SHORTHAND VERSION OF THE HOMILY OF MSGR. DIEGO MONROY PONCE; GENERAL AND EPISCOPAL VICAR OF GUADALUPE, RECTOR OF THE SANCTUARY
FOR THE XXIX ORDINARY SUNDAY.

Sunday, October 21th of 2007

My dear brothers and sisters, from the little house of the Tepeyac of our sweet Lady and our Mother Holy Mary of Guadalupe, we invite you to praise and bless our God and Lord because of the great aim of salvation for all the men of the whole world, for which He has wanted to establish His church as a sign and instrument of salvation of which we all, the believers in Christ, are compromised with.

My brothers, today, we celebrate the World Mission Day which never stops keeping its appropriateness, then, for all the particular churches, without exception, the missionary liveliness, information, education, and cooperation, because the universal church that travels in this world, is essentially  missionary.

In the last 5th conference of the Latin American episcopacy and of the Caribbean, our bishops have induced us to reflect about this, which is essential in our life: being disciples and missionaries of Christ. This occasion is special to intensify these modalities of the evangelizing activity and also to lead our reflections and fervent prayers under the light of the topic that the same Pope Benedict XVI proposes to us: “all the churches for the whole world”, and the Pope Benedict reminds us in his message that the arduous work of evangelization is held and accompanied by the certainty that the Owner of the grain field is with us, the certainty that the Owner of the grain field leads us incessantly, he does not abandon his town.

The topic that was chosen for this World Mission Day, invites the local churches of the diverse continents to become aware of the urgent necessity to impel the missionary action (again) before the varied and serious challenges of our time.

My dear brothers and sisters, we believe that God, our Father, has talked to us throughout the all History through the prophets and in an incomparable and definitive way through His loved Son Jesus Christ.

My brothers, we believe that his Word remains in the life of the church because of the proclamation that is made in it through the sacred readings that are in the Holy Scripture, in the Bible, especially in any Liturgical Celebration, as it happens the day of today (Eucharistic Sunday).

It is also clear and the town of God has consciousness of that their mission is to announce the Good News of Salvation first through the alive testimony of faith, the Christian hope and charity; for that reason, the Holy Scriptures are present in our meetings, and in the diverse pastoral activities of the Church.

My dear brothers, between these activities, there is the joyful and constant announcement of the project of God to save all men who open themselves to Christ that has his highest and definitive point in his death and in his resurrection. Saint Paul expresses all this in a very clear way in his first letter to Timothy, which today we have listened to in the second reading, but in the first one which is taken from the prophet Isaiah, it is indicated that the unique condition to acquire the salvation is a firm and faithful adhesion to the unique and true God, the God of all the towns and nations of the world.

My dear Brothers and sisters, God is please with all those that practice the justice and that respect and work for the rights of the others in a disinterested way. My dear brothers, the reference to the temple as a place of encounter with the divinity through prayer: “My house will be called house of prayer for all the towns”. The requirements of access to the temple, and that are of cultural, racial or biological character do not have value in the new dimensions of the true religion. My brothers, the only thing that is important is to want to live as faithful and obedient servants of the Lord. My brothers, here we have a constant doctrine in the Biblical tradition, specially the prophetic one. The most important thing to redeem our souls is the loving obedience to the true and unique God.

The Gospel of Saint Matthew shows us the view, after the resurrection, and it confirms the promise of Isaiah: “the salvation is offered to all men in the world, may they look for truth, practice justice and work for peace”, for that reason Jesus shows his disciples the view that they have to offer all the men the salvation, without distinction of races, social condition, and culture.

Baptizing and teaching is the way as the possibility of salvation is offered for the universe of the humanity. The baptism connects the person of our redeemer, the baptism demands the sacramental thing of the life in Christ, but it can no be celebrated if it is not an expression of the freedom with which this sacrament is taken, with the compromise that it has, and this sacramental sign is not possible, if the one who is accepted in the initial sign of the baptism, is not known, for that reason it is necessary to evangelize. It is urgent to proclaim the Good News of the Gospel!, preaching, teaching, and catechizing.

My dear, nobody gives something that does not have, for that reason, if we accept to carry out this delicated and beautiful work of announcing Christ as the unique Lord that redeems, all the baptized ones like the apostles, have to be in an uninterrupted relation of love, and of deep knowledge of Christ to teach how to practice all the things that He has commanded us, but we have the grace, the blessing, the opportunity of being accompanied from 475 years ago by our little girl Holy Mary of Guadalupe, the disciple and perfect missionary, the one who animates and encourages us to announce the joy of the Gospel, the one that was brought by Him, the one that he gave us through His dear Saint Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin.

My dear brothers, this Sunday we have the opportunity to become aware of the mission, that we have as Church, of serving the community, of being instruments of salvation, we have not receive the grace of faith to feel ourselves superior to the ones that do not have the same faith like us. The fact of being chosen does not exempt from the work to evangelize the others in order to know the unique and true God, and after they know Him, they can love Him and loving Him they approach the salvation. The faith that is received is a gift that has to be shared in order to this faith increase in us; my brothers, in this way we also accept our own salvation.

Dear brothers, the Eucharist is (in its celebration) the joyful announcement of the salvation that Christ got for everybody, for that reason in this salvation we never exclude anybody in our intercession with Christ. The Eucharist is evidently catholic, and universal, it is the ecumenical sacrament, therefore let us eliminate all the things, that make the Eucharist seems something closed or elitist, from the mentality and the practice. May our liturgical celebration, specially the one from Sunday, is a true house of prayer for all the towns. In what a beautiful way we live it in this house of the Tepeyac, this house is build in such a way that all men from the north, from the South, from the East and from the West, come here to adore, bless and glorify our God, the one for whom we live; believers, and no believers come to this little house of the Mother, men of all races, men of all languages, of all social conditions, and of all cultures.

My dear brothers and sisters, let us show our praise of thanksgiving to the Father that has wanted that the gift of the redemption of salvation of His Son Jesus Christ, arrives at all generations of all times through the celebration of the sacrament of the sacrifice of Christ. For 2007 years the good Father through Jesus Christ the Lord in the Holy Spirit, has nourish our children with the bread of life, with the chalice of the blessing. For 2007 years we are consoled with the presence of the bread of the angels. In the participation of this great mystery, our life becomes a thanksgiving for all the things, that are created, and it ascends to the Father with singing and praise. 

Dear brothers and sisters let us allow ourselves to be transformed by the overabundant love of the paschal sacrament, victory that overcomes our fears, liberation of our sins, and nourishment in our way. 

May Mary, our sweet Lady and Mother, Holy Mary of Guadalupe, the star of the first and new evangelization, who brought the Gospel to us 475 years ago, reaches the grace to us of being worthy servants of the kingdom through a joyful announcement in which all our life is compromised with.

Amen.