At 11:45am today, in the Paul VI Hall, the Holy Father, Pope Francis received in audience thousands of members of the Neo-catechumenal Way, who are marking 50 new missions (missio ad gentes), composed of approximately 250 families from all five continents who are being sent out to evangelize.
Dear brothers and sisters, good morning!
I am pleased to meet with you and I want to thank you for having come here in such great numbers. A special greeting to those who are preparing to depart! You have welcomed the call to evangelize: may the Lord be blessed for this, for the gift of the Way and for the gift of each one of you. I want to point out three words that the Gospel has just confided to you, as a mandate for your mission: unity, glory and the world.
Unity. Jesus asks the Father to make his people perfect in unity (Jn 17:23): that they may be united among themselves (Jn 17:22), as He and the Father are united. This is his final request before the Passion, the most heartfelt of his requests: that there might be communion in the Church. Communion is essential. The enemy of God and of man - the devil - can never control the gospel, against the humble strength of prayer and of the Sacraments, but he can cause a lot of harm to the Church by tempting our humanity. He provokes our presumption, our judgement of others, our temptation to close ourselves off from others, and to be divided. He himself is the separator and he sometimes begins by making us believe that we are good, even better than others: in this way he prepares the way for sowing weeds. This is a temptation for all communities and it can even find its way into the charisms of the Church.
You have received a great charism, for the baptismal renewal of life; in fact you enter into the Church through baptism. Every charism is a grace from God to contribute to the growth of communion. But charisms can be deteriorated when we close ourselves off or when we become boastful, when we seek to distinguish ourselves from others. For this reason, we need to be careful. Take care of your charism! How? By following in the footsteps of the Master: humble unity and obedience. If you possess these qualities, the Holy Spirit will continue to work in you, as he did in Mary, who was open, humble and obedient. We always need to be vigilant about our charisms, purifying any human excesses by seeking unity with all people and obedience to the Church. This is how we breathe in the Church and with the Church; this is how we remain docile children of our Holy Mother, the Hierarchical Church, with souls prepared and ready for the mission (cf Saint Ignatius of Loyola, Spiritual Exercises, 353).
I want to highlight this aspect: the Church is our Mother. Like children who bear a facial resemblance to their mother, all of us resemble our Mother, the Church. After Baptism, we no longer live as isolated individuals, but instead we become men and women of communion, called to be builders of communion in the world. Jesus did not establish the Church only for us; he established us as a Church. The Church is not an instrument for us: we are the Church. We were born from her, from her we are nourished with the bread of life, from her we receive the word of life, we are forgiven and taken home. This is the fruitfulness of the Church, which is our Mother: she is not an organization in search of followers, or a group that is following the logic of its own ideals, but she is a Mother who transmits the life that she has received from Jesus.
This fruitfulness is expressed through the ministry and the guidance of Pastors. The institution is herself a charism, for it is rooted in the same source, which is the Holy Spirit. He is the living water, but water can continue to give life only if a plant is well cared for and pruned. Quench your thirst at the font of love, the Spirit, and take care of yourselves, delicately and with respect, take care of the entire ecclesial organization, especially those which are most fragile, so that they can all grow together, harmoniously and fruitfully.
Second word: glory. Before his Passion, Jesus foretold his glorification on the cross: there, we would see his glory (cf Jn 17:5). But this is a new glory: worldly glory is demonstrated when we are important, admired, when we have wealth and success. By contrast, God's glory is revealed on the cross: it is love, that shines and spreads. It is a paradoxical glory: it makes no noise, seeks no reward or applause, but only this glory makes the gospel fruitful. In this way, our Mother, the Church also is fruitful when she imitates the merciful love of God, which is proposed but never imposes itself. It is humble, always at work like rain falling upon the earth, like the air that we breathe, like a little seed that bears fruit in silence. Anyone who proclaims this love cannot avoid acting according to this same style of love.
And the third word that we have heard is world. God so loved the world that he sent Jesus (cf Jn 3:16). Those who love are never far away; they go out to meet others. You are going out to many cities and many countries, in search of this encounter. God is not attracted by worldliness, in fact he detests it; but he loves the world that he has created, and he loves his children in the world just as they are, wherever they live, even if they have been distanced. It will not be easy for you to live in distant countries, in different cultures, it will not be easy, but this is your mission. And you do this for love, for love of your Mother, the Church, for the unity of this effective mother; you do it because the Church is a mother and is fruitful. Demonstrate to children the tender glance of the Father and consider the realities you encounter as gifts; familiarize yourselves with other cultures, other languages and local customs, respecting and recognizing the seeds of grace that the Spirit has already sown. Without yielding to the temptation to transplant learned models, sow the first proclamation: that which is most beautiful, greatest, most attractive and at the same time most necessary (Apostolic Exhortation, Evangelii gaudium, 35). This is the good news that should always be repeated, otherwise the faith risks becoming a cold and lifeless doctrine. Evangelizing as families therefore, living unity and simplicity, is already a proclamation of life, a beautiful witness, for which I want to thank you very much. I thank you in my own name, but also in the name of the entire Church for this gesture of going, going out into the unknown and also for suffering. There will be suffering, but there will also be the joy of the glory of God, the glory that is found on the cross. I accompany you and encourage you, and I ask you, please, not to forget to pray for me.
I remain here, but in my heart, I am coming with you.
Speech of the Holy Father, Pope Francis
to members of the Neo-catechumenal Way
Dear brothers and sisters, good morning!
I am pleased to meet with you and I want to thank you for having come here in such great numbers. A special greeting to those who are preparing to depart! You have welcomed the call to evangelize: may the Lord be blessed for this, for the gift of the Way and for the gift of each one of you. I want to point out three words that the Gospel has just confided to you, as a mandate for your mission: unity, glory and the world.
Unity. Jesus asks the Father to make his people perfect in unity (Jn 17:23): that they may be united among themselves (Jn 17:22), as He and the Father are united. This is his final request before the Passion, the most heartfelt of his requests: that there might be communion in the Church. Communion is essential. The enemy of God and of man - the devil - can never control the gospel, against the humble strength of prayer and of the Sacraments, but he can cause a lot of harm to the Church by tempting our humanity. He provokes our presumption, our judgement of others, our temptation to close ourselves off from others, and to be divided. He himself is the separator and he sometimes begins by making us believe that we are good, even better than others: in this way he prepares the way for sowing weeds. This is a temptation for all communities and it can even find its way into the charisms of the Church.
You have received a great charism, for the baptismal renewal of life; in fact you enter into the Church through baptism. Every charism is a grace from God to contribute to the growth of communion. But charisms can be deteriorated when we close ourselves off or when we become boastful, when we seek to distinguish ourselves from others. For this reason, we need to be careful. Take care of your charism! How? By following in the footsteps of the Master: humble unity and obedience. If you possess these qualities, the Holy Spirit will continue to work in you, as he did in Mary, who was open, humble and obedient. We always need to be vigilant about our charisms, purifying any human excesses by seeking unity with all people and obedience to the Church. This is how we breathe in the Church and with the Church; this is how we remain docile children of our Holy Mother, the Hierarchical Church, with souls prepared and ready for the mission (cf Saint Ignatius of Loyola, Spiritual Exercises, 353).
I want to highlight this aspect: the Church is our Mother. Like children who bear a facial resemblance to their mother, all of us resemble our Mother, the Church. After Baptism, we no longer live as isolated individuals, but instead we become men and women of communion, called to be builders of communion in the world. Jesus did not establish the Church only for us; he established us as a Church. The Church is not an instrument for us: we are the Church. We were born from her, from her we are nourished with the bread of life, from her we receive the word of life, we are forgiven and taken home. This is the fruitfulness of the Church, which is our Mother: she is not an organization in search of followers, or a group that is following the logic of its own ideals, but she is a Mother who transmits the life that she has received from Jesus.
This fruitfulness is expressed through the ministry and the guidance of Pastors. The institution is herself a charism, for it is rooted in the same source, which is the Holy Spirit. He is the living water, but water can continue to give life only if a plant is well cared for and pruned. Quench your thirst at the font of love, the Spirit, and take care of yourselves, delicately and with respect, take care of the entire ecclesial organization, especially those which are most fragile, so that they can all grow together, harmoniously and fruitfully.
Second word: glory. Before his Passion, Jesus foretold his glorification on the cross: there, we would see his glory (cf Jn 17:5). But this is a new glory: worldly glory is demonstrated when we are important, admired, when we have wealth and success. By contrast, God's glory is revealed on the cross: it is love, that shines and spreads. It is a paradoxical glory: it makes no noise, seeks no reward or applause, but only this glory makes the gospel fruitful. In this way, our Mother, the Church also is fruitful when she imitates the merciful love of God, which is proposed but never imposes itself. It is humble, always at work like rain falling upon the earth, like the air that we breathe, like a little seed that bears fruit in silence. Anyone who proclaims this love cannot avoid acting according to this same style of love.
And the third word that we have heard is world. God so loved the world that he sent Jesus (cf Jn 3:16). Those who love are never far away; they go out to meet others. You are going out to many cities and many countries, in search of this encounter. God is not attracted by worldliness, in fact he detests it; but he loves the world that he has created, and he loves his children in the world just as they are, wherever they live, even if they have been distanced. It will not be easy for you to live in distant countries, in different cultures, it will not be easy, but this is your mission. And you do this for love, for love of your Mother, the Church, for the unity of this effective mother; you do it because the Church is a mother and is fruitful. Demonstrate to children the tender glance of the Father and consider the realities you encounter as gifts; familiarize yourselves with other cultures, other languages and local customs, respecting and recognizing the seeds of grace that the Spirit has already sown. Without yielding to the temptation to transplant learned models, sow the first proclamation: that which is most beautiful, greatest, most attractive and at the same time most necessary (Apostolic Exhortation, Evangelii gaudium, 35). This is the good news that should always be repeated, otherwise the faith risks becoming a cold and lifeless doctrine. Evangelizing as families therefore, living unity and simplicity, is already a proclamation of life, a beautiful witness, for which I want to thank you very much. I thank you in my own name, but also in the name of the entire Church for this gesture of going, going out into the unknown and also for suffering. There will be suffering, but there will also be the joy of the glory of God, the glory that is found on the cross. I accompany you and encourage you, and I ask you, please, not to forget to pray for me.
I remain here, but in my heart, I am coming with you.
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