9 August 1984
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

My dear Sisters and my dear Confreres,

Exactly a year ago to the day I celebrated Mass here in Rio with you at the end of my visit to this vast country of yours. Here I am again, this time passing through San Paolo and Rio on my way back to Rome from visiting some other countries of Latin America. As we meet each other briefly this evening, I stand before you very much as a pilgrim. My stay is a short one, just a stopover. Let me say, however, that I am very happy to greet you once again and to have this opportunity of offering with you the Mass, that sacrifice which, in the words of one of the Eucharistic prayers, brings salvation to the whole world.

Like all pilgrims I am torn between the desire to reach my destination and another desire to settle down and remain in those places which attract me. However, true pilgrims never lose sight of the fact that it is arrival at the goal of their pilgrimage which gives sense to the whole pilgrimage. So the desire to settle down in one particular place must be resisted, and that often costs a lot. The vows we take in Community could be said to have as one of their purposes the keeping alive in us of the mentality of a pilgrim. Pilgrims, while on their journey, lodge in places that are not their homes: we have our vow of chastity, we do not establish homes of our own. Pilgrims usually travel light, as we say: we have our vow of poverty. Pilgrims keep on the move: we have our vow of obedience that places us now in one house and now in another. Pilgrims are not unmindful of their fellow travelers: so Sisters have their vow of service of the poor and Confreres their vow of stability, that is, their engagement to the preaching of the Gospel to the poor.

It is good to see our vows in this light from time to time, because in that way we are helped to remain detached from all that could either make us forget what we are supposed to be doing with our lives, or distract us from the ideals set before us in the Gospel and in our own particular Constitutions.

You could say that the temptation to which we are continually exposed, namely, of losing sight of our pilgrim status, was one to which St. Peter succumbed. In the Gospel of today's Mass St. Peter wanted Our Lord to bypass the pilgrim route that took Him through Calvary. Our Lord rejected with considerable force that suggestion of Peter's. On another occasion at the beginning of Our Lord's public life, St. Peter wanted Our Lord to settle down in Capernaum where one evening He had great success in curing and healing a multitude of people. Our Lord turned down Peter's suggestion: "Let us," He said, "go on to the next towns that I may preach there also, for that is why I have come." (Mk 1:38).

To St. Peter's credit it must be said that by the light and strength of the Holy Spirit he learned the lesson well. St. Peter passed from Jerusalem to Antioch and from there to Rome. Peter made his pilgrimage to Rome where, sharing in the passion and cross of his Master, he entered into the heavenly Jerusalem which is the terminus of the pilgrimage for us all.