Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - This morning, July 3, Cardinal Ivan Dias Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples, presided a concelebration of the Eucharist in the chapel of Propaganda Fide. With the Cardinal Prefect concelebrants were Archbishop Robert Sarah, secretary of the Congregation and Archbishop Henryk Hoser, secretary adjunct and president of the Pontifical Mission Societies, the under secretary Fr. Massimo Cenci, the general secretaries of the Pontifical Mission Societies, the priests who work in the Congregation and in the general secretariats of the Pontifical Mission Societies. Present for the Mass, the Congregation staff men and women religious and lay people.
Taking inspiration from the feast of Saint Thomas the Apostle, great evangeliser of India, where, aflame with love for God, he preached the Gospel, founded the first Christian communities and in the end shed his blood, Cardinal Dias mentioned three episodes in the life of the Apostle which we find in the Gospels. In the context of the resurrection of Lazarus (Jn 11,16), as the disciples try to detain Jesus fearing they might lose him, Thomas says: “Let us go to die with Him!”. Then the request Thomas makes to Jesus after His farewell discourse to the disciples after the Last Supper: “Master, we do not know where you are going; how can we know the way? Jesus said to him, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (Jn 14,5-6). Last of all when Jesus appears after His resurrection: “Put your finger here and see my hands, and bring your hand and put it into my side, and do not be unbelieving, but believe” (Jn 20,27). Cardinal Dias urged those present to imitate the missionary ardour of Saint Thomas with mind and heart: “May our service be imbued with the conviction that Jesus Christ is the only Saviour of the world, the Way, the Truth and the Life, and animated by Saint Thomas’ zeal for the Church and the Kingdom of God.” (S.L.) (Agenzia Fides 3/7/2006; righe 20, parole 294)
