Letter from Most Rev. Barry R. Strong, OSFS, Superior General to the Oblates
On Easter Sunday, in his “Urbi et Orbi” Message, Pope Francis remarked that the day had finally arrived when the song of Alleluia was heard once more in Church, passing from “heart to heart,” making “the people of God throughout the world shed tears of joy.” Easter is the feast of the triumph of hope. “The resurrection of Jesus,” the Holy Father taught, “is indeed the basis of our hope.” Quoting the Easter Sequence, he proclaimed: “That is why, today, we can joyfully cry out: ‘Christ, my hope, has risen!’”
As of Easter Monday, the people of God shed tears of sorrow at the passing of the Bishop of Rome. In this Holy Year he called all the faithful to be pilgrims of hope with the risen Jesus, “witnesses of the victory of love and of the disarmed power of life.” Now that his earthly pilgrimage has come to an end, may his own witness empower us to live the joy of the Gospel and recognize Christ both in the brother or sister on the way with us and in the breaking of the bread.
Let us also take this opportunity to celebrate the faithful witness of a fellow vowed Religious. Pope Francis truly enjoyed being among us. At his regular meetings with the Union of Superiors General, he dedicated a substantial amount of time to open and honest dialogue with us. In a jovial manner, he would place his prepared remarks into the hands of our president, Father Arturo Sosa, and say that, instead of reading them to us, we could have a conversation. In his message to all Superiors General, Father Sosa recalled: “That is why he wanted the meeting to be just between us, without the press, without other officials of the Holy See. He wanted us to feel free, he for one, to say what was on our hearts. In these dialogues, after all, he was helping us to become aware of what he wanted to convey to the entire people of God by associating us with his passion for the mission of the Church.”
In his Apostolic Letter, Totum Amoris Est, Pope Francis praised our St. Francis de Sales for his own passion for the mission of the Church. He wrote: “Francis was impressed and intrigued by the great issues emerging in the world, by the novel ways in which they were being approached, by the new and remarkable interest in spirituality and the unprecedented questions it raised. In a word, he sensed an authentic ‘epochal shift’ that demanded a response couched in language both old and new.” The Holy Father concluded: “That same task awaits us in this, our own age of epochal change. We are challenged to be a Church that is outward-looking and free of all worldliness, even as we live in this world, share people’s lives and journey with them in attentive listening and acceptance.”
As we pray our farewell to Pope Francis in the days ahead, let us honor him even more by bringing our distinct Salesian passion for the mission of the Church to every encounter we have with a fellow pilgrim of hope. May all cry out: Christ, my hope, has risen!