Fr Zanchi: Fr Bossi continues his mission
Rome (AsiaNews) – Fr Giancarlo “is continuing his mission, in a different way, not as he planned it”, and by sharing the “compassion” of Jesus, he is communicating a message of forgiveness and love to his captors. The sentiment that marked a Eucharistic celebration in the PIME Generalate House in Rome was one of hope. The celebration, presided over by the Superior General of PIME, Fr Gian Battista Zanchi, and concelebrated by all the missionaries of the Institute present in the city, was attended by a packed congregation. The hope felt was founded on faith evoked by the Pauline phrase, “If God is for us, who can be against us?” which Fr Zanchi hopes, is “echoing in the mind and heart of Fr Giancarlo” even at this time.
With different accents, the same hope and the same faith resonated today across five continents, in all the houses of PIME missionaries, united in a prayer which, paced by the setting of the sun in different regions of the world, spanned the entire day. Televisions and newspapers, covering the event not only in Rome, are spreading its echoes.
Paul, in the words of Fr Zanchi, “expressed his undeniable conviction: no obstacle can ever snuff out his faith in the love of God and of Christ for us. This, says Paul, is his mission as an evangelizer: announcing that God loves mankind in Christ and to give a swift confirmation of this through personal testimony. Paul says that God used him as an example to show how great his magnanimity is. ‘…In me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display the utmost patience, making me an example to those who would come to believe in him for eternal life.’ (1 Tim 1:15-16).”
“We would like,” continued the Superior General of PIME, “these words of Paul, full of faith, ‘if God is for us, who can be against us?’ to resonate in the mind and heart of Fr Giancarlo. As well as these other words of the Lord to his prophet: ‘Now go, I send you... Do not be afraid... for I am with you to rescue you’ (Jr 1:8); ‘be strong and courageous; do not be frightened or dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go’ (Jos 1:9)”.
Fr Zanchi said: “Fr Giancarlo is continuing his mission, in a different way, not as he planned it, prisoner in a small geographical place, addressing a few people, his ‘kidnappers’ to whom he has only one message to communicate: that he forgives them, that he will not do any harm to them or to their families, that he loves them and continues to love them, even if they have taken him and treated him unjustly, because this is the teaching and the example of Jesus, the missionary par excellence.”
Then, taking his cue from the Gospel of the day about the healing of a dumb man who was possessed by a demon, the Superior General underlined that which characterized the “mission” of Jesus. “The activities of Jesus are presented as teaching, preaching, healing. They regard all ‘cites and villages’; ‘every disease and infirmity’; and they originate from his ‘compassion’ when faced with the precarious conditions of the people, who lacked a wise and secure guide and who were thus vulnerable to all manner of influences, who were tired, hungry and confused, without aim, a people that had exhausted all its strength and lost hope. This state of the people prompted Jesus to involve the disciples; he invited them to pray to God, the master of the harvest, that he may send labourers. Jesus asked them above all to pray. He reminds us that it is not us who are the masters, neither of the field nor of the harvest. The master is God and He is also the one who wants to lift people out of the paralysis gripping them because they are tired and discouraged. Praying means being in communion with the shepherd, moving with him and like him to gather those who are alone and lost, to heal those who are wounded and sick. From the shepherd come example and strength; prayer keeps us awake and willing, and this serves to transform compassion into charity and solidarity.”
“Today too, there are many people who are tired and exhausted, disillusioned, without hope, abandoned to their fate. Sharing the ‘compassion’ of Jesus means lending attention to the suffering of people and being close to them to bring them the hope of life. This is what Fr Giancarlo has done for the people of the Philippines and recently of Payao. He did not have to go there. In the regional assembly last February, which he took part in, Fr Giancarlo, who had just returned to Italy, communicated to his brothers his desire/project to set up another kind of presence in a small village, sharing the life of farmers, their faith, and their work. Then, unexpectedly, there was the invitation/proposal of the Administrator of the Diocese of Ipil: you couldn’t come back to the parish of Payao, which has ended up without a priest? It was enough to show this urgent need for Fr Giancarlo to put his project aside to swiftly take up the invitation, to the surprise of the local superior.”
“Fr Giancarlo lived the first years of his mission in the area of Payao; he built a convent, that is, the house of the parish priest. There, with his simplicity, with hard work, even physical labour, with his goodness and with his ability to establish optimal relations with all, he won the hearts of people, Christian and otherwise. A few months after Fr Giancarlo’s return to Payao, where he had already drawn joy, much enthusiasm and hope among the people, the kidnapping took place, totally unexpectedly. From that day, Sunday 10 June, the people of Payao, Christians as well as Muslims, immediately gathered in prayer and they have continued, tirelessly and without ceasing, to present their intercession to the Lord for the freedom of Fr Giancarlo. We too, and with us all the PIME communities around the world, in communion with Christian communities and other religious denominations, pray for the speedy return of Fr Giancarlo. I am sure that this shared and incessant prayer, which is going up to God from so many places, in so many languages and different religious expressions, will touch the heart of God, who will send his angel or indicate the way for the right negotiations that will lead to the liberation of Fr Giancarlo.”
”To Mary, Queen of the apostles and especially Mother,” read the concluding prayer, “we entrust Fr Giancarlo, that you may protect him from harm and conserve peace, hope and patience in his heart.”
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