“The Gospel is an invitation and a freely bestowed right for all those who want to hear it”. Pope Francis said this in his homily at the Mass he celebrated at Bangkok’s National Stadium today in front of tens of thousands of people – not just Thai but also Vietnamese – who had come from all over the country to see the Successor of Peter visiting their lands again after 35 years. Before him, only John Paul II had made this journey. “It is surprising to see how full the Gospel is of questions that attempt to unsettle and stir the heart of the disciples, inviting them to set out to discover the truth that is capable of giving and generating life”, Pope Francis remarked before a choreography replicating the Pontiff’s face: “Questions that challenge us to open our hearts and minds to encounter a newness much more beautiful than we could possibly imagine. The questions of the Master are always meant to renew our lives and those of our communities with incomparable joy”. “Such was the case with the missionaries who first set foot in these lands”, the Pope stated: “By hearing the Lord’s word and responding to its demands, they came to realize that they were part of a family much larger than any based on blood lines, cultures, regions or ethnic groups. Impelled by the power of the Spirit, their bags filled with the hope brought by the good news of the Gospel, they set out in search of family members they did not yet know. They set out to seek their faces”. “Their hearts had to be opened to a new way of thinking capable of overcoming the ‘adjectives’ that create division; this enabled them to discover the many Thai ‘mothers and brethren’ who were still absent from their Sunday table”, Pope Francis argued: “Not only to share with them everything that they themselves could offer, but also to receive what they needed to grow in their own faith and understanding of the Scriptures”. “Without that encounter, Christianity would have lacked your face”, he told the Thai people: “It would have lacked the songs and dances that portray the Thai smile, so typical in your lands. The missionaries came to understand more fully the Father’s loving plan, which is not limited to a select few or a specific culture, but is greater than all our human calculations and predictions”.