Junipero Serra's Mission and America's Religious Foundations

The Spiritual Discovery of the New World: Junípero Serra’s Mission and America’s Religious Foundations and Future Most Reverend José H. Gomez Archbishop of Los Angeles North American College Rome May 2, 2015 Blessed Junípero Serra is one of the great figures in the history of the Church’s mission ad gentes — “to the nations.” When he is declared a saint later this year, Father Serra will be the latest in a line of “missionary saints” from the Americas that Pope Francis has elevated during his pontificate. It is clear that Pope Francis — the first Pope from the New World — understands the Christian “roots” of the Americas and the continent’s importance for the Church’s mission in the 21st century. For those of us from America, the canonization holds a rich symbolism and spiritual significance — it is even more powerful and more personal for those of us who are Hispanic and Mexican. As we know, Hispanic immigration — and especially immigration from Mexico — is changing the face of the Church and the broader society in the United States. So it is significant that Blessed Junípero will be America’s first Hispanic saint. He can also in some ways be described as a Mexican immigrant, having lived and worked for more than a dozen years in Mexico before coming to California. He will be the first American saint to be canonized on American soil. And of course, he is being canonized by the first Hispanic Pope — the first to speak the Spanish language as his native tongue, and a Pope who himself is an immigrant’s son. The rich symbolism of his canonization matches a time of deep uncertainty and social change in the United States. Right now, as we know, American society is caught up in a divisive political and cultural debate over immigration and the future of its historic identity as a multicultural nation of immigrants. Page 2 of 8 This canonization also comes at a time when American society and culture are being aggressively secularized and “de-Christianized.” This process — being carried out by governing and cultural elites — raises grave questions about America’s national identity and its historic commitment to freedom of conscience, religious liberty and to a civil society that respects the rights of believers and religious institutions to help shape the common good. Against the backdrop of these profound changes and challenges in American life, Father Serra’s canonization is providential. I believe it is a prophetic response to the signs of the times. Father Serra’s canonization in the nation’s capitol will bring graces and blessings. But it should also send a message. His canonization should sound a call for America to return to its deep religious and intercultural roots — as a nation born from the universal mission of the Catholic Church and the encounter of the Gospel with the first nations, cultures and peoples found in this land. His canonization should also embolden the Church with new zeal to continue her mission in our time — the continental mission of the new evangelization, creating a new world of faith and building a new city of truth and love, mercy and justice. Towards a New Conversation But in order for his canonization to bear spiritual fruits in America, I believe we need to start a new conversation about Father Serra and the missionary era. As we know, the Pope’s announcement has opened old wounds and revived bitter memories about the treatment of Native Americans during the colonial and missionary period of America’s history. To my mind, the critical reaction highlights just how distorted Father Serra’s legacy has become over the years. Sometimes it seems like scholars and activists have made Father Serra a symbol for everything they believe was wrong with the mission era. Unfortunately, a lot of the arguments out there resort to old stereotypes that can be traced back to the anti-Spanish and anti-Catholic propaganda of the “black legend.” Even in the best scholarly writing, we can detect strong prejudice against Catholic beliefs and deep skepticism about the Church’s missionary project. All of this prevents us from making an honest appraisal of Father Serra and America’s religious beginnings. Page 3 of 8 So we need a new conversation. As a way to begin that conversation, I want to offer some pastoral reflections on Father Serra’s life and ministry this morning. In these reflections, I think we will start to see a different picture of Father Serra than the one that is often portrayed. I also think reflecting on his mission helps us to understand what America was meant to be “in the beginning” — and what America still could be in the future. And finally, I hope these reflections will lead those of us in the Church to a better appreciation of the Church’s mission in the years ahead. The “Spiritual Project” of America I want to begin by placing Father Serra in his historical context. In our secular, “post-Christian” age, it is perhaps an inconvenient truth to remember that — from the beginning, America was a spiritual project. But we need to remember — in the beginning, the idea of America was rich with utopian expectation! Columbus said the Holy Spirit guided his voyages, making him a “messenger of the new heaven and the new earth.” Shakespeare called this “the brave new world.” For the Church, these lands — from the top of what is now Canada to the tip of what is now Argentina — were the Mundus Novus. The “New World” that Jesus Christ had promised for the end of the age. Father Serra was born into this era of missionary excitement and expectation in the early 1700s. His birthplace of Mallorca was a leading Franciscan missionary center. Stories of the Franciscan missions and New World missionaries like St. Francis Solanus and Venerable Antonio Margil were the “stuff” of popular books and preaching. Ramon Llull, a third order Franciscan had started a missionary college that sent missionaries to the Holy Land, Africa, the Canary Islands and elsewhere. Llull stressed respect for human dignity and freedom of conscience. He insisted that conversions must be based on — not on coercion, but on prayer and persuasion and the “inculturation” of the Gospel message in people’s language and customs. All of these ideas would later come to define Father Serra’s own thinking and missionary practice. Page 4 of 8 And like many young priests of his generation, Father Serra’s mission was inspired and formed by the experience and writings of the Franciscan Sister María de Ágreda. Though she had never left her little village in Spain, Sor María claimed that in the 1620s she was transported in the Spirit more than 500 times to evangelize the native peoples in New Mexico, Arizona and West Texas. Her “bilocations” were widely reported. Testimony from indigenous peoples in the New World and investigations by Church authorities only added to the sense of mystery surrounding this mystic missionary whom the natives called the “lady in blue.” Eventually, Church authorities asked Sor María to write an open letter to encourage missionaries and inspire more priests to enter the missions. Her letter had such an influence on Father Serra, that his missionary companion, Father Palou, included it as an appendix to his biography of Serra. Sor María held up the missionary as the highest form of discipleship. The missionary, she said, follows the “vocation of the Apostle” in “imitation of the Master.” In Father Serra’s writings we find him returning again and again to this noble ideal of the missionary. When he embarked on his missionary voyage to the New World in 1749, at the age of 35, he carried only two books with him — the Bible and Sor María’s The Mystical City of God. Leaving behind his comfortable life as a theologian and preacher, he told his parents in his farewell letter: “The dignity of the Apostolic Preacher … is the highest vocation.” My friends, this is the only way to truly understand Father Serra — and it’s the only way to truly understand the first missionaries to the Americas. Father Serra believed — with all his heart — that the Gospel was true. And out of love, he was willing to give up everything — family and home, security and fortune, even his very life — to bring the truth of this salvation to people living on the other side of the world; people he did not know, people who did not share his language or customs. Writing about his fellow missionaries, Father Serra said: “Our purpose was to attempt, each in his place, to win for his Most Holy Majesty, a multitude of souls.” His own desire, he said, was “to stir up the world to undertake the spiritual conquest of this New World, and give to God, before very long, thousands of souls.” Page 5 of 8 A missionary with a father’s love Father Serra came to this New World with a burning love for the land and its people. He seemed to know that he was a pilgrim and a stranger in this land, a migrant missionary. In one early letter, he makes the point that he is not the first to walk these lands — only the first Christian to trod this soil. Once, he came upon a native grave and found that the bones had been unearthed and scattered, probably by wild animals. Father Serra patiently gathered up the bones and gave them a solemn respectful burial. Concluding the simple account in his diary, he wrote: “May his soul rest in heaven!” All of his writings reflect genuine respect for the indigenous people and their ways.

Load more