(OSV News) -- San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone told pilgrims at a Pentecost Mass launching the western route of the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage -- the St. Junipero Serra Route -- that the faith publicly lived in love has the "power to change history."
Speaking May 19 at St. Mary of the Assumption Cathedral in San Francisco, Archbishop Cordileone urged those gathered to follow Jesus Christ in his "way of love."
Archbishop Cordileone began by noting moments in history where people of faith made a difference, including the recently beatified Ulma family -- a mother, father and their seven children -- who were martyred in Poland by the Nazis for sheltering Jews.
"This is faith lived at its best -- not timid, not hidden, kept in secret, but visibly displayed -- making a difference in the lives of people and in world events," he told those gathered.
Referring to their procession to the Golden Gate Bridge following the Mass and launching the eight-week pilgrimage, Archbishop Cordileone said, "Today, we publicly display our faith. We will take it to the streets with our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. Eventually, all the way to Indianapolis for the National Eucharistic Congress in two months."
"Will this be for us simply a quaint folkloric custom?" he asked. "Or will it be the display of faith that has the power to change history and to change hearts? The answer to that question will depend on whether or not we display our faith in the way that really matters, manifesting it visibly in the way we live our life."
He contrasted St. Paul's discussion of the works of the flesh to the fruits of the Spirit in Galatians, saying the works of the flesh have "very bitter fruit, which we are reaping now in our own country. We lament the polarization, the hostility of people toward each other simply for disagreeing on contentious issues. We lament the violence, the anxiety, the growing divide between rich and poor, the demeaning and marginalization of people who are different from those considered acceptable in so-called polite society."
The fruits of the Spirit, he continued, are "love; joy; peace; patience; kindness; generosity, faithfulness; gentleness; self-control. This is a life of virtue, a life lived with regard for the other. Selflessness, living the way of love, which always looks to the good of the other, without regard for one's own self."
"Imagine a society regulated by this way of love," he said. "Imagine how much happier and more peaceful it would be."
"If we are public about our faith, displaying it by righteous living," Archbishop Cordileone said, "then others will perceive in us something different: a better way to live. And this is the most important meaning of the power of faith to change history. The power to change the history of individual lives, bringing them into the saving encounter with Jesus Christ and knowing his love, grace, truth and freedom."
As pilgrims prepared to embark on their Eucharistic journey, Archbishop Cordileone urged them to follow Jesus "not simply across the Golden Gate Bridge or even simply all the way to Indianapolis, but follow his way of love. The way that reaps the sweet fruit of the Spirit, the way that has the power to change history, to change hearts, to bring the life of heaven to earth and to bring us to the life of heaven when we pass from this world to the next. May God grant us this grace."
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