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May 13, 2024After more than a week, my second pastoral visit among you is coming to an end. It was a great joy for me to be with you and to admire your great Christian faith: you truly love Jesus!
My pastoral visit ends on a very significant liturgical day: the ascension of Lord into heaven. Forty days after the resurrection, Jesus physically bids farewell to his disciples; he ascends to heaven and brings with him our redeemed humanity. With Him we too, in a certain sense, are already in heaven. Jesus does not strip himself of our humanity to be pure spirit. He, the son of God, has now become the son of man forever. The destiny of humanity is the Kingdom of heaven. We are all destined to be resurrected. Christianity has definitively overcome the division between the spirit and the flesh. Jesus has definitively composed the soul and body, spirit and matter in harmony. The resurrection of the body, as we profess in the creed, is the destiny of all humanity in Christ.
Therefore, we look at human life differently, enlightened by the mystery of redemption and resurrection. Every human existence, with its gifts, with its limits and tribulations, is precious in the eyes of God. We write in time what is destined to remain for eternity.
For this reason, I praise God for what I have been able to see among you in these days of my pastoral visit. I met the representatives of the linguistic communities and the young people, the parish pastoral council, the representatives of the associations and movements, animated by many different charisms; I met those who are involved in the various ministries in the church: the catechists who are so decisive for the transmission of faith to the new generations. I met the extraordinary ministers of the Eucharist, the altar servers and the representatives of various services, without whom the parish life of this large parish would not be possible. I thank the Lord for the spiritual and human gifts you have. Efficient organization allows you to make the best use of the limited spaces we have. In fact, our current condition here asks us not to divide spaces but to share them among all the faithful. In this way we can better show ourselves and the world our vocation to form One Body and One Church.
Saint Paul in his letter to the Ephesians reminds us of our fundamental vocation: “There is one Body, one Spirit, just as you were all called into one and the same hope when you were called. There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God who is Father of all, over all, through all and within all”. The Apostle saw that the development of the first Christian communities, where ethnic and cultural differences and all kinds of discriminations were overcome in Christ to form a single body, the One Church in Christ. This experience of Apostle Paul also applies to us: we are a Church of migrants. We come from many different nations with different languages, cultures and rites. But baptism unites us with risen Christ and also with each other. For this reason, I invite you all, especially the different communities in this parish to create more opportunities for the mixing and sharing by faithful that can mutually enrich their faith life.
Besides, this world, which is divided and torn by many wars, needs a prophetic sign of unity. The world needs to see that peace is possible; It is possible to be different and united at the same time. The gifts of a community are the gifts for everyone and not just for some. Together we can carry each other's burdens and walk together in mutual love and solidarity.
Finally, in the dialogue between Jesus and his disciples, before his ascension, we discover that the time that separates us from the glorious return of Christ at the end of time is not a passive time, but it is the time of the mission, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Jesus remains with us in a new way and walks among us; whenever we gather in his name, he is among us.
What does it mean to be missionaries? First of all, it means to share the Gospel through the testimony of our day-to-day life, beginning from your family by transmitting the faith to your children, and then also in the Church and in the society. Collaborate with all people of good will to build a more fraternal world in view of the Kingdom of Heaven. In view of the synodal path initiated by Pope Francis, being a missionary Church means being a Church that goes out towards others, first of all towards those Catholics who have distanced themselves from the Church. Invite them to participate in the life of the parish. All the baptized are part of the people of God and we wish to walk together even with those who have distanced themselves from the Church. We do not want anyone to be lost.
However, to live well as a Church in mission, we must first rediscover our life as a vocation. We are in this world not by chance but because God called us to life, he called us by name, one by one, to follow him, each according to their own vocation. I am very happy to see in your parish the attention given to the different vocations: to marriage, to religious life, to the ministerial priesthood. I especially call young people to have the courage, to have great desires and big dreams; do not be afraid to leave everything to follow Jesus, because there is nothing more beautiful than meeting Jesus and bringing his friendship to everyone.
Finally, allow me to thank your priests, especially the parish priest, Father Lennie, for their great and generous commitment. Be close to your priests, pray for them and follow their directives.
May Mary, Mother of God and Mother of the Church, always keep you united with Jesus. He never abandons us because he is risen, he is truly risen, he lives among us forever. Alleluia.
