol lies hidden in my life that prevents me from worshipping the Lord? Worshipping is stripping ourselves of our idols, even the most hidden ones, and choosing the Lord as the center, as the highway of our lives.

I wish to reflect with you on three aspects of our vocation: we are called by God, called to proclaim the Gospel, and called to promote the culture of encounter.

1. 
Called by God
. I believe that it is important to rekindle constantly an awareness of our divine vocation, which we often take for granted in the midst of our many daily responsibilities: as Jesus says, “You did not choose me, but I chose you” (John 15:16). This means returning to the source of our calling. For this reason, a bishop, a priest, a consecrated person, a seminarian, cannot be “forgetful”; it would mean losing the vital link to that first moment of our journey. Ask for the grace, ask the Virgin for the grace, she who had a good memory; ask for the grace to preserve the memory of this first call. We were called by God, and we were called to be with Jesus (see Mark 3:14), united with him. In reality, this living, this abiding in Christ marks all that we are and all that we do. It is precisely this “life in Christ” that ensures our apostolate is effective, that our service is fruitful: “I appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit be authentic” (see John 15:16). It is not creativity, however pastoral it may be, or meetings or planning that ensures our fruitfulness, even if these are greatly helpful. But what ensures our fruitfulness is our being faithful to Jesus, who says insistently: “Abide in me and I in you” (John 15:4). And we know well what that means: to contemplate him, to worship him, to embrace him, in our daily encounter with him in the Eucharist, in our life of prayer, in our moments of adoration; it means to recognize him present and to embrace him in those most in need. “Being with” Christ does not mean isolating ourselves from others. Rather, it is a “being with” in order to go forth and encounter others. Here I wish to recall some words of Blessed Teresa of Calcutta. She said: “We must be very proud of our vocation because it gives us the opportunity to serve Christ in the poor. It is in the
favelas
 . . . in the
villas miseria
that one must go to seek and to serve Christ. We must go to them as the priest presents himself at the altar, with joy” (
Mother’s Instructions
, Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, 1:80). Jesus is the Good Shepherd; he is our true treasure. Please, let us not erase Jesus from our lives! Let us ground our hearts ever more in him (see Luke 12:34).

2. 
Called to proclaim the Gospel
. Many of you, dear bishops and priests, if not all, have accompanied your young people to World Youth Day. They too have heard the mandate of Jesus: “Go and make disciples of all nations” (see Matt. 28:19). It is our responsibility as pastors to help kindle within their hearts the desire to be missionary disciples of Jesus. Certainly this invitation could cause many to feel somewhat afraid, thinking that to be missionaries requires leaving their own homes and countries, family and friends. God asks us to be missionaries. But where—where he himself places us, in our own countries or wherever he has chosen for us. Let us help the young. Let us have an attentive ear to listen to their dreams—they need to be heard—to listen to their successes, to pay attention to their difficulties. You have to sit down and listen to the same libretto, but accompanied by diverse music, with different characteristics. Having the patience to listen! I ask this of you with all my heart! In the confessional, in spiritual direction, in accompanying. Let us find ways to spend time with them. Planting seeds is demanding and very tiring, very tiring! It is much more rewarding to enjoy the harvest! How cunning! Reaping is more enjoyable for us! But Jesus asks us to sow with care and responsibility.

Let us spare no effort in the formation of our young people! St. Paul used an expression that he embodied in his own life, when he addressed the Christian community: “My little children, with whom I am again in travail until Christ be formed in you” (Gal. 4:19). Let us embody this also in our own ministry! Helping our young people discover the courage and joy of faith, the joy of being loved personally by God, is very difficult. But when young people understand it, when young people experience it through the anointing of the Holy Spirit, this “being personally loved by God” accompanies them for the rest of their lives. They rediscover the joy that God gave his Son Jesus for our salvation. Let us form them in mission, to go out, to go forth, to be itinerants who communicate the faith. Jesus did this with his own disciples; he did not keep them under his wing like a hen with her chicks. He sent them out! We cannot keep ourselves shut up in parishes, in our communities, in our parish or diocesan institutions, when so many people are waiting for the Gospel! To go out as ones sent. It is not enough simply to open the door in welcome because they come, but we must go out through that door to seek and meet the people! Let us urge our young people to go forth. Of course, they will make mistakes, but let us not be afraid! The apostles made mistakes before us. Let us urge them to go forth. Let us think resolutely about pastoral needs, beginning on the outskirts, with those who are farthest away, with those who do not usually go to church. They are the VIPs who are invited. Go and search for them at the crossroads.

3. To be called by Jesus, to be called to evangelize, and third: to be
called to promote the culture of encounter
. In many places, generally speaking, because of the economic humanism that has been imposed in the world, the culture of exclusion, of rejection, is spreading. There is no place for the elderly or for the unwanted child; there is no time for that poor person in the street. At times, it seems that for some people, human relations are regulated by two modern “dogmas”: efficiency and pragmatism. Dear bishops, priests, religious, and you seminarians who are preparing for ministry—have the courage to go against the tide of this culture. Be courageous! Remember this, which helps me a great deal and on which I meditate frequently: take the first book of Maccabees, and recall how many of the people wanted to adapt to the culture of the time:
No . . .! Leave us alone! Let us eat of everything, like the others do . . . Fine, yes to the Law, but not every part of it
 . . . And they ended up abandoning the faith and placing themselves in the current of that culture. Have the courage to go against the tide of this culture of efficiency, this culture of waste. Encountering and welcoming everyone, [building] solidarity—a word that is being hidden by this culture, as if it were a bad word—solidarity and fraternity: these are what make our society truly human.

Be servants of communion and of the culture of encounter! I would like you to be almost obsessed about this. Be so without being presumptuous, imposing “our truths,” but rather be guided by the humble yet joyful certainty of those who have been found, touched, and transformed by the Truth who is Christ, ever to be proclaimed (see Luke 24:13–35).