Today we celebrate the feast of St Miguel Febres Cordero, the first Latin American brother to make perpetual vows in his congregation, the Brothers of the Christian Schools [La Salle Brothers]. It is providential that today's gospel reading is also about the Kingdom of Christ extending to those outside the chosen race. In the papacy of Pope Francis the Church is making serious attempts to reach to the peripheries. In the recently concluded Year of Mercy, the Church deliberately tried to reach out to those whom we conveniently label as sinners and outcasts.

Through his ethnic background St Miguel brought new ways of thinking to his congregation. He was a writer and educator. The textbooks he wrote were used in almost all the countries of South America. But what Miguel really excelled at was catechesis and preparing children for their First Holy Communion. He excelled because he spoke the language of the local people in a discourse familiar to them. Let us learn to inculturate ourselves readily so as to proclaim the Good News to every corner of the world. And so let us pray in the words of St Miguel: