ROME, AUG. 2, 2012 (Zenit.org).- Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone celebrated Mass on Wednesday in the parish of Introd, in the Italian region of Val d’Aosta, near where he is taking some days of rest. The Mass commemorated the liturgical feast of Saint Eusebius of Vercelli, patron of the region.
L’Osservatore Romano published Cardinal Bertone’s homily, in which he urged everyone to “discover all the trust that God places in us,” as part of the process of the New Evangelization.
God sends us, the Pope’s secretary of state said, “to proclaim the Gospel among the people of our time, as the first disciples did with the pagans.”
God invites us, he continued, to trust in our capacities and the gifts he has given us and to put them at God’s service.
Each one of us has an irreplaceable role, he said, in being witnesses of faith in our families and the wider social environment.
Referring to the Year of Faith that will commence this October, Cardinal Bertone said that it will be an important time, given the needs of our time, to help people understand God’s plan for them.
In order to promote the New Evangelization first of all we need to have “a great passion for God,” he said. As well as this it is necessary to rediscover the treasures of our culture and faith, which are unknown to many who are lacking in a true Christian formation.
God calls us to be a community committed to proclaiming the Gospel, without fear, and to give witness to the Christian message with a sincere and fraternal love for each other, Cardinal Bertone commented.
Referring to Saint Eusebius, bishop of Vercelli, he noted that he was “a great figure of a believer and pastor by his way of thinking, of acting and of witnessing the faith.” Indeed, he added, a true good shepherd.
“The shepherd that feeds his sheep shows us the task of one who governs with a sense of responsibility, as opposed to the mercenary who carries out a job,” he noted.
To govern, stressed the Secretary of State, “means to take care of, to take on the defense of the weak, of the needy.
“In Christ, the bishop also holds authority over the people entrusted to him, and this is a duty, a debt, it is a ministry to others, to lead them to the fullness of life and liberty willed by God for man, his creature” he said.
Eusebius, he commented “proclaimed the Gospel everywhere and with every means, in the integral communication of the mystery of Christ,” without drawing back from the dangers of travelling and persecution from enemies.
In Eusebius, he explained, “we admire the indomitable courage of the ‘watchman of the people of God,’ who not only guides on the path of faith, but is proposed as a strong support in the turbulent and difficult journey that the faith faces amid the problems of man and of society.”
