Pope celebrates Mass with Swiss Guard

Today is the liturgical memorial of Saints Philip and James, apostles of Jesus.  Pope Francis concelebrated Mass this morning in the chapel of the Casa Santa Marta with Archbishop Claudio Maria Celli, President of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications and in the presence of the Pontifical Swiss Guard with their commander Daniel Rudolf Anrig. On Sunday May 6^th, the guard will hold their annual celebration, commemorating the last stand of 1527 with Mass and the swearing in of new recruits.

At the end of the celebration, Pope Francis addressed a special greeting them, describing their service as a beautiful testimony of fidelity to the Church and love for the Pope. 

In his homily which focused on the readings of the day, Pope Francis said all Christians who have received the gift of faith must pass this gift on by proclaiming it with our lives, with our word. But, the Pope questioned, what is this fundamental faith? It is faith in the Risen Jesus, in Jesus who has forgiven our sins through His death and reconciled us with the Father. Transmitting this requires us to be courageous: the courage of transmitting the faith. A sometimes simple courage. I remember - excuse me - a personal story: as a child every Good Friday my grandmother took us to the Procession of Candles and at the end of the procession came the recumbent Christ and my grandmother made us kneel down and told us children, 'Look he is dead, but tomorrow he will be Risen! '. That is how the faith entered: faith in Christ Crucified and Risen. In the history of the Church there have been many, many people who have wanted to blur this strong certainty and speak of a spiritual resurrection. No, Christ is alive.

ope Francis continued saying that Christ is alive and is also alive among us, reiterating that Christians must have the courage to proclaim His Resurrection, the Good News. But, he added there is also another courage that Jesus asks of us:  Jesus - to put it in stronger terms - challenges us to prayer and says this:' Whatever you ask in my name, I will do so that the Father may be glorified in the Son '. If you ask anything in my name, I will do it ... But this is really powerful! We must have the courage to go to Jesus and ask him: 'But you said this, do it! Make the faith grow, make evangelization move forward, help me to solve this problem... Do we have this courage in prayer? Or do we pray a little, when we can, spending a bit' of time in prayer? But that courage, that parresia even in prayer ... 

The Pope recalled how we read in the Bible that Abraham and Moses have the courage to negotiate with the Lord. A courage in favor of others, in favor of the Church which we also need today:  When the Church loses courage, the Church enters into a ‘lukewarm’ atmosphere. The lukewarm, lukewarm Christians, without courage ... That hurts the Church so much, because this tepid atmosphere draws you inside, and problems arise among us; we no longer have the horizon, or courage to pray towards heaven, or the courage to proclaim the Gospel. We are lukewarm ... We have the courage to get involved in our small things in our jealousies, our envy, our careerism, in selfishly going forward ... In all these things, but this is not good for the Church: the Church must be courageous! We all have to be courageous in prayer, in challenging Jesus!