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Basilica of St. Mary in Aracoeli - Rome01.10.2000 Speech by the Minister General Giacomo Bini OFM during the sending ceremony of new missionaries "Thus [the Lord] sent you throughout the whole world in order to bear witness to His voice through words and deeds and make known to all that there is no other Almighty except Him" (LOrd 9)
The going out "to the whole world" has intrinsically formed part of the evangelical Franciscan vocation since the beginning" "called" to be "sent". Thus we cannot live without this apostolic ad missionary dimension of our call which is more a reply to the Reign's logic rather than to the needs of the adressees or to some other need. Matthew 10, 1-5 does not distinguish between the call and the mission. But the mission becomes "urgent" when we ourselves accept the invitation to follow Christ, when we live a deep and authentic relationship with the Lord. "We cannot love Him and remain silent" Being disciples finds its concrete realisation in being apostles, sent out to the whole world. The missionary call, evangelisation or going out to the world thus are all a question of faith, a living faith; it is the "exact indicator of our faith in Christ and in his love for us" ("Redemptoris Missio", 11). In going out in the world the first commitment is contemplation, hearing and fraternal love. The only evangelical condition which Francis strongly demands is the expropriation, poverty, freedom and fraternal love which for the Poverello is equal to conversion and is the consequence and expression of an encounter with the poor God who welcomes with generosity (while the young rich refuses). The house of the apostle is the way, his support is the closeness of his brethren with whom he is walking, his strength the presence of the Spirit who dwells in it. The Franciscan missionary does not take anything for himself: neither place, project, work, money nor any other thing. The glory of God must shine in front to mankind in its clearness beyond any personal interest. Only in this way we become peace and can proclaim peace. Vocation, mission and "kenosis", up to the complete giving of self are inseparable (see 1Cel. 22-23). "Go to my brothers... I have seen the Lord" (Jn 20,17). "Francis chose to live for all and not for himself following in the example of Christ" (1Cel 35). It means that one goes because the Lord sends.. I do not go for myself, because I decide to go or because "there is a need" but I go because You send me, you have entrusted me with a work. This is an essential reference, this is the mission which must always be discovered and "remembered". All this becomes important and fundamental in front of all the possible ways and wishes to go. It is an important vocational discernment rooted in obedience (Adm 3,5), verified and continuously brought into the contemplative dimension (3Comp 36-37). It means that one has to go with a precise message "I have seen the Lord". A message to be offered through the witness of one's life and with the word fertilised by silence, in a continuous communion with the Spirit so as to become a full, authentic and authoritative word of the Spirit. "That which distinguishes the apostle is not his human value, his spiritual creativity, his religious influence but Jesus' call, the mission he has received, the seal which was impressed on him... the apostle is full of Christ, impregnated with his Word, and the Lord is the substance of his life" (R. Guardini). The apostle announces Christ with whom he lives and whom he listen to every day; he is witnessing to someone (see 3Comp 37). The apostle is called to be faithful to his mandate, to be as transparent as possible to Him who dwells in him and whom he announces.
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