Pope Francis sees mission as a way of speaking about the road BACK from Emmaus to Jerusalem with “hearts on fire and feet on the move.”


Pope Francis sees mission as a way of speaking about the road BACK from Emmaus to Jerusalem with “hearts on fire and feet on the move.”

The Jerusalem headhunters would not have been very interested in Jesus’ leadership team. They liked the way rabbis were picked from among the most promising in their schools.
Yet his choices were key in spreading his message.

If I were to ask you today, “which of you knows the exact date of your baptism?” I do not think there would be too many hands raised….
Yet, it is the day on which we were saved, it is the day on which we became children of God.
“There is no Christianity without mercy. If all our Christianity does not lead us to mercy, we are on the wrong path.” (Pope Francis) Just as we learn to walk, we must learn to “mercy” from our experience of God mercying us.
Jesus began with a group of most ordinary people. No all-stars in the eyes of the influential. Jesus spent much of his time forming a team filled with a sense of common mission.
A Palestinian Jew gathered 12 ordinary people and sent them out on an impossible mission. He created a culture of vocation and mission.
For one minute and 25 seconds, I was almost nose to nose with Pope Francis. His 150-word message clearly came from his heart. At various points, it seemed he looked straight into my heart. I felt I was there! I wasn’t… but it felt like it!
There’s a formula in broadcast news. An anchor tries to hook us with a teaser. They then turn to a colleague. “You are on the scene. Tell us what you are hearing.”
Renewal of Vincentian spirituality requires movement, changing ideas and new perspectives. Let me point out a few possible movements that might lead us to revitalization of our spiritual tradition:
God leads us into the midst of the world. God waits for us among the poor. Christ invites us to participate in his mission,
“The Congregation is not now what it once was; nor is it what it will be.” Some 400 years later Greg Gay, his 23rd successor, adapted these words. “The world is not now what it once was, nor is it what it will be.” Today we can say “The parish is not now what it once was, nor is it what it will be.”
Pope Francis describes God as a dreamer. Think about it! Isn’t God’s dream another name for God’s plan for us and all creation? Do we ever get beyond our own dreams to think of God’s Dream?
We all get surprised by life and its ups and down. We are were often forced to rethink our dreams. Sometimes we discover or rediscover our mission through these ups and downs.