Pope urges Thailand’s Catholics
to be missionary disciples
 |
| Pope Francis celebrating his first public Mass in Thailand |
Pope Francis celebrates his first public Mass on Thai soil,
Thursday evening, at Bangkok’s National Stadium. Reflecting on the Gospel of
the memorial of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, he speaks about
what missionary discipleship consists in.
By Robin Gomes
Pope Francis is encouraging Thai Catholics to be the
missionary disciples of Jesus, in the footsteps of the first missionaries to
their land. He said it will help them to encounter, discover and recognize with
joy the faces of all those mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters, whom the
Lord wants to invite to His table.
He delivered a homily in his native Spanish, taking cue from
the day’s Gospel of Matthew where Jesus, pointing to his disciples, says,
“Whoever does the will of my heavenly Father is my brother, and sister, and
mother.”
Response leads to encounter
The Pope said that the Gospel is full of the questions that
renew our lives and those of our communities with incomparable joy.
Responding to the Lord’s word, the first missionaries to the Thai lands came to
realize that they were part of a family much larger than any based on
bloodlines, cultures, regions or ethnic groups.
Impelled by the power of the Spirit, their bags filled with
the hope brought by the good news of the Gospel, they set out in search of
family members they did not yet know. Without that encounter, Christianity
would have lacked the Thai face, their songs, dances and their smile, the Pope
told Thailand’s Catholics.
Missionary disciple
Pope Francis is in Thailand to celebrate the 350th
anniversary of the establishment of the Apostolic Vicariate of Siam in 1669,
that formally marked the beginning of the Church in the country. The motto
chosen for the papal visit is, “Christ’s Disciples, Missionary Disciples".
According to the Pope, a missionary disciple is not a
mercenary of the faith or a producer of proselytes, but rather a humble
mendicant who feels the absence of brothers, sisters and mothers with whom to
share the irrevocable gift of reconciliation that Jesus grants to all.
Invited to the Lord's table
He said that the source and inspiration of all the Church’s
evangelizing efforts is found in the Parable of the Wedding Feast, where the
Lord orders as many as can be invited to the marriage feast from the
streets.
With a fire of hope, he said, the 350th anniversary helps us
to go forth joyfully to share the new life born of the Gospel with all the
members of our family whom we do not yet know.
As missionary disciples of the Lord, he said, we choose to
be a living part of the Lord’s family by sharing with others as He did. He ate
with sinners, assuring them that they too had a place at the Father’s table and
the table of this world. He touched those considered to be unclean and,
by letting Himself be touched by them, He helped them to realize the closeness
of God and to understand that they were blessed.
Making one family
In this regard, the Pope’s thoughts went out to those such
as children and women victims of prostitution and human trafficking, young
people enslaved by drug addiction and a lack of meaning that makes them
depressed and destroys their dreams, migrants, deprived of their homes and
families, many others who feel orphaned and abandoned, and exploited fishermen
and bypassed beggars.
“All of them,” the Pope said, “are part of our family,”
adding, “they are our mothers, our brothers and sisters”. He urged that
communities see their faces, their wounds, their smiles and their lives and
make them experience the merciful balm of God’s love that heals their wounds
and pains. A missionary disciple, the Pope said, is one who opens doors in
order to experience and share the merciful and healing embrace of God the
Father, which makes of us one family.
In conclusion, Pope Francis urged Thailand’s Catholic
communities to follow the “footsteps of the first missionaries, in order to
encounter, discover and recognize with joy the faces of all those mothers and
fathers, brothers and sisters, whom the Lord wants to give us and who are
absent from our Sunday table”.
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