Download 1 September 2008 Homily for the Eucharist opening the General

1 September 2008
HOMILY FOR THE EUCHARIST OPENING THE GENERAL CHAPTER
FR. JOSÉ CARBALLO, OFM
Minister General
Dear Sisters: May the Lord give you peace.
The readings proposed to us by today’s liturgy place us within the perspective of mission. This is the
same as that of Jesus, such as described in Luke’s Gospel which we have heard: “The Spirit of the
Lord is upon me. He has anointed me to bring good news to the poor, to proclaim liberty to captives, to
return sight to the blind, to set the downtrodden free, to proclaim the Lord’s year of favour.”
We note some particular features. Unlike John, Jesus does not remain in the desert, but returns to
where he left from, in order to liberate. Jesus acts, moved by the power of the Spirit, a power
manifested in the authority with which he teaches, quite distinct from that of the Scribes and
Pharisees. Jesus is shown to be the one who gives fulfillment to Scripture. Jesus not only explains
Scripture, but puts it into action; he does not adapt it to the requirements of his time, but makes it
“current”: he translates into action what the Word says. This word in Luke is announced in three very
concrete places: in the Synagogue (chosen people), in the streets and town squares (itinerant
mission), and in the home (the church). By it the Evangelist wants to tell us that the Word must reach
men and women in whatever situation they are found. Attention to a detail: it is not said that is what is
taught. The teaching is itself, revealed as fulfilling what is said.
Here we have, dear Sisters, important indications for our mission. Before all else the privileged
recipients of mission are indicated to us: the poor, prisoners, the afflicted…all those who need a word
of encouragement and hope to enlighten their lives and give them meaning. This alludes to us, guided
by the Spirit of the Lord, to discern the concrete faces of those persons needing the light of the
Gospel. The Gospel, destined for everyone without exception, encounters in the “new lepers” of today
its privileged hearers and recipients. This mission surpasses us, in such way that we cannot achieve it
if it is not urged on by the Spirit. It is unconditional openness to the Spirit that makes it possible to go
among the poor and the least. It is the Spirit that gives us “parresia” (ability to speak the truth openly),
one of its gifts, that leads us to be Jesus’witnesses to the ends of the earth. In this way our going
among them will not be a simple sociological choice, as important that that might be, but will be a true
Gospel choice that will give full meaning to our mission. In other words: we are those who decide to go
among the minorities, the least ones, the excluded; it is the Spirit who brings our heart into harmony
with the heart of Christ and who moves us to love humanity as He loved it when he went and washed
the disciples’ feet and, above all, when he gave up his life for all. Our missionary life is a path of fidelity
to the Spirit who breathes where it wills and leads us to choices impossible for our human frailty and
unthinkable given our fears and cowardice.
In Jesus Scripture is fulfilled, as it is fulfilled in everyone who hears it. Listening, obedience to the
Word, makes us its contemporaries. Listening, obedience, makes it possible for us to be “places”
where the Word finds its fulfillment, making us contemporaries of God’s “today”, and in this way we are
converted into persons with authority to proclaim it. Only a witness is credible. Only a disciple can be a
missionary. Each one of us is called to give a “today” to the ancient text, remembering that our
prophetic ability is linked closely to submission to God’s Word. If we have been called to be prophetse
have to remember that a prophet is one who completely becomes a sign (and not just one who makes
signs). Obedient to the Word, we are called to be signs. And, in listening to the Word, the Word itself
will show us very definite priorities, and will guide us to make very concrete choices in our lives, as
individuals and as communities: beggars of meaning, from the hand of the Word. Only thirst satisfied
at the fountain of the Word can be changed into a message, as in the case of the Samaritan woman.
We return to the Gospel and our life will recover the poetry, beauty and enchantment of its origins….
“we will liberate the Gospel and the Gospel will liberate us.”
All that will make our weakness become our strength. Like Paul, we will be sent among the people not
with the sublimity of eloquence and wisdom. Our strength is in the confession of God’s power that has
been made manifest in Christ Crucified.
Dear Sisters:
Moved by the Spirit and guided by the Lord’s Word, go then, among the men and women of today;
proclaim the Good News to them, by your life and word.
Welcoming the Spirit, with the firm will not to tone down the prophetic words of the Gospel in order to
adapt them to a comfortable lifestyle, assuming with urgency the need to “be born again”, awaken a
new vision of life, founded on justice, love and peace.
Go by the spacious cloister of the world, minors among the minorities of earth. Widen the space of
your tent to make yourselves the joys and sorrows of the poorest and of those who suffer most.
Return to what is essential in your Franciscan, missionary and Marian spirituality to be able to nourish
from within, with the liberating offer of the Gospel to this fragmented world of inequality and thirst for
meaning, such as Francis did and Mary of the Passion desired.
Always remain on the path, because it is in journeying that we better understand our own vocation and
the requirements of our mission, remembering that nothing belongs to us, everything is a good
received, called to be shared and given back. This will lead us to give ourselves freely to others.
May your Chapter be a moment of grace for the whole Institute. And it will be in the measure that,
attentive to the Spirit’s whisper, you maintain a great amount of lucidity in analyses and a lot of
evangelical boldness in decisions, in order to be able to do a serious revision of your mission to find
again the central focus of your mission as FMM.
With the creative fidelity that the Church asks of us, have the daring to try out new ways of presence
and witness to the Gospel in today’s world, constantly scrutinizing the signs of the times and giving
them an evangelical response.
May Mary, first evangelizer, and because of that the teacher of every missionary, accompany you in
your discernment and in your mission. May Francis and Mary of the Passion intercede for the success
of your Chapter.