Remembering Gonsalo Garcia (Paul Miki and Companions)
Shall we do our part towards the Reign of God!
David gives instruction to young Solomon as he is about to take over the Kingdom. Jesus gives instruction to his apostles as they are about to set out for a mission! The common element is the instruction and there is a common thread that runs through the two sets of instructions too. For that matter the whole of the Word of God, and Jesus as the Word of God made flesh always has this ready message to give us: Seek first the Reign of God, and all other things will be given unto you (Mat 6:33). Paul Miki and his companions, the martyrs we remember today, the apostles, the first christian communities, the early missionaries... every one of them was filled with this same zeal. Health. wealth, pleasure, not even life mattered more than the Reign of God for them! Solomon would later fall from the glory of his father, precisely because he would lose sight of the Reign that God wanted to establish. Let us renew our commitment towards the Reign of God today - the Reign of justice, love, peace, brotherhood and sisterhood... in short Shalom, Wholeness, God's presence! Let us make present these in our little way today!
It is a wonderful element to celebrate today, that one of the companions of Paul Miki was of Indian Origin - Gonsalo Garcia (though his father was a Portugese), from the Vasai, region of Maharastra - first Indian to have been canonised!