Pope's
homily in English:
The Son of Man came to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many (cf. Mk
10:45)
Dear Brother Bishops,
Dear brothers and sisters!
“Today the Church listens again to these words of Jesus, spoken by the Lord
during his journey to Jerusalem,
where he was to accomplish the mystery of his passion, death and resurrection.
They are words which enshrine the meaning of Christ’s mission on earth, marked
by his sacrifice, by his total self-giving.
On this third Sunday of October, on which we celebrate World Mission Sunday,
the Church listens to them with special attention and renews her conviction
that she should always be fully dedicated to serve mankind and the Gospel,
after the example of the One who gave himself up even to the sacrifice of his
life. I extend warm greetings to all of you who fill Saint Peter’s Square,
especially the official delegations and the pilgrims who have come to celebrate
the seven new saints. I greet with
affection the Cardinals and Bishops who, during these days, are taking part in
the Synodal Assembly on the New Evangelization.
The coincidence between this ecclesiastical meeting and World Mission Sunday is
a happy one; and the word of God that we have listened to sheds light on both
subjects. It shows how to be evangelizers, called to bear witness and to
proclaim the Christian message, configuring ourselves to Christ and following
his very path. This is true both for the mission ad Gentes and for the new
evangelization in places with ancient Christian roots.
The Son of Man came to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many (cf. Mk
10:45) These words were the blueprint for living of the seven Blessed men and
women that the Church solemnly enrols this morning in the glorious ranks of the
saints. With heroic courage they spent their lives in total consecration to the
Lord and in the generous service of their brethren. They are sons and daughters
of the Church who chose the path of service following the Lord. Holiness always
rises up in the Church from the well-spring of the mystery of redemption, as
foretold by the prophet Isaiah in the first reading: the Servant of the Lord is
the righteous one who “shall make many to be accounted as righteous; and he
shall bear their iniquities” (Is 53:11); he is Jesus Christ, crucified, risen
and living in glory.
Today’s canonization is an eloquent confirmation of this mysterious saving
reality. The tenacious profession of faith of these seven generous disciples of
Christ, their configuration to the Son of Man shines out brightly today in the
whole Church.
Jacques Berthieu, born in 1838 in France, was passionate about Jesus
Christ at an early age. During his parish ministry, he had the burning desire
to save souls. Becoming a Jesuit, he wished to journey through the world for
the glory of God. A tireless pastor on the island
of Sainte Marie, then in Madagascar, he
struggled against injustice while bringing succour to the poor and sick. The
Malagasies thought of him as a priest come down from heaven, saying, You are our
“father and mother!” He made himself all things to all men, drawing from prayer
and his love of the sacred heart of Jesus the human and priestly force to face
martyrdom in 1896. He died, saying “I prefer to die rather than renounce my
faith”. Dear friends, may the life of this evangelizer be an encouragement and
a model for priests that, like him, they will be men of God! May his example
aid the many Christians of today persecuted for their faith! In this Year of
Faith, may his intercession bring forth many fruits for Madagascar and
the African Continent! May God bless the Malagasy people!
Pedro
Calungsod was born around the year
sixteen fifty-four, in the Visayas region of the Philippines. His love for Christ
inspired him to train as a catechist with the Jesuit missionaries there. In
sixteen sixty-eight, along with other young catechists, he accompanied Father
Diego Luís de San Vitores to the Marianas
Islands in order to
evangelize the Chamorro people. Life there was hard and the missionaries also
faced persecution arising from envy and slander. Pedro, however, displayed deep
faith and charity and continued to catechize his many converts, giving witness
to Christ by a life of purity and dedication to the Gospel. Uppermost was his
desire to win souls for Christ, and this made him resolute in accepting
martyrdom. He died on the second of April, sixteen seventy-two. Witnesses
record that Pedro could have fled for safety but chose to stay at Father
Diego’s side. The priest was able to give Pedro absolution before he himself
was killed. May the example and courageous witness of Pedro Calungsod inspire
the dear people of the Philippines
to announce the Kingdom bravely and to win souls for God!
Giovanni Battista Piamarta, priest of the Diocese of Brescia, was a great
apostle of charity and of young people. He raised awareness of the need for a
cultural and social presence of Catholicism in the modern world, and so he
dedicated himself to the Christian, moral and professional growth of the
younger generations with an enlightened input of humanity and goodness.
Animated by unshakable faith in divine providence and by a profound spirit of
sacrifice, he faced difficulties and fatigue to breathe life into various
apostolic works, including the Artigianelli Institute, Queriniana Publishers,
the Congregation of the Holy Family of Nazareth for men, and for women the
Congregation of the Humble Sister Servants of the Lord. The secret of his
intense and busy life is found in the long hours he gave to prayer. When he was
overburdened with work, he increased the length of his encounter, heart to
heart, with the Lord. He preferred to pause before the Blessed Sacrament,
meditating upon the passion, death and resurrection of Christ, to gain
spiritual fortitude and return to gaining people’s hearts, especially the
young, to bring them back to the sources of life with fresh pastoral
initiatives.
“May your love be upon us, O Lord, as we place all our hope in you” (Ps 32:22).
With these words, the liturgy invites us to make our own this hymn to God,
creator and provider, accepting his plan into our lives. María Carmelo Sallés y
Barangueras, a religious born in Vic in Spain in 1848, did just so. Filled
with hope in spite of many trials, she, on seeing the progress of the
Congregation of the Conceptionist Missionary Sisters of Teaching, which she
founded in 1892, was able to sing with the Mother of God, “His mercy is on
those who fear him from generation to generation” (Lk 1:50). Her educational
work, entrusted to the Immaculate Virgin Mary, continues to bear abundant fruit
among young people through the generous dedication of her daughters who, like
her, entrust themselves to God for whom all is possible.
I now turn to Marianne Cope, born in eighteen thirty-eight in Heppenheim, Germany.
Only one year old when taken to the United States,
in eighteen sixty-two she entered the Third Order Regular of Saint Francis at Syracuse, New
York. Later, as Superior General of her congregation,
Mother Marianne willingly embraced a call to care for the lepers of Hawaii after many others
had refused. She personally went, with six of her fellow sisters, to manage a
hospital on Oahu, later founding Malulani
Hospital on Maui
and opening a home for girls whose parents were lepers. Five years after that
she accepted the invitation to open a home for women and girls on the island of Molokai itself, bravely going there
herself and effectively ending her contact with the outside world.
There she looked after Father Damien, already famous for his heroic work among
the lepers, nursed him as he died and took over his work among male lepers. At
a time when little could be done for those suffering from this terrible
disease, Marianne Cope showed the highest love, courage and enthusiasm. She is
a shining and energetic example of the best of the tradition of Catholic
nursing sisters and of the spirit of her beloved Saint Francis.
Kateri Tekakwitha was born in today’s New
York state in sixteen fifty-six to a Mohawk father
and a Christian Algonquin mother who gave to her a sense of the living God. She
was baptized at twenty years of age and, to escape persecution, she took refuge
in Saint Francis Xavier Mission near Montreal.
There she worked, faithful to the traditions of her people, although renouncing
their religious convictions until her death at the age of twenty-four. Leading
a simple life, Kateri remained faithful to her love for Jesus, to prayer and to
daily Mass.
Her greatest wish was to know and to do what pleased God. She lived a life
radiant with faith and purity. Kateri impresses us by the action of grace in
her life in spite of the absence of external help and by the courage of her
vocation, so unusual in her culture. In her, faith and culture enrich each
other! May her example help us to live where we are, loving Jesus without
denying who we are. Saint Kateri, Protectress of Canada and the first native
American saint, we Entrust to you the renewal of the faith in the first nations
and in all of North America! May God bless the
first nations!
Anna Schaeffer, from Mindelstetten, as a young woman wished to enter a
missionary order. She came from a poor background so, in order to earn the
dowry needed for acceptance into the cloister, she worked as a maid. One day
she suffered a terrible accident and received incurable burns on her legs which
forced her to be bed-ridden for the rest of her life. So her sick-bed became
her cloister cell and her suffering a missionary service. She struggled for a
time to accept her fate, but then understood her situation as a loving call
from the crucified One to follow him. Strengthened by daily communion, she
became an untiring intercessor in prayer and a mirror of God’s love for the
many who sought her counsel. May her apostolate of prayer and suffering, of
sacrifice and expiation, be a shining example for believers in her homeland,
and may her intercession strengthen the Christian hospice movement in its
beneficial activity.
Dear brothers and sisters, these new saints, different in origin, language,
nationality and social condition, are united among themselves and with the
whole People of God in the mystery of salvation of Christ the Redeemer. With
them, we too, together with the Synod Fathers from all parts of the world,
proclaim to the Lord in the words of the psalm that he “is our help and our
shield” and we invoke him saying, “may your love be upon us, O Lord, as we
place all our hope in you” (Ps 32:20.22). May the witness of these new saints,
and their lives generously spent for love of Christ, speak today to the whole
Church, and may their intercession strengthen and sustain her in her mission to
proclaim the Gospel to the whole world.
