Vatican City - At 9 a.m. this morning, in the Paul VI Hall, the Preacher of the Papal Household, Fr Roberto Pasolini, OFM. Cap., delivered the third Lenten meditation, devoted to the theme of mission within the course of meditations on Saint Francis. In his reflection, mission was not presented as something added on to conversion and fraternity, but as their fulfilment: what Francis received cannot be kept for himself, because it is meant to reach the lives of others. Pasolini structured the meditation around five stages: the primacy of witness, allowing oneself to be welcomed, waiting for questions, the encounter with the other, and finally the evangelical paradox of being “submissive to all”.
The first point was this: the Gospel is not transmitted first and foremost through formulas or carefully constructed speeches, but through a life that allows itself to be changed. Pasolini insists on a decisive Franciscan insight: Christ must first take shape within the believer, and only then can he be recognised outwardly. This is why Francis distrusts words that are not embodied in life and calls the friars to “preach by works”. Mission, then, does not consist in speaking about God, but in allowing God to become visible in gestures, choices and relationships. It is here that the text introduces one of the strongest images in the meditation: the believer as “mother” of Christ, called to carry him within and to bring him forth into the world through holy action.
From this comes the second stage, perhaps the most disconcerting: before proclaiming, one must allow oneself to be welcomed. Pasolini reads the Gospel mandate given to the disciples and draws a precise conclusion from it: the missionary does not enter the lives of others as someone bringing something to those who lack it, but as someone who recognises a good already present and gives it a name. In this way, evangelisation is stripped of every trace of superiority. Whoever allows himself to be hosted recognises that the other is not merely a recipient, but also a person from whom something may be received. Mission thus becomes a poor and unarmed gesture, capable of bringing to light what God is already accomplishing in the hearts of men and women.
The third turning point concerns the time of listening. Pasolini says that to evangelise does not mean filling silence with answers, but waiting for the real questions to emerge. The episode of the brigands and that of the Ethiopian eunuchwere used precisely to show this: before asking for change, one must offer welcome, respect and trust. Only then can the word reach the heart. In this perspective, proclamation occupies little space; far more decisive are the shared journey, patience, listening, and the ability to accompany others without forcing them.
The concluding part of the meditation focused on Francis’s encounter with the Sultan at Damietta. Pasolini did not read that episode as a failure because it did not produce a visible conversion, but as a successful manifestation of the Gospel: two men, in the midst of war, are able to meet without imposing themselves on one another. From this also comes the final key phrase of the meditation, “submissive to all”, which does not indicate resignation or weakness, but a higher form of evangelical freedom. Not to stand above, but below; not to conquer, but to make room. For Pasolini, this is the form taken by the love of Christ and, at the same time, the criterion of Franciscan mission.
The final meditation of this Lent will be offered to the Pope and the Roman Curia next Friday.