The celebration in Cusco (Peru) of the 60th anniversary of the foundation of the Institute Id has had a special emotion and solemnity this year because the Eucharist of thanksgiving was presided over by the Archbishop of Cusco, Monsignor Richard Daniel Alarcón Urrutia, in a gesture of great closeness and friendship with our Institution. Mass was celebrated on Friday, June 28 in the church of San Antonio Abad and was concelebrated by Fr. Elier León Valdivia, parish priest of San Antonio Abad and a great friend of our Institution. The members of the Idente family, the young women of the Idente youth and friends of our institution attended, among them, some religious from other congregations.
The following is a part of the Archbishop’s homily, in which he underlines the richness of our charism and its need in the Church of Peru and Cusco.
Dear brothers and sisters: The Lord wanted this Mass celebrating the anniversary of the Institute of Idente Missionaries to coincide also with the solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the day of prayer for the sanctification of priests. From our faith, things don’t happen by chance. Everything is within God’s plan and God always determines things as He wants and in this Mass He allows us to contemplate very important mysteries that help us to understand the value of the presence of a charism within the Church and that charism present in our Archdiocesan church in Cusco.
There is a very beautiful figure, the prism … If it is without light, it is dead; but if we place a ray of light to the prism, the prism is projected with many colors, all the light becomes a fan of colors. Only one is the light and each ray of that light, expresses the projection of that light. Such are the charisms in the Church. The Holy Spirit projects the light of Christ. “I am the light of the world”. The Spirit comes, places the light in the prism and that light from the prism becomes a wonderful range of different shapes, but it is the same Christ.
That’s why in the Church there are multiplicity of lights, they all reflect Christ, they are a small detail of the love of Christ and that love of Christ reaches everyone. That is why this afternoon we are remembering with great affection, coincidentally that little light that the Holy Spirit placed in the prism of consecrated life, our Idente Missionary brothers and sisters, who have also come here to our Church to bring us that reflection of God’s love. They remind us of the missionary mandate: “Go and make disciples, teach them the Gospel and all that I have taught you”. That is their charism and that is where they have to give themselves.
We want to thank God because he has enriched our Archdiocesan Church with the presence of the Identes sisters; also for these 60 years of his presence in the universal Church and we ask God to continue giving us, because this charism is not sterile it has to be fruitful, and fruitfulness is then found in fidelity to the charism and there is no other fidelity if it is not centered in the love of Christ. Just like the good shepherd, who goes out, who seeks, who shares, who rejoices and creates this relationship of community, because it is everything for the good and growth of the community of the Church.
We therefore wish our sisters who make present here in our Cusco church this beautiful charism of the mission of proclaiming Christ and of being able to serve, giving their lives in the formation of faith and the service to their misionary brothers and sisters. The one who serves Christ must serve him with joy, the joy of the shepherd who brings the lost sheep and reincorporates it into the community.
May the Lord grant them many vocations, may the Lord allow them to continue growing here in our Peruvian land with Peruvian vocations and at the service of our people both Peruvian and Cusco. May the Lord pour out many blessings and many successes to your President, there is a President who presides over their entire institution.
May he shower you with many blessings and may all religious men and women never put any obstacle to the Lord, but put yourselves in his hands because his is the work, we are simply humble servants.
