Upon his arrival, at approximately 4:00pm, the Pope was met by the inmates. He then proceeded with the celebration of the Mass of the Lord's Supper, the first part of the Paschal (Easter) Triduum).
During the celebration, the Pope washed the feet of 12 of the prisoners, including three women, one Muslim who will be baptized in June, an Argentinian, an Albanese and six Italians. Two of these are serving life sentences, and the others should complete their sentences between 2019 and 2023.
 |
| Courtesy of the Photographic Service of L'Osservatore Romano |
The Pope told the inmates that The disciples used to argue about who was the most important amongst them ... He who feels or thinks he is important must become small and be a servant to others. That is what God – who loves us as we are – does every day.
The Paliano prison centre hosts some 70 inmates. The detention centre is the only such institute in Italy reserved in particular for former members of criminal gangs who collaborate with police and the judiciary.
Vocational training is part of the programmes in place for the inmates at Paliano and courses include pottery, bakery, carpentry, farming and bee-keeping. That’s why the inmates gifts offered to Pope Francis today include baskets of fresh farm produce, eggs, honey and a wooden crucifix.
Homily of the Holy Father, Pope Francis
for the Mass of the Lord's Supper
Jesus was at supper with them in the Last Supper and, the Gospel says, He knew that His hour had come to pass from this world to the Father. He knew he had been betrayed and that He was to be handed over that very night by Judas. Having loved His own, who were in the world, He loved them to the end. God loves like this: to the end. And He gives His life for each one of us, and He boasts of this and wants this because He is love: To love to the end. It’s not easy because all of us are sinners; we all have limitations, defects, so many things. We are all able to love, but we are not like God, who loves without looking at the consequences, to the end. And He gives the example: to have this understood, He who was the head, who was God, washes the feet of His disciples. The washing of feet was a custom that was done at the time, before lunch and before supper, because there wasn’t any pavement and the people walked in the dust. Therefore, one of the gestures to receive a person at home, and also to eat, was to wash his feet. Slaves did this, those who were enslaved did this, but Jesus turns things upside down and does it Himself. Simon did not want Him to do it, but Jesus explained to him that it must be so, that He came to the world to serve, to serve us, to make Himself a slave for us, to give His life for us, to love to the end.
Today, when I arrived, there were people on the street saying: The Pope is coming, the head, the head of the Church . . . Jesus is the head of the Church; we are not joking! The Pope is the figure of Jesus and I would like to do the same thing He did. In this ceremony, the parish priest washes the feet of the faithful. There is a reversal: the one who seems the greatest must do the work of the slave, but to sow love — to sow love among us. I don’t tell you today to go and wash the feet of one another: it would be a joke. But the symbol, the figure yes: I will tell you that if you can give help, do something here, in prison, for your male or female companion, do it.
Because this is love, this is what it means to wash feet. It is to be the servant of others. Once the disciples were arguing among themselves, about who was the greatest, the most important. And Jesus said: He who wants to be important, must make himself small and a servant of all.” And this is what He did; God does this with us. He serves us. He is the servant – of all of us, who are poor things, all! But He is great; He is good. And He loves us as we are. Therefore, during this ceremony we think of God, of Jesus. It’s not a trivial ceremony: it is a gesture to remember what Jesus has given us. After this, He took bread and gave us His Body; He took wine, and gave us His Blood. God’s love is like this. Today let us think only of the love of God.
(Original text: Italian)
(Translation by Virginia M. Forrester)
No comments:
Post a Comment