Francis celebrates Mass in the large Nu Guazu plain, within a military air base. During his homily, the Pope stresses that Christ " the Christian journey is about changing hearts. It is about learning to live differently, under a different law, with different rules". Welcome is key to witness and conversion.

Asunción (AsiaNews) - In the logic of the Gospel mission is not seen in terms of  "plans and programs.  How many times do we see evangelization as involving any number of strategies, tactics, maneuvers, techniques.... The Church is a mother with an open heart.  She knows how to welcome and accept, especially those in need of greater care, those in greater difficulty".  This was the message at the the heart of the homily delivered by Pope Francesco during mass in the massive Ñu Guazú plain, in a military airbase. In the same place - and a sanctuary with a large cross commemorates the event - Saint John Paul II canonized San Roque Gonzalez de Santa Cruz and companions during the Apostolic Journey in Paraguay in 1988.

Before hundreds of thousands of people, including a huge group of Argentines, Francis first commented on the readings of today and - starting from Psalm – invited those present to celebrate "that mysterious communion between God and his people, between God and us . he rain is a sign of his presence, in the earth tilled by our hands.  It reminds us that our communion with God always brings forth fruit, always gives life.  This confidence is born of faith, from knowing that we depend on grace, which will always transform and nourish our land".

The disciple, said the Pope, " knows that he or she is called to have this confidence; we feel Jesus’s invitation to be his friend, to share his lot, his very life.  “No longer do I call you servants... but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you”.  The disciples are those who learn how to dwell in the confidence born of friendship. The Gospel speaks to us of this kind of discipleship.  It shows us the identity card of the Christian.  Our calling card, our credentials".

The sending of the disciples of Jesus, which is based on this very trust, is presented by the Master along with some recommendations: " Let us think about some of these attitudes: “Take nothing for the journey except a staff; no bread, no bag, no money...”  “When you enter a house, stay there until you leave the place”.  All this might seem quite unrealistic.. We could concentrate on the words, “bread”, “money”, “bag”, “staff”, “sandals” and “tunic”.  And this would be fine.  But it strikes me that one key word can easily pass unnoticed.  It is a word at the heart of Christian spirituality, of our experience of discipleship: “welcome”.  Jesus as the good master, the good teacher, sends them out to be welcomed, to experience hospitality.  He says to them: “Where you enter a house, stay there”.  He sends them out to learn one of the hallmarks of the community of believers.  We might say that a Christian is someone who has learned to welcome others, to show hospitality.".

"Jesus does not send them out as men of influence, landlords, officials armed with rules and regulations.  Instead, he makes them see that the Christian journey is about changing hearts.  It is about learning to live differently, under a different law, with different rules.  It is about turning from the path of selfishness, conflict, division and superiority, and taking instead the path of life, generosity and love.  It is about passing from a mentality which domineers, stifles and manipulates to a mentality which welcomes, accepts and cares. These are two contrasting mentalities, two ways of approaching our life and our mission".

"How many times - says the Pope - do we see mission in terms of plans and programs.  How many times do we see evangelization as involving any number of strategies, tactics, maneuvers, techniques, as if we could convert people on the basis of our own arguments.  Today the Lord says to us quite clearly: in the mentality of the Gospel, you do not convince people with arguments, strategies or tactics.  You convince them by learning how to welcome them. The Church is a mother with an open heart.  She knows how to welcome and accept, especially those in need of greater care, those in greater difficulty.  The Church is the home of hospitality.  How much good we can do, if only we try to speak the language of hospitality, of welcome!  How much pain can be soothed, how much despair can be allayed in a place where we feel at home!."

Welcome for all, is also the response to one of the worst evils of our species: " there is an evil underlying our sins.  There is a bitter root which causes damage, great damage, and silently destroys so many lives.  There is an evil which, bit by bit, finds a place in our hearts and eats away at our life: it is isolation.  Isolation which can have many roots, many causes.  How much it destroys our life and how much harm it does us.  It makes us turn our back on others, God, the community.  It makes us closed in on ourselves.  That is why the real work of the Church, our mother, is not mainly to manage works and projects, but to learn how to live in fraternity with others.  A welcome-filled fraternity is the best witness that God is our Father”.

In this way, he pointed out, "Jesus teaches us a new way of thinking.  He opens before us a horizon brimming with life, beauty, truth and fulfillment. God never closes off horizons; he is never unconcerned about the lives and sufferings of his children.  God never allows himself to be outdone in generosity.  So he sends us his Son, he gives him to us, he hands him over, he shares him... so that we can learn the way of fraternity, of self-giving.  He opens up a new horizon; he is the new and definitive Word which sheds light on so many situations of exclusion, disintegration, loneliness and isolation.  He is the Word which breaks the silence of loneliness”.

One thing is certain, Francis concluded: "We cannot force anyone to receive us, to welcome us; this is itself part of our poverty and freedom.  But neither can anyone force us not to be welcoming, hospitable in the lives of our people.  No one can tell us us not to accept and embrace the lives of our brothers and sisters, especially those who have lost hope and zest for life.  How good it would be to think of our parishes, communities, chapels, wherever there are Christians, as true centers of encounter between ourselves and God".

 

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