ASIANS FOR MARY
A Pilgrimage & Celebration of the 10th Anniversary of the Pastoral Statement,
Rev. Michael Montoya, MJ
Executive Director, US Catholic Mission Association
Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception
Washington, DC
May 21, 2011
By now you must have heard about this small religious fanatic group that has been predicting that today, May 21, 2011, at around 6 pm will be the end of the world. While they predict days of doom ahead, I say that for us in this pilgrimage, this has to be, indeed, the end of our world as we know it. Let me explain. Whenever we go to a pilgrim site, whenever we participate in a religious pilgrimage, we are changed. The world as we know it changes. The way we view the world around us changes. Pilgrimages put an end to old ways of doing things and open a new chapter in our lives – a life lived in the grace of God.
What a day to be gathered as Asians and Pacific pilgrims in this holy site surrounded by the images of our Blessed mother, as venerated by her children in the richness of the cultures and traditions of the countries where they have been born. I hope you feel, as I do, the embrace of our Blessed Mother as we are gathered here as one family from different places, cultures, traditions.
A Persian mystic once said, “Pilgrimage to the place of the wise is to find escape from the flame of separateness” (Jalal ad-Din Rumi, Persian Poet and Mystic, 1207-1273). But I say that pilgrimage to a sacred space, such as the place where we are now, is to experience oneness and wholeness.
Being separated is a flame that consumes. Being in a pilgrimage and arriving at this sacred space, is not just an escape but a sense of being one – not only with our co-Asians and Pacific faithful, but one with the whole church, and one with our God who called us all to this sacred site - a coming home to the God who loves us.
And how perfect to be gathered during Easter season, in springtime - a season that envelopes us with signs of new life and fills our vision with colors that only God can paint. And today, as we gather here as pilgrims, it is spring time as I see the different colors and hear the different languages – the different cultures and peoples that only God can create!
We are God’s gift to the Church and to the world. And we are challenged to bloom not only for our own particular ethnic groupings but even for those who do not speak like us, look like us, or pray like us. We are asked to break the walls that divide us, or in the words of the mystic “to escape the flame of separateness,” to reach out beyond and across ethnic boundaries.
During this Easter season, we hear a lot about the story of the first Christian community and how Christianity spread beyond their small group. Imagine if they did not share the Good News outside their small circle of believers? Impossible! For with faith, as with our baptism in the same faith, is a call to participate in God’s mission - to be sent to proclaim the Good News to people of different cultures, languages and lands.
Since time immemorial, God has called his servants out of their homeland and led them to new lands and peoples. From Abraham, Moses, Ezekiel, and the prophets of the exile, from the disciples of the New Testament and the missionaries to the new world, and from the Asian martyrs and our predecessors to this country, God has continuously summoned people of every race to proclaim his love to all peoples.
I would like to think that our migration to the US points beyond the temporal reasons that may have initially pushed us or our parents and grandparents from leaving the homeland. I would like to think that like the prophets of old, we too are called out of our homeland and sent to this new land – our new homeland. As immigrants to the US, we are called to be missionaries here and now. It is here where God invites us to grow and share the gifts already given to us – gifts to be shared for the good of the whole community - not just for my own ethnic group, but the whole community!
To do this, we need to learn to appreciate who we are and where we came from, to tell our story and to celebrate the gifts we have been given. Of course, we cannot simply canonize everything about us. We also have to challenge that in our cultures which do not promote the Good News. But never forget the sacred privilege that God has bestowed on us; that God, himself has chosen to initiate his saving plan on Asian soil. As Blessed Pope John Paul II mentioned in his Apostolic Exhortation Ecclesia in Asia, and quoted by our bishops in the US on the document “Asian and Pacific Presence: Harmony in Faith” (the 10th anniversary of which we celebrate this year), “In ‘the fullness of time’(Gal 4:4), he sent his only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ the Savior, who took flesh as an Asian!... because Jesus was born, lived, died and rose from the dead in the Holy Land, that small portion of Western Asia became a land of promise and hope for all."
That Story continues with our story. Our story as an Asian and Pacific people is so directly linked to the story of God’s salvation that more is asked from us to make sure that the message of God’s love is proclaimed! And like in the story of the first Christian communities, we too are missioned to go beyond our small little groups.
There is no need for us to shake the dust of our feet as the disciples have done in protest for not being welcomed. No, we know that it takes time to be fully accepted and integrated in the society, and it takes building relationship and creating standing to be fully respected and appreciated for the gifts we bring. Much have already been achieved from the blood and sweat of our ancestors who have come before us here and have helped build this country to this moment of grace where we come together now and worship as one people – from different cultures and races, languages and traditions, but with one baptism, one mission, one God.
Our pilgrimage here today is a celebration of the God who has called us and blessed us tremendously. Our story echoes the presence of God journeying closely with us along this pilgrimage to heaven. What we experience here – the beauty and the goodness, the oneness, the spirit-filled expressions of our faith are but a glimpse of the final destination of our life’s pilgrimage. And as we have come here as a community, we continue our pilgrimage together as one family towards the final pilgrim place that God has set before us.
Let us remember the words of Jesus as we move on. “Amen, amen, whoever believes in me will do the works that I do” says the Lord. This is the map for our life’s pilgrimage, our life’s journey, our mission as God’s people.
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