Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - On 5 December on the occasion of an academic act at Urban University to mark the 500th anniversary of the birth of Saint Francis Xavier patron saint of missions, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Holy See secretary of state gave a paper on “Communicating the Faith: the Church’s mission in the time of Saint Francis Xavier and in our day”.
“The most outstanding achievements of the Society of Jesus in centuries of history is missionary activity” the Cardinal said at the beginning of his intervention It was outstanding for the number of countries in which Jesuits engaged in apostolic activity, the difficulties they faced including persecution and martyrdom, the audacity and scope of the initiatives and apostolic work. “The one who started this extraordinary missionary work of the Society of Jesus was Saint Francis Xavier. He was the first Jesuit to set out from Lisbon for the missions on 7 April 1541.”
Comparing the times of Saint Francis Xavier with those of today “under the profile of mission as communication of the faith”, the Cardinal said the two epochs were both times of “extreme acceleration of human sociality which acquires greater depth and complexity”. In 1500 the use of the compass and the modern Latin sail enabled the Spanish and the Portuguese to face the ocean and sail towards the Indies, Africa and the Caribbean. In our epoch communications has experienced impressive acceleration and the development of information technology has almost annulled distances of geography and time. “Today it is possible to know in real time to events happening at a great distance from us; nevertheless, still today, the possibilities for more participation and more responsibility which come with these changes, are contradicted by a cultural and political orientation which favours the interests of the few more than the dignity of all”.
Cardinal Bertone then underlined “our day is profoundly different”. “On the one hand the end of World War II entailed, with political independence, the search and affirmation of the cultural heritage of those peoples, so that we speak no longer of missions but of young Churches. On the other secularisation produced a profound change in the dynamics of life in lands of ancient Christianity; destroying the organic unity of Christian life, it challenged the humanistic value, saving it only as a reserve of solidarity for the most serious needs. The result is that our Church faces today not only a waning of faith, now a minority from the cultural profile and the capacity to direct life, but also a loss of humanism. Mission and the proclamation of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus, must today reaffirm the anthropological value and social sensibleness”.
The Church, positively open to the changes which occur, “sees the gradual embracing of the gospel values by those peoples described by Pope John Paul II as «a great Christian spring time, of which we already see the beginning». This Christian optimism cannot be ingenuous, it cannot fail to note the complexity of mission situations today” said Cardinal Bertone. With regard to analogies between the times of the Saint and our own day the Cardinal mentioned what Redemptoris Missio says about missionary spirituality and added: “for the Christian and for the Church spirituality cannot be only a residual of prayer and good intentions to cultivate personally, on the contrary, since it keeps us united with Christ, it is the source from which mission is born and on which it continually grows”.”.
The Redemptoris Missio encyclical (n.87), urges Christians to “live in full docility to the Spirit”: only this attitude renders us similar to Christ, fills us with the “gifts of fortitude and discernment” transforms us into “bold witnesses of Christ and illuminated announcers of his Word”. “It is not difficult to understand that the proclamation of the gospel refers to the apostolic ministry the Church received from her Lord- the Cardinal continued - while the mysterious ways of the Spirit recall those modalities of divine action which, according the Vatican II, operate outside the Church. These elements cannot be renounced since they refer to the One Lord who, while entrusting his Church with a precise apostolic task, reserved for himself the freedom to develop this salvific action in the form He desires”. “I feel this was the attitude of Xavier - said Card. Bertone -, whose apostolic zeal is both a need to proclaim the Gospel and openness to the Spirit … his person, totally filled with God’s love, lives for mission”. Although a son of his day, Saint Francis Xavier strove to make personal contact with people: “lacking the means to prepare for the encounter with Asia of his day, although he does ask for educated Europeans capable of dialoguing with educated Asians, he put at the centre preaching Christ and enriches this preaching with a life of virtue, uprightness and mercy”.
“If with Xavier we affirm that there can be no authentic evangelisation without proclamation of faith in Jesus Christ, we also know that mission must take circumstances into consideration... Among the circumstances we recognise the value of inter-religious dialogue: ‘understood as a methods and means for reciprocal knowledge and enrichment, dialogue is not contrary to mission ad gentes, indeed it has special connections with it and is an expression of it’. In this complex situation also today the Church is called to heed and to follow the Spirit who ‘blows where he will, you hear his voice but know not from whence he comes or where he goes’.”
The second aspect highlighted by Redemptoris Missio with regard to missionary spirituality is the need for “profound communion with Christ” (88), “Without this conformation to Christ there can be no mission” said Card. Bertone, who stressed that these elements are found in the missionary spirituality of Saint Francis Xavier: “the glory of God, the paschal love of the crucified Christ, the salvation of souls are the elements which guide his apostolic personality … Xavier sets himself in the tradition of Augustine and Thomas Aquinas which sees God as the sole author of all good”. “Radical trust in the God of love leads Xavier, like his Lord, to live of this love and therefore to feel the sin of humanity as a torment in his heart … Hence his communion with Christ; hence his continual prayer; hence his natural passing from love of God to love of mankind. Only in this way, only choosing to love as God loves, freely and gratuitously, he discovers the ultimate secret of missionary life; the mystery of the Incarnation and Easter: only at the price of kénosis, only at the price of totally self emptying, Xavier learns the same sentiments as God and, rediscovering the love God has poured out on his creatures, he finds therein the commitment necessary to make this love shine.”
Cardinal Bertone concluded highlighting Saint Francis Xavier’s deep love for the Church. “Xavier was an ecclesial personality in the purest and noblest sense of the word: his attitude to the Church was that of Jesus Christ «he loved the Church and gave himself for her »”. Redemptoris Missio n. 89 recalls “only profound love of the Church sustains the zeal of the missionary”. “Transformed by divine love, filled with zeal for souls, the missionary is filled with love for the Church. Xavier was a man of the Church sincerely and profoundly”. Addressing students at the Urban college from all over the world Cardinal Bertone encouraged them to cultivate a profound ecclesial sense. “This ecclesial spirit will enable to relive the spirit of Xavier, united with a profound, renewed intellectual and human preparation, and will enable you to achieve that missionary spring which the Church and humanity await today”. (S.L.) (Agenzia Fides 6/12/2006 - Righe 92; Parole 1.343)
