am visiting the Motherhouse in Parma for a few days. Today I have the privilege and joy to celebrate Mass with my elderly and sick confreres. Twenty-three of them are present in the little “Cappella dei Martiri” (Chapel of the Martyrs). They are almost all in their late seventies to early nineties. I mentally make some quick calculations: all together they have given more or less some twelve hundred years to missionary life and service.
I am overwhelmed by this thought. Here I am at 64 (only yesterday!) in the midst of brothers who have been faithful missionaries for at least as long as I have lived! Most of them look so peaceful and even cheerful, and accepting of me.
Most of all I am moved by their piety: first we recite the rosary together, then concelebrate Mass. One of them, hard of hearing, gets right beside the Scripture reader so as to better catch the Word of God being proclaimed. We end the eucharistic liturgy with a song to Mary I haven’t heard since my childhood days before I migrated to America with my family: “Dell’aurora tu sorgi piú bella…” (“You rise more beautiful than the dawn…”)
This community of the elderly and the sick is an integral part of the Xaverian mission in the church and the world. The long years spent in faithful service, their aches and pains now, and their prayers put them in the a vanguard of the evangelizing mission of the church
In the waning years of a long life dedicated to the service of the Gospel they sing of a “dawn” on which Mary rides as the harbinger of a new day and a new life. For them, this “dawn” alludes pointedly to the new day of eternal life which they hope soon to enter. As at this Mass, however, are also present three young Xaverians, the word “dawn” makes me think that, in this celebrating community of the elderly, these three young Xaverians signify the youth of our missionary congregation and the hope of new vitality and membership.
Of these three, Horacio Perez Padilla was ordained a priest in Mexico this past August, having completed his theological studies at our Chicago House, and is on his way to the mission of Mozambique. Andrew Gamba will be ordained tomorrow here in Parma at the Shrine of Blessed Guido Maria Conforti, and in a few weeks will leave for his mission assignment in the Amazon; and Franz Carlos Marcelo, on the way to Brazil, to be ordained a priest in the midst of the people of his own parish.
In these days when vocations to the priesthood and religious life struggle to meet the needs of the Church, these three young men are only the last “graduates” of the professed 130 Xaverian philosophy/theology students currently preparing themselves for the priesthood and the missionary ministry in our international communities, from Chicago (USA) to Jakarta (Indonesia, Parma (Italy), Yaounde (Cameroon), Manila (Philippines, and to Mexico City and Guadalajara (Mexico). They come from different ethnic backgrounds and countries, including also Spain, Bangladesh, the Republic of the Congo, Sierra Leone, Colombia, Great Britain and Brazil.
This community of the elderly and the sick is an integral part of the Xaverian mission in the church and the world. The long years spent in faithful service, their aches and pains now, and their prayers put them in the a vanguard of the evangelizing mission of the church. And I can appreciate the love, attention, and tender reverence reserved for them by the six brothers and fathers who care for them.
“I consider this task a privilege,” says Fr. Walter Taini, whom I’m happy to meet again having known him in Brazil, whereto he will soon return for a mission assignment among the Kayapo Indios of the Amazons. And he adds: “These confreres have given me an admirable witness in the way they live serenely through suffering and weakness. I have seen some die experiencing death truly as an encounter with the Lord, and this has touched me deeply…”
In the silence of my soul, I say a prayer of thanks for Fr. Walter and his team, and for my being here this morning, part of this venerable gathering!”
(From Xaverian Mission Newsletter)