World Mission Sunday is celebrated each year by the Universal Church on the third Sunday of October. In keeping with one of the dimensions to be emphasized during this Extraordinary Missionary Month, which concludes today, we invite you to experience Mother Margarita Maria Lopez de Maturana’s life/mission in the Church through the lens of her Beatification, as well as her own words.
On World Mission Sunday, October 22, 2006 Mother Margarita, who founded the Mercedarian Missionaries of Berriz, was declared “Blessed.” The Beatification was historically significant because it took place in Bilbao, Spain—the city of her birth–the first ever Beatification outside of Rome. On that day Cardinal Jose Saraiva Martins, Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints and Papal Envoy for the occasion, presided at the Mass.
Also present were Apostolic Nuncio Archbishop Monteiro de Castro, five bishops of the Basque Provinces, Bishop Ricardo Blazquez of Bilbao, Spanish Bishopsʼ Conference President; Cardinal Carlos Amigo Vallejo, Archbishop of Seville as well as Bishop Tomas Aguon Camacho of the Diocese of Chalan Kanoa – Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands—one of the early missions established by Mother Margarita.
In addition to Bishop Tomas A. Camacho, a small group of pilgrims from Saipan witnessed the Beatification as well. They were: Ned Arriola, Rita Guerrero, Chailang Palacios, Sister Remedios Castro, Ma. Angeles Guerrero, Josephine Sablan, as well as Anicia and Jess Sonoda.
The celebration took place that year precisely on World Mission Sunday, so fitting for the occasion when the Church celebrates the universality of its mission to preach the gospel to the world. To preach Christ to the ends of the earth was the sole desire of Mother Margarita Maturana, and indeed she achieved this, for in her Beatification tribute she was called “one of the greatest missionaries of the 20th century.”
Cardinal Saraiva Martins, in his sermon, used the words of Mother Margarita to describe the love of God which inspired her. “Let everyone know there is a God who loves us maternally and guides us as if we were on the palms of His hands, because when a soul cries out for the Bread of the Divine Word, we have to go and give it to them overcoming difficulties, dangers, fears, and even failures.”
The hope of the Resurrection is a gift of Godʼs unconditional love, which Mother Margarita so gratefully accepted and wanted to share with everyone. Most of us know that God has given us that wonderful promise, but that promise filled Mother Margaritaʼs heart so fully, that one Easter Sunday she wrote: “My conviction in the love of God is so great that I live with it in continuous celebration.” She desired that it be a celebration in the heart of everyone; that the Resurrection be a daily cause for joy.
The newness of life in the Resurrection and the newness of a missionary institute which could spread this love and joy were inseparable. As soon as the transformation to a missionary order took place, Mother Margarita tells about how the community celebrated the change with joy and people saw it with amazement and warmth. Mother Margarita said that she herself was flowing with gratitude for this new life, this transformation to be missionaries, and that she felt intense joy, the knowledge of God, and very vivid desires for others to participate in this joy that her soul was celebrating.
Cardinal Martins goes on to thank God for Mother Margarita (Pilar) and her twin sister Venerable Leonor, who in their search for God, both found the desire to commit themselves to the missionary evangelization of peoples. He ends by saying: “May the example of Blessed Margarita Maria help us open new horizons to evangelization, and go in the ways of holiness and faithfulness.” He stressed the fact that this is what God wants from the Church and from each of us.
From the cloister to the Missions, this joy has been spread by the Mercedarian Missionaries of Berriz throughout the world. Today there are more than 300 MMB spread far and wide in the missions of Taiwan, China, Japan, Micronesia, Philippines, United States, Mexico, Guatemala, Ecuador, Peru, Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia in Africa, Italy, as well as throughout Spain.
Indeed, Blessed Margarita lived her own words: “Let us share our joy, our efforts, our spiritual vigor, with everyone who comes close to us.”
