Becoming an apostle of justice

Solidarity Trip to Honduras – D&P with CCCM

I was struck this morning by the reading of Acts 1, 15-17, 20-26 that mention the criteria in order to become or to be considered an apostle. Since one of the twelve had failed, he had to be replaced to preserve their sacred number:  the new people of God is built on the Apostles in the same way that ancient Israel proceeds from the twelve sons of Jacob.

In order to be chosen as apostle, Matthias must have followed Jesus from his baptism to the ascension in order to “become (with the other apostles) a witness of his resurrection”. “Thus to have lived with Christ, to have listened to his teachings, to have shared in his intimacy, to have eaten and drunk with him after his resurrection from the dead, is the irreplacable experience that allows the apostles to speak of him with assurance and which gave them the strength to seal their witnessing in their blood” (free translation from the French commentary in Magnificat for the mass of the 15th May, 2010).

I have met people in Honduras whose lives are at stake because of their witnessing of Christ in the poor. They are a non-violent Christian resistance and through their presence to the poor they teach me that to be with the poor you must have witnessed the baptism of empowerment, that you must eat and drink with the poor, that you must share the intimacy of their pain and their hopes and be ready to give your life for them to ascend to the justice and peace that God desires for all.

In short, to be an apostle of justice means to speak the truth of injustice and accompany people in their struggle and be ready to face death in order for justice to emerge and for life to rise.

I am humbled by this witnessing in the name of Jesus. I am simultaneously attracted and repelled by it, probably because I realize that I am not close enough to the poor. As this trip draws to an end, I pray that God frees me enough so that my witnessing, my life as a priest and as a missionary, be truly apostolic. Even in my short visit here, I see that being apostles of Jesus and apostles of justice are one and the same in order to witness the resurrection.

F. Daniel Renaud, o.m.i.