MSC Magazine | Issue 4 | Summer 2020

Page 41| Missionaries of the Sacred Heart Heart has a heart willing to walk through all en- vironments, to meet all kinds of people be- cause they all matter. Black lives matter, prison lives matter, lives thrown on the streets matter, LGBTQI+ lives matter, immigrant and refugee lives matter, human lives matter. Perhaps the greatest of all the learnings this year is that we are one, we are all brothers and sisters. The virus has revealed that in es- sence, we all need to be cared for. "We are in the same boat," as Pope Francis said. The fu- ture that is emerging makes a crying request: the life of the planet matters, and humanity needs to be saved. Pope Francis' prophetic cry in his last encyclical, Fratelli Tutti, involves all of us in the courageous undertaking of rebuild- ing social friendship leaving differences aside to promote the culture of encounter. We must, as always, begin with the transfor- mation of ourselves, of our hearts that must love as Jesus loved. But the transformation does not stop in ourselves. He who sees himself transformed by the spirituality of the heart is impelled to go toward the other and give him help: help, attention, listening. "Faced with var- ious current ways of eliminating or ignoring oth- ers, let us be able to react with a new dream of fraternity and social friendship that is not lim- ited to words" (Fratelli Tutti, n. 6). Soon will come the cure, the vaccine, the rem- edy for the virus of COVID-19. But what about the remedy for a divided world, full of conflicts, lies and 'ideologies of various colours that puts the market and not human lives as the centre of everything? We, on the occasion of the greatest celebra- tion for our Congregation, want to applaud each Missionary of the Sacred Heart on this day, present in each of the 49 countries where we are present. More than that, we bow be- fore you, dear brother and confrère, as a ges- ture of gratitude and thanks for your missionary commitment. We know that it has not been easy, especially for those present in the most dangerous and challenging missions, but we are witnesses to your commitment to continue healing the people and the world. We are wit- nesses to the efforts that each MSC Entity has made in different places to keep their mission- ary work in tune with the Kingdom of God. Thank you for keeping our charism and spiritu- ality alive in difficult times like these. Certainly, if our Founder were among us today, he would be proud of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart! The MSC General Team (l - r) Humberto Henrique da Silva, Paulus Pitoy, Mario Abzalon Alvarado Tovar, Andre Claessens and Chris Chaplin