It is time to say “Happy New Year!” Time passes very quickly, especially after we have said those words many times. Mother Franziska must have felt the passage of time very deeply. As we read her letters or her work we cannot help but become breathless with the urgency she felt about her mission. She is not the only one who has been sent by God… all of us, the baptized, have a mission, a call from God. The liturgy of January is all about call. Beginning with John the Baptist who generously encourages his own disciples to follow Jesus and continuing with Jesus Himself, and down to our own day we must be about announcing the Kingdom of God
No one has the privilege of excusing themselves. It is especially at this time of secularism, materialism and the crumbling of the Scripture based heritage that the world has known for two thousand years, that Christians and all those who love and believe in God, must be active. Even Those who are confined to one room, or to a bare prison cell as many of the Saints were, have a mission and must give witness. The Archbishop of Ho Chi Minh City (former Hanoi), Nguyễn Văn Thuận kept in solitary confinement for nine years was such a good witness that they had to rotate his guards because so many were converted by his humility and kindness and by the joy and faith he radiated.
Mother Franziska lived in a very different time, but her love for God and His Church are still models for us today. Holiness shines all the brighter where evil tries to stamp it out. We have far better access to Sacred Scripture, books, stories of saints, because of magazines, diocesan newspapers, retreat programs and books available and especially the Internet. We must spend time learning more about our faith and letting ourselves be inspired so that our actions or even our simple “being” become lamps pointing to the Savior of the World. That is what it means to be a “Servant and Instrument” of God’s love.
