Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Navarra (Fides Service) - This morning at Javier Castel in Navarra, Spain special envoy of Pope Benedict XVI Cardinal Antonio María Rouco Varela archbishop of Madrid, presided a solemn concelebration of the Eucharist to mark the 5th anniversary of the birth of St Francis Xavier in the presence of the King and Queen of Spain. Concelebrants included various cardinals and bishops, the Archbishop of Pamplona, the Papal Nuncio in Spain and the prepositor general of the Society of Jesus.
In his homily the Cardinal recalled that Francis Xavier “left an indelible mark on the history of both the Church and humanity for having carried the name of Jesus and the symbol of the Cross to new worlds and promoting the theological concept of the dignity of the human person, image of God, a free individual, with inviolable rights, called to help fulfil the plan of God’s love”. The Cardinal said Francis Xavier “incarnated radical obedience to the Lord’s mandate to his apostles: Go, make disciples of all nations!”.
What was the spiritual key to Francis’ vocation, the Cardinal asked. “For Francis as for Paul preaching was not a motive for pride, instead it was an insuppressible existential need”. He was concerned above all for the “treasures of the Gospel”. He was concerned for souls “his own and all souls”; he wanted “Christ and his definitive victory over death through the Cross”, to be known and so he “consumed his young life to spread the deeply transforming knowledge of the Cross to the ends of the earth”; he wanted “every man and women to be saved” and he worked “to carry the Christian faith to as many people as possible, striving tirelessly to reach the most remote areas where the Good News had yet to be heard”. Cardinal Rouco Varela underlined the need to “rediscover the soul in the personal life of every Christian in the light of the Good News of Jesus Christ”, and also to restore the soul to society in Spain and the rest of Europe because without soul it will be “difficult to open to a future of life, justice, solidarity and peace."
The Pope’s special envoy concluded his homily entrusting to the Blessed Virgin Mary “the Church and her mission at the service of love” which is “the best thing the Church and her bishops can offer the world for a future of freedom, justice and solidarity and peace!” (RG) (Agenzia Fides 7/4/2006 - Righe 30, parole 430)
