VATICAN CITY. The most pleasing cult of Jesus is “taking care of one’s neighbor” The Lord is not a “rigid customs officer”, assures the Pontiff, who says no to a “faith weighed down by fear”. Pope Francis affirms this at Mass on the occasion of the “III Day of the Word of God” (which he himself established on September 30, 2019), during which he launches a warning on the theme of migrants: “How much pain to see our brothers and sisters dying at sea because they won’t let them disembark. And some in the name of God! ».
The Bishop of Rome enters in procession in St. Peter’s Basilica. Ten cardinals, ten bishops and one hundred and twenty priests concelebrate the liturgy with the Pontiff: the main concelebrants at the “Altar of Confession” are Archbishop Salvatore – Rino – Fisichella and Monsignor Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst, respectively president and delegate for the catechesis of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization.
During the celebration, for the first time, with a new rite prepared by the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, the Pope confers on lay women and men from different countries of the world the ministry of the lectorate and the ministry of the Catechist . Before the homily the candidates were summoned, called by name and presented to the Church. After the homily, those who had access to the ministry of lectorate were given the Bible, the Word of God they are called to proclaim. The Catechists and Catechists, on the other hand, have been entrusted with a cross, a reproduction of the pastoral cross used first by Saint Paul VI, then by Saint John Paul II, to recall the missionary character of the service they are preparing to administer. Some lay and lay faithful from South Korea, Pakistan, Ghana and various parts of Italy (Rome, Perugia, Salerno, Messina) receive the ministry of lectorate. Two lay people from the Apostolic Vicariate of Yurimaguas (Peru), in the Amazon, are also present to receive the ministry of Catechist; two faithful from Brazil who are already involved in the formation of catechists; a woman from Kumasi, Ghana; the president of the Roman Oratory Center; one lay person and one lay person from Lodz, Poland, and Madrid respectively. For reasons related to the difficulties in traveling caused by the health restrictions currently in force, the presence of two faithful from the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda has disappeared.
In his homily, Francis highlights that at the center of the life “of the holy people of God and of the journey of faith we are not, with our words. At the center is God with his Word ». Everything “begins with the Word that God has addressed to us. With his Word he created the universe, from ancient times he spoke to us through the prophets, finally, in the fullness of time, he sent us his own Word, the only begotten Son: the Word of God is no longer one promise – observes the Pope – but it has come true. In Jesus she became flesh. Through the work of the Holy Spirit she came to dwell among us and wants to dwell in us, to fill our expectations and heal our wounds ».
At the beginning of his “mission, Jesus announces a precise choice: he came for the liberation of the poor and the oppressed. Thus, precisely through the Scriptures, he reveals to us the face of God as the One who takes care of our poverty and has our destiny at heart ”. He is not a «master perched in heaven – says Jorge Mario Bergoglio – that ugly image of God, no, it is not like that, but a Father who follows in our footsteps. He is not a cold detached and impassive observer, a mathematical god, no, but the God-with-us, who is passionate about our life and is involved to the point of crying our tears ». He is not a “neutral and indifferent god, but the loving Spirit of man, who defends us, advises us, takes a stand in our favor, gets involved and compromises himself with our pain”. According to the Pontiff, “God is near and wants to take care of me, of you, of everyone. The God who is close, with that closeness that is compassionate and tender, wants to lift you from the burdens that crush you, wants to warm the cold of your winters, wants to illuminate your dark days, wants to support your uncertain steps. And he does so with his Word, with which he speaks to you to rekindle hope within the ashes of your fears, to make you rediscover joy in the labyrinths of your sadness, to fill the bitterness of loneliness with hope. It makes you go, but not in a labyrinth: it makes you go along the path, to find it more, every day ».
The Pope invites us to ask ourselves: «Do we carry this liberating image of God within our hearts, or do we think of him as a rigorous judge, a rigid customs officer of our life? Is ours a faith that generates hope and joy or is it still weighted down by fear, a fearful faith? Which face of God do we announce in the Church? The Savior who frees and heals or the Fearsome who crushes under the senses of guilt? ». For the Pontiff, the Word, “by telling us the story of God’s love for us, frees us from fears and preconceptions about him, which extinguish the joy of faith, knocks down false idols, unmasks our projections, destroys representations too human of God and brings us back to his true face, to his mercy ». The Word of God “nourishes and renews faith: let’s put it back at the center of prayer and spiritual life!”, Is Pope Bergoglio’s exhortation. And precisely when «we discover that God is compassionate love, we overcome the temptation to close ourselves in a sacral religiosity, which is reduced to external worship, which does not touch or transform life. This is idolatry, hidden, refined, but it is idolatry ».
According to Francis, “the Word pushes us out of ourselves to set out to meet our brothers and sisters with the only mild strength of God’s liberating love”. Christ is “sent to meet the poor – who are all of us – and to free them. He did not come to deliver a list of norms or to officiate some religious ceremony, but took to the streets of the world to meet wounded humanity, to caress the faces hollowed out by suffering, to heal broken hearts, to free us from the chains that we have. imprison the soul ». In this way “he reveals to us which worship is most pleasing to God: taking care of one’s neighbor”. For the Pontiff, “the Word of God changes us. And it does so by penetrating the soul like a sword. Because, if on the one hand it comforts, revealing the face of God, on the other it provokes and shakes us, bringing us back to our contradictions. It does not leave us calm, if it is a world torn by injustice that pays the price for this tranquility and the weakest are always at the expense of it. ” The Bishop of Rome underlines: “The Word undermines our justifications that make what does not always go to depend on others and on others”. At this point Pope Francis adds without reading the written text: «How much pain we feel in seeing our brothers and sisters die on the sea because they do not let them disembark! And this, some do it in the name of God. The Word of God invites us to come out, not to hide behind the complexity of the problems, behind the “there is nothing to do”, “it’s their problem”, “It’s your problem”, or “what can I do about it?”, “Let’s leave them there”. He urges us to act, to unite the worship of God and the care of man. Because sacred Scripture was not given to us to entertain us, to pamper us in an angelic spirituality, but to go out to meet others and approach their wounds ».
The Bible “does not abstract us from life, but places us in life, in everyday situations, in listening to the suffering of our brothers and sisters, to the cry of the poor, to the violence and injustices that hurt society and the planet, so as not to to be indifferent Christians, but industrious, creative, prophetic ».
The Pope warns, speaking again “off the cuff”: in the moment in which in the Church “there are the temptations of rigidity, which is a perversion, and it is believed that to find God is to become more rigid, more rigid, with more norms, right things, clear things … Not so. When we see proposals for rigidity, we immediately think: this is an idol, it is not God. Our God is not like that ».
And then, he warns: “Sisters brothers, the Word of God changes us, rigidity does not change us, it hides us”. And in a subsequent passage the Pontiff says: «I spoke of rigidity, which is one of the temptations of the Church. And this other one, looking for an angelic spirituality, is a bit of today’s other temptation: Gnostic spiritual movements, Gnosticism, which offers you a Word of God that puts you “in orbit” and does not let you touch reality. “.
In the Mass, Bergoglio gives all present the volume “Today this Scripture is fulfilled”, edited by the theologian and historian of the Church Monsignor Antonio Grappone, published by the Pontifical Council for the New Evangelization and by San Paolo Edizioni, containing a comment by the Fathers of the Church in chapters 4 and 5 of the Gospel of Luke.
The substitute for the General Affairs of the Vatican Secretariat of State, Monsignor Edgar Pena Parra, who returned negative to Covid-19 after he was found to be positive in recent days – despite having always remained asymptomatic – came out of fiduciary isolation and participated today in the Vatican Basilica at the Mass of Francis.
Unlimited access to all site content
€ 1 / month for 3 months, then € 3.99 / month for 3 months
Unlock unlimited access to all content on the site
#Migrants #Popes #warning #pain #people #die #sea #disembark #God