Fr. Francis Scaria

The feast of the Visitation of our Blessed Mother, which we celebrate on May 31 every year, teaches us that our meetings are meant to be occasions to humbly share our God-experience and recount all that the Lord has been doing for us and through us. This sharing leads us to praise God and serve His people.

When God’s grace meets human receptivity, sanctification takes place. This is what happens in the Blessed Virgin Mary. When God’s gratuitous offer of salvation finds a generous and receptive human soul, salvation comes to that person. Such an experience of salvation indubitably leads to proclamation of the Lord’s goodness. This is the essence of our mission. Mary rushing to the hill country of Judea is a model for missionaries. This compelling force of God-experience is what makes St. Paul say, “If I proclaim the gospel, this gives me no ground for boasting, for an obligation is laid on me, and woe to me if I do not proclaim the gospel!” (1 Cor 9:16). Seeing the enthusiasm of St. Paul, King Agrippa asked him, “Are you so quickly persuading me to become a Christian?” Paul replied, “Whether quickly or not, I pray to God that not only you but also all who are listening to me today might become such as I am—except for these chains.” (Acts 26:28-20) This is what makes Apostles Peter and John say to the members of the Jewish Council, “For we cannot stop speaking of what we ourselves have seen and heard” (Acts 4:20). This compulsion is so pervasive and persistent that the Apostles experiencing the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost were taken to be “drunk with new wine”(cf. Acts 2:13). Prophet Amos feels this compulsion so much that he asks, “The Lord God has spoken; who can but prophesy?” (Amos 3:8) Micah shouts out, “But as for me, I am filled with power, with the spirit of the Lord, and with justice and might, to declare to Jacob his transgression and to Israel his sin” (Micah 3:8) Look at how prophet Jeremiah expression the compulsion that he feels within : “If I say, “I will not mention him, or speak any more in his name,” then within me there is something like a burning fire shut up in my bones; I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot.” (Jer 20:9). This is the persuasive excitement in a missionary. A missionary is thoroughly excited about the Word. Are we excited about the Word of God? A missionary who is not excited about Word of God is not a missionary.