Chatter and giggles erupted several times during the homily on Nov. 12, the fourth day of the General Chapter.
It was because the celebrant, Fr. Fernando Ventura, OFM Cap., was telling chapter attendees to look in each other’s eyes, to really see the person, to embrace their dignity and their humanity. So, they turned to one another, gazing, and exchanged greetings, along with some tittering.
His homily spoke of humans as being “condemned” to be family – in the sense that it’s a “space of construction,” a space of building relationships; not just with our own families, but with the whole Church and the entire human family.
“At the Church level,” he noted, “we will be called… to celebrate the beginning of the (2025) Jubilee Year, the year of redemption, the year of rebuilding broken relationships, the year of working harder to build a world without masters or slaves, without dominators or dominated, without people who live so full of themselves that there is no room left for anyone else, except for the SELF that exhausts itself, leaving no room for anyone else, not even for God.”
Friar Fernando urged everyone to really listen to St. Paul’s words:
“I urge you, therefore, to act in a manner worthy of the call you have received; with all humility and meekness, with patience: bearing with one another in love, striving to maintain the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one Body and one Spirit, just as your vocation has called you to one hope; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who reigns over all, acts for all, and abides in all.” (Eph 4:1-6)
He concluded the homily by calling on attendees to look at each other again, and this time to embrace one another. They did just that.
[Friar Fernando is a multi-lingual interpreter for both the Vatican and the OFS Presidency. A project dear to his heart is helping the orphans and abandoned elderly on S. Tomé and Principe, an island country off the western equatorial coast of Central Africa.]