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Homily for the Concluding Celebration
St. Mary of the Angels
Br. José R. Carballo, ofm
Minister General
My Dear Brothers,
May the Lord give you Peace!
As in every Eucharistic celebration, today we are also joined to the whole of humanity to say thank you to the Father of mercy. We have so many reasons to express our gratitude:
* The General Chapter that we are ending with this celebration has been a true experience of fraternity and of ongoing formation: we are all returning to the places where we live and have our mission richer, more aware of the beauty of the forma vitae that Francis left us as an inheritance.
* Once more we have been able to experience the joy that is born of sharing who we are and what we do. We are fragile, timid and confused before the complexity of the world in which we live; and yet we can say with the apostle: "I will gladly boast of my weakness because the power of Christ lives in me" because, as the same apostle says: "I can do all things in Christ who gives me strength" (Phil 4:13). In Him our weakness is transformed into power, our fear becomes courageous witness to the Gospel. And when we decide to open ourselves up to one another, when we truly allow ourselves to become involved in fraternal relationships, overcoming the walls of our egoism, then we realise that our fragility is, in reality, our strength: our sharing of each one’s gifts becomes wealth for all. Our strength is not in "chariots or horses", but in the Lord, for whom "nothing is impossible" and in our brothers who are gifts from God (cf. Test. 14)
The word of God also offers us precious suggestions to help us succeed in incarnating the choices of the Chapter, each in our own situations, so different and often so difficult.
* The first word that the Lord addresses to us is: "Do not worry". Certainly we have much to do, we have so many worries in our hearts, there are so many problems that await a solution; but Jesus says to us "Do not worry". The decisive question is: what really preoccupies us? What are the profound desires that fill our hearts? Those who become disciples of Jesus abandon false worries to the pagans: they know how to discern what is essential and what is not. Let us take care, my Brothers: for in our world, clothing has more value than the body, food more value than life, appearance is more appreciated than substance, and it is those who grab the limelight, not those who have something serious to say, who become important.
* Before these risks, Jesus invites us to faith: "Your Father knows what you need". Trust in God is born as a response to the trust that God has had in us: He first put His Son, the living Word who created all things, into our hands. God did not hesitate to call us to collaborate with Him in building the Kingdom.
* Trust in God guides us in our daily path through the difficulties and problems of the times in which we live. We leave Assisi with a greater responsibility than when we arrived: from the experience that we have lived in these weeks, we are called to witness that living as brothers is possible; that the dream of God is a fraternal and peaceful humanity, capable of welcoming differences and overcoming divisions, of building bridges to help communication/communion and of breaking down the walls of separation.
My dear Brothers, the Lord has treated us with mercy: we have been able to contemplate the marvels of His love. Now it is our turn: let us go to announce that One alone is Almighty! Let us go to say to the world that it has been redeemed! Let us go to announce to our brothers and to our sisters that each one of them is important in the eyes of God, that no-one is forgotten by Him! Let us go, Brothers, to be signs of reconciliation and hope in a world that is divided and disappointed.
May our father and brother Francis, who blessed each one of us before his death, continue to accompany us and enlighten our eyes concerning the beauty of the world of God: the beauty of our vocation and the beauty of creation; the beauty of the forgiveness we receive from God and the beauty of the mercy we use with others; the beauty that conquers hearts and guides life in the ways of the Gospel of Jesus.
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