Page 180 - spiritual_accompaniment_montreal_archdiocese

HOMILIES

In evangelizing, we may also be fearful that nobody will want to hear about Jesus Christ, fear
that faith has disappeared, fear that we now need to keep our faith and the name of Jesus
Christ hidden behind the many walls behind which we are all too often hidden.

Be not afraid! Jesus brings his peace. He is peace personified! He is peace. He brings peace to
our hearts.

In his wonderful pedagogy, he progresses stepwise. Had he begun by saying to the apostles,
“As the Father has sent me, so I send you,” they would not have been able to accept this
message, they would have been caught in their fears. Jesus had given them peace. Therefore,
he could say to them, “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”

Strictly speaking, there is only one true mission. It is the mission that the Father gave to the
Son. The Son is mission. He must accomplish the mission received from the Father. He is the
fullness of mission, the faithful incarnation of the mission. He is the mission itself.

For us, too, there is only one mission. And what is it? It is the mission to go out to all the world
to lead the world to God. It is the mission to go out to all the world, everywhere, at all times,
and lead humanity to the Father Eternal. This is the mission: Going out from the love of the
Father Eternal, in love, to bring back all humanity into the hands of the Father Eternal.

Jesus speaks to us also when he says, “As my Father has sent me, so I send you.” “I, too, send
you out into the world to participate in my mission to lead humanity to the Father Eternal,”
he says. “I send you.”

What is the first element in Jesus’ mission of leading humanity to the Eternal Father? What
is the first element of Jesus’ mission? It is peace. Jesus is the peace that give us his peace. He
is the peace that pacifies. He is the peace that sends us out in mission. And the heart of this
mission is to be instruments of the peace of God.

Our world needs peace. We all seek peace in all kinds of ways. But real peace is found in Jesus
Christ who is uniquely peace. This world offers many forms of peace, and they all have their
merits, but they are only peace with a lower case “p,” in the sense of being easily threatened.

Some make the case that finding rest is a way to find peace, but clearly, we will grow tired
again and our rest will again be disturbed. Others make the case that health is a way to peace,
but then we suddenly get sick and perhaps develop a chronic condition. Then there are those
who see in prosperity a path to peace, but we might lose all or most of what we have, and then
our economic stability is shattered.

(cont’d)

Collection of texts by the Most Rev. Christian Lépine 180