'My job is to preach the good news. Here's the good news: there's no collection today!'
There are 350 priests, 50 bishops, and 10 deacons here today. If this Mass doesn't work then we're in trouble! It's amazing to see so many of you enthusiastic about the Mass.
In the Gospel we hear the last words of Jesus. It's an evangelical commission, a missionary mandate to go out to the world. St James took it so literally he came to Spain. St Peter also took him very seriously, he is the prince of the Apostles, and he went to capa mundi, Rome, where he became Pope. How blessed we are to be in the presence of the successor of Peter.
The pivotal teaching of John Paul II is the theology of invitation. The supreme task of inviting is what we are charged with, to invite others to Jesus. We're in an invitation business. This invitation is free. We have as sacred responsibility to know and love Jesus. According to John Paul II 'The Church never imposes, the Church only proposes.' We invite people because we believe that it is worth people's attendance, something that will sustain and excite them. The Church affirms everything that is good in humanity. When we invite people we are saying we will be there too. It is important that we make sure that we're burning passionately for Jesus and his Church. We will also never give up on inviting people, we will keep renewing the invite. We're in the company of a million young people who have taken up the invite to follow Jesus.
St Paul, although not with the Apostles when Jesus gave the commission, really took the invitation and missionary charism very seriously. He also came to Spain. Mary is the patroness of Spain after her vist to St Paul - she thanked him for bringing the flesh of Christ to Spain, and thanked him for giving a human heart to her son again. No wonder the Spaniards have such a great love of Mary.
No comments:
Post a Comment