Lighting The Little Lights
Posted by Rebecca Teti in Faith on Wednesday, December 15, 2010 4:00 PM
He’s not just the Pope, he’s the bishop of Rome.
Like other bishops, he visits his parishes. On Gaudete Sunday he visited St. Maximilian Kolbe parish, and delivered a lovely homily on the potential of parish life.
Apparently the parish has a large immigrant community, and the Pope had some remarks about communion that are relevant to any parish where multiple ethnic groups are present.
Your community includes within it many families who have come from central and southern Italy in search of work and better conditions of life. With the passing of time the community has grown and it has changed in part with the arrival of many people from Eastern Europe and other countries. Precisely starting from this concrete situation of the parish you must try to grow evermore in communion with everyone: it is important to create occasions of dialogue and to promote mutual understanding between persons from different cultures, models of life and social conditions. But it is above all necessary to help them become involved in the Christian life through care that is attentive to the real needs of each person. Here, as in every parish, it is necessary to leave those who are “near” to reach out to those who are “far away,” to bring an evangelical presence to the realms of life and work. All must be able to find in the parish adequate paths of formation and experience that communal dimension that is a fundamental characteristic of Christian life. In this way they are encouraged to rediscover the beauty of Christ and of being part of his Church.
He sees the parish as a starting point for building Christian community. First across ethnic lines, and then as a basis for re-evangelizing the unchurched.
He then turns to the gospel for guidance in how we evangelize.
We have heard in the Gospel the question of the Baptist who finds himself in prison; the Baptist announced the coming of the Judge who changes the world, and now it feels as if the world has stayed the same. He makes his disciples ask Jesus: “Are you the one who must come? Or must we look for another? Are you he or must we look for another?” In the last two or three centuries many have asked: “But are you really the one? Or must the world be changed in a truly radical way? Are you not doing it?” And many prophets, ideologies and dictators have come and said: “It isn’t him! He didn’t change the world! We are the ones!” And they created their empires, their dictatorships, their totalitarianism that was supposed to change the world. And they changed it, but in a destructive way. Today we know that of these great promises there has only remained a great void and great destruction. They were not the ones.
And so we must again see Christ and ask Christ: “Are you the one?” The Lord, in the silent way that is characteristic of him, answers: “See what I have done. I did not start a bloody revolution, I did not change the world by force, but I lit many lights that form, in the meantime, a great path of light through the centuries.”
He then challenges us all to become more of those little lights.
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