At 10:15am this morning (Rome time), the Holy Father, Pope Francis celebrated Mass in Saint Peter's Square and canonized Blessed Andrea de Soveral and Ambrogio Francesco Ferro, both of whom were diocesan priests; as well as Matteo Moreira and 27 of his companions who are martyrs. The Holy Father also canonized Cristoforo, Antonio and Giovanni, teenaged martyrs; Faustino Míguez, a priest who was a professed member of the Order of Regular Poor Clerics of the Mother of God and Pious Schools (also known as the Scolopi) who founded the Congregation of Calasanz Sisters , Daughters of the Divine Shepherdess; and Angelo da Acri, a priest who was a professed member of the Order of Capuchin Friars Minor.
The parable that we have heard speaks to us of the Kingdom of God as a marriage feast (cf Mt 22:1-14). The protagonist is the son of a king, the bridegroom, in whom we easily understand the figure of Jesus. In the parable however, there is no mention of the wife, but rather the many guests who have been invited, desired and awaited: they are the ones who must dress in the wedding gown. These invited guests are us, all of u, because in each one of us, the Lord wants to celebrate the wedding. The wedding inaugurates a life-long communion: it is what the Lord desires with each one of us. Our relationship with Him then, cannot be merely one of devoted subjects in relation to their king, faithful servants in relation to their master or diligent school children in relation to their teacher; rather it is first and foremost a relationship of a beloved wife with her husband. In other words, the Lord desires us, searches for us and invites us, and He is not content with the fact that we fulfill pious duties and observe his laws, rather he wants to establish true and proper communion for life with each of us, a relationship built on dialogue, trust and forgiveness.
This is Christian life, a story of love with God, where the Lord freely takes the initiative and where no one of us can boast about the exclusivity of our invitation: none of us is privileged above anyone else, but each of us is privileged before God. From this free, tender and privileged love the Christian life is born and reborn, again and again. We can ask ourselves whether, at least once a day, we tell the Lord that we love him; whether we remember, among our many words, that we have told Him every day: I love you Lord. You are my life. Because if love is lost, Christian life becomes sterile, it becomes a soulless body, an impossible morality, a set of unreasonable principles and laws to measure up against. Instead, the God of life waits for a living answer, the Lord of love is waiting for an answer of love. Speaking to a Church, in the Book of Revelation, He makes a precise reproach: You have abandoned your first love (Rev 2:4). This is the danger: a routine Christian life, where we are content with normality, without any drive, with no enthusiasm, and with a short memory. Instead, we must revive the memory of our first love: we are the beloved, those who are invited to the wedding, and our life is a gift, because every day is a magnificent opportunity for us to respond to the invitation.
But the gospel places us on guard: the invitation can however be refused. Many of the invited guests said no, because they were busy with other interests: they did not care, and went to their own fields, about their own business says the text (Mt 22:5). One word comes back: the key to understanding the motive for their refusal. In fact, the invited guests did not think that the wedding would be sad or boring; rather, they simply did not care: they were distracted by their own interests, preferring to have something rather than to get involved, and love requires us to get involved. This is how we distance ourselves from love, not through wickedness but because we prefer our own interests: security, self-affirmation, comfort ... Then we lie back on thrones of our own making, our pleasures, whatever hobbies give us some degree of pleasure, but in this way, we grow old quickly and do not age well, because we grow old within: when the heart is not dilate, it closes up, it ages. And when everything depends on my ego - where I go, what I find useful, whatever I want - it also becomes rigid and bad, it reacts badly for no reason, like the guests in the gospel, who were insulted and preferred to kill the messengers (cf Mt 22:6) those who offered them the invitation, merely because they were inconvenient.
So the Gospel asks us where we stand: on our side or on God's side? Because God is the opposite to egotism, to self-centredness. The gospel tells us that faced with the continual refusals he encounters, having been greeted with nothing but negative responses to his invitations, he keeps going, he does not postpone the feast. He does not give up, but continues to invite. Faced with all those no's, he does not close the door, but opens it even wider to include more people. When we are hurt because we have been wronged or because we have been refused, we can sometimes experience dissatisfaction and resentment. On the other hand, even while God suffers because of our no's, he is always trying, he continues doing good even for those who do bad things. Today, this God, who never gives up, encourages us to do as he does, to live according to true love, to overcome the temptation to give up and to go beyond the constant temptations of our own egos.
There is a final aspect that the gospel points out: the garment that is worn by the invited guests is indispensable. In fact it is not enough for us to respond once to the invitation, to say yes and then to relax, we need to dress in the appropriate garment, we need to practice the habit of living love every day. Because we cannot say: Lord, Lord without living and practicing the will of God (cf Mt 7:21). We need to get dressed every day, to put on his love, to renew our choice for God every day. The saints who have been canonized today, especially the many martyrs, show us the way. They did not say yes to love only in words and only for a while, but with their lives, to the very end. Each day, they clothed themselves in the love of Jesus, the crazy love with which he loved us to the end. He even left his forgiveness and his clothing to those who crucified him. We too have received the white garment of our Baptism, God's wedding garment. Let us ask Him, through the intercession of these saintly brothers and sisters of ours, to grant us the grace to choose and to wear his garment every day, and to keep it clean. How do we do this? First of all, by going to confession and by receiving the Lord's forgiveness without any fear: this is the decisive step of entering into the wedding banquet room where we celebrate the feast of love with Him.
At the conclusion of the Mass which included the Rite of Canonization for Blessed Andrea de Soveral and Ambrogio Francesco Ferro, Matteo Moreira ad 27 of his companions, Christoforo, Antonio and Giovanni, Faustino Míguez and Angelo da Acri, the Holy Father led the recitation of the Angelus with the faithful and with pilgrims who were gathered in Saint Peter's Square.
Dear brothers and sisters,
At the conclusion of this celebration, I cordially greet all of you who have come from various countries to pay homage to the new Saints. A respectful thought goes out especially to the official delegations from Brazil, France, Italy, Mexico, Malta and Spain. The example and the intercession of these luminous witnesses to the gospel accompany us on our path and help us to promote fraternity and solidarity for the good of the Church and of society.
In response to the desire of some Episcopal Conferences in Latin America, as well as the voices of various Pastors and the faithful in other parts of the world, I have decided to convoke a Special Assembly of the Synod of Bishops for the Pan-Amazon region, which will take place in Rome during the month of October 2019. The principal focus of this gathering is to identify new paths of evangelization for that portion of the People of God, especially among the indigenous people, who are sometimes forgotten and without the prospect of a serene future, due to the crisis facing the Amazon rainforest, one of the most important lungs for our planet. May the new Saints intercede for this ecclesiastical gathering, so that out of respect for the beauty of creation, all people of the earth may praise God, the Lord of the universe, and enlightened by Him, may they walk the paths of justice and peace.
I remember that the day after tomorrow we will commemorate the Day of Rejection and Misery. Suffering is not fatal: it has causes which need to be recognized and removed in order to honour the dignity of many of our brothers and sisters, following the example of the saints.
And now, let us turn in prayer to the Virgin Mary.
Angelus Domini ...
Homily of the Holy Father, Pope Francis
for the Mass of Canonization
The parable that we have heard speaks to us of the Kingdom of God as a marriage feast (cf Mt 22:1-14). The protagonist is the son of a king, the bridegroom, in whom we easily understand the figure of Jesus. In the parable however, there is no mention of the wife, but rather the many guests who have been invited, desired and awaited: they are the ones who must dress in the wedding gown. These invited guests are us, all of u, because in each one of us, the Lord wants to celebrate the wedding. The wedding inaugurates a life-long communion: it is what the Lord desires with each one of us. Our relationship with Him then, cannot be merely one of devoted subjects in relation to their king, faithful servants in relation to their master or diligent school children in relation to their teacher; rather it is first and foremost a relationship of a beloved wife with her husband. In other words, the Lord desires us, searches for us and invites us, and He is not content with the fact that we fulfill pious duties and observe his laws, rather he wants to establish true and proper communion for life with each of us, a relationship built on dialogue, trust and forgiveness.
This is Christian life, a story of love with God, where the Lord freely takes the initiative and where no one of us can boast about the exclusivity of our invitation: none of us is privileged above anyone else, but each of us is privileged before God. From this free, tender and privileged love the Christian life is born and reborn, again and again. We can ask ourselves whether, at least once a day, we tell the Lord that we love him; whether we remember, among our many words, that we have told Him every day: I love you Lord. You are my life. Because if love is lost, Christian life becomes sterile, it becomes a soulless body, an impossible morality, a set of unreasonable principles and laws to measure up against. Instead, the God of life waits for a living answer, the Lord of love is waiting for an answer of love. Speaking to a Church, in the Book of Revelation, He makes a precise reproach: You have abandoned your first love (Rev 2:4). This is the danger: a routine Christian life, where we are content with normality, without any drive, with no enthusiasm, and with a short memory. Instead, we must revive the memory of our first love: we are the beloved, those who are invited to the wedding, and our life is a gift, because every day is a magnificent opportunity for us to respond to the invitation.
But the gospel places us on guard: the invitation can however be refused. Many of the invited guests said no, because they were busy with other interests: they did not care, and went to their own fields, about their own business says the text (Mt 22:5). One word comes back: the key to understanding the motive for their refusal. In fact, the invited guests did not think that the wedding would be sad or boring; rather, they simply did not care: they were distracted by their own interests, preferring to have something rather than to get involved, and love requires us to get involved. This is how we distance ourselves from love, not through wickedness but because we prefer our own interests: security, self-affirmation, comfort ... Then we lie back on thrones of our own making, our pleasures, whatever hobbies give us some degree of pleasure, but in this way, we grow old quickly and do not age well, because we grow old within: when the heart is not dilate, it closes up, it ages. And when everything depends on my ego - where I go, what I find useful, whatever I want - it also becomes rigid and bad, it reacts badly for no reason, like the guests in the gospel, who were insulted and preferred to kill the messengers (cf Mt 22:6) those who offered them the invitation, merely because they were inconvenient.
So the Gospel asks us where we stand: on our side or on God's side? Because God is the opposite to egotism, to self-centredness. The gospel tells us that faced with the continual refusals he encounters, having been greeted with nothing but negative responses to his invitations, he keeps going, he does not postpone the feast. He does not give up, but continues to invite. Faced with all those no's, he does not close the door, but opens it even wider to include more people. When we are hurt because we have been wronged or because we have been refused, we can sometimes experience dissatisfaction and resentment. On the other hand, even while God suffers because of our no's, he is always trying, he continues doing good even for those who do bad things. Today, this God, who never gives up, encourages us to do as he does, to live according to true love, to overcome the temptation to give up and to go beyond the constant temptations of our own egos.
At the conclusion of the Mass which included the Rite of Canonization for Blessed Andrea de Soveral and Ambrogio Francesco Ferro, Matteo Moreira ad 27 of his companions, Christoforo, Antonio and Giovanni, Faustino Míguez and Angelo da Acri, the Holy Father led the recitation of the Angelus with the faithful and with pilgrims who were gathered in Saint Peter's Square.
Greetings of the Holy Father, Pope Francis
prior to the recitation of the Angelus
Dear brothers and sisters,
At the conclusion of this celebration, I cordially greet all of you who have come from various countries to pay homage to the new Saints. A respectful thought goes out especially to the official delegations from Brazil, France, Italy, Mexico, Malta and Spain. The example and the intercession of these luminous witnesses to the gospel accompany us on our path and help us to promote fraternity and solidarity for the good of the Church and of society.
In response to the desire of some Episcopal Conferences in Latin America, as well as the voices of various Pastors and the faithful in other parts of the world, I have decided to convoke a Special Assembly of the Synod of Bishops for the Pan-Amazon region, which will take place in Rome during the month of October 2019. The principal focus of this gathering is to identify new paths of evangelization for that portion of the People of God, especially among the indigenous people, who are sometimes forgotten and without the prospect of a serene future, due to the crisis facing the Amazon rainforest, one of the most important lungs for our planet. May the new Saints intercede for this ecclesiastical gathering, so that out of respect for the beauty of creation, all people of the earth may praise God, the Lord of the universe, and enlightened by Him, may they walk the paths of justice and peace.
I remember that the day after tomorrow we will commemorate the Day of Rejection and Misery. Suffering is not fatal: it has causes which need to be recognized and removed in order to honour the dignity of many of our brothers and sisters, following the example of the saints.
And now, let us turn in prayer to the Virgin Mary.
Angelus Domini ...
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