By Devin Watkins
Pope Francis sent a message on Thursday to the roughly 1,300 participants in the 6th American Missionary Congress (CAM6), taking place in the Puerto Rican city of Ponce on Nov 19-24.
Missionaries from across the American continents gathered to share their work under the theme, “Evangelizers in the Spirit: To the Ends of the Earth.”
In his message sent to the Papal Legate and Archbishop Emeritus of Caracas, Cardinal Baltazar Enrique Porras Cardozo, Pope Francis encouraged all missionaries to pray often to the Holy Trinity, so that God may “pour out His love and renew the face of the earth.”
The Pope reflected on the foundation of the Church’s evangelizing mission, saying it rests on our personal, loving encounter with Jesus Christ.
“We cannot give what we do not possess,” he said. “We cannot express what we have not experienced, what our eyes have not seen, or what our hands have not touched.”
Uncontainable Christian joy
Jesus, noted the Pope, was Himself a missionary, who spoke from the fullness of His heart after having spent time with His Father in prayer.
The vocation of all baptized Christians, he said, is to “see God, to see Him in the world, in our brothers and sisters, with ‘Christified’ eyes that carry a compassionate, welcoming, and merciful gaze.”
He added that Christians are unable to contain our joy after we truly encounter the Risen One.
The Holy Spirit allows us to express that joy in words and witness, he said.
“Through His life-giving power,” said Pope Francis, “we can transmit the message in every language, not only because the Church speaks them all but, above all, because she always speaks the same language—the language of love, understandable to all humanity, as it is part of our very essence as made in the image of God.”
Holy Spirit leads us deeper in listening
Pope Francis went on to invite missionaries to allow their hearts to expand in synodality and mutual listening, at the prompting of the Holy Spirit.
“We must not abandon our prayer, persistently asking the Father to pour out His love and life-giving Spirit to renew the face of this earth, wounded by our injustices and the suffering we have caused,” he said.
In conclusion, the Pope pointed to the Blessed Virgin Mary as a model of evangelization who offered Christ to all humanity.
“By imitating her example of self-giving and sustained by her maternal and provident care,” prayed the Pope, “may we always be missionary disciples to the ends of the earth.” – Vatican News
