At 7:00am local time this morning (2:00am EST), the Holy Father, Pope Francis celebrated Mass inside the chapel at the Casa Santa Marta.
Today, I would like to remember families who cannot leave their homes. Perhaps the only place outside where they can go is their balcony. Within, there is the family, with their children, their teenagers, the parents: may they find ways to communicate well, to build relationships of love within their families, and may they be able to overcome the anxieties of this time, together, in the midst of their families. Let us ask for peace in families today, in this crisis, and for creativity.
This word that the Lord speaks, we heard it yesterday. Return, come home. From the same book of the prophet Hosea, we find the response: Come, let us return to the Lord. This is a response that comes from our hearts when we come home, when we come back to the Lord. He has torn us to pieces but he will heal us. He has struck us down but he will bandage our wounds ... Let us set ourselves to know the Lord; his coming is as certain as the dawn. He says: trust in the Lord, trust in the Lord is secure. He will come to us as surely as showers come like spring rains, watering the earth (Hos 6:1-3), and with this hope, the people begin their journey to return to the Lord. One of the ways we can find the Lord is through prayer. We can pray to the Lord, return to him.
In the gospel, Jesus teaches us how to pray. There are two men. One is presumptuous. He goes to pray but he begins with how good he himself is (cf Lk 18:11-12), as if to say to the Lord: Look, see how good I am? If you need anything, ask me and I will take care of your problem. This is the way he interacted with God. Presumptuousness. Perhaps he did indeed do everything that the Lord told him: he fasted twice a week, he paid tithes on all that he received (cf Lk 18:12). Look at me, I'm good.
This reminds us of two other men. It reminds us of the elder son in the parable of the prodigal son, when he goes to the father and says: I am so good, yet you have never thrown a banquet for me, but now you have thrown one for him (cf Lk 15:29-30). Presumptuousness. The other story that we have heard recently is the story of the rich man, without a name, but he was rich (cf Lk 16:19). He was capable of making a name for himself but the sufferings of others didn't matter to him at all. These are people who have self-confidence and money and power ...
And then there is the other man, the tax collector (Lk 18:13). He doesn't stand at the altar. He remains at a distance. He doesn't even dare to raise his eyes to heaven. Instead, he beat his breast and prayed: God, be merciful to me a sinner. This makes us remember the prodigal son, after all the terrible things that he had done, he also beat his breast and said to himself: I will return to my father and say, 'Father, I have sinned' (Lk 15:18-19). Humiliation. This reminds us also of the poor man, the beggar Lazarus at the rich man's door. He lived in misery and suffering in the face of the rich man's presumption. In the gospel, there is always this comparison between two different people. With this, the Lord teaches us how to pray, how to draw near, how we need to draw near to the Lord: with humility.
There is a beautiful image in the liturgical hymn for the Feast of Saint John the Baptist. It says that the people drew near to the Jordan to receive baptism with both their souls and feet bared, so we pray with our souls bared, without any makeup, without the costumes of our own virtue. He forgives every sin, but he needs us to show him our sins, with our own humility. Praying in this way, naked, with an uncovered honesty, praying between you and me, face to face, with a soul that has been stripped naked.
This is what the Lord teaches us. Instead, when we go to the Lord, a bit too confident in ourselves, we fall into the presumption of the elder son or the man who didn't need anything. Let us leave our self-confidence aside and go to the Lord because we need to go to the Lord, not to be educated. I can speak to him one on one. That''s not the way. The way is to make myself low, the path is our reality. The only one who understood that reality was the tax collector: You are God and I am a sinner. That's the reality, but it's not only a matter of saying that I am a sinner but also from the heart, a matter of really meaning what we say, knowing that we are sinners. Let's not forget this lesson that the Lord teaches us.
To justify ourselves is a matter of pride, a matter of exalting ourselves and of dressing ourselves up as someone we are not, while everything remains inside. The Pharisees justified themselves. We must confess our own sins without justifying them, without saying: Oh, no. It wasn't my fault. Yes, I did it, but it isn't my fault. A soul that is naked. May the Lord teach us to understand this attitude when we pray. When we begin our prayer with our own justification, with our own securities, that's not prayer. That's like speaking to a mirror. Instead, when we begin our prayer with the true reality of admitting: I am a sinner, this is a good step forward, allowing the Lord to look at us. May the Lord teach us this lesson.
Greetings of the Holy Father, Pope Francis
prior to the celebration of the Mass
Today, I would like to remember families who cannot leave their homes. Perhaps the only place outside where they can go is their balcony. Within, there is the family, with their children, their teenagers, the parents: may they find ways to communicate well, to build relationships of love within their families, and may they be able to overcome the anxieties of this time, together, in the midst of their families. Let us ask for peace in families today, in this crisis, and for creativity.
Homily of the Holy Father, Pope Francis
during the Mass celebrated on 21 March 2020
This word that the Lord speaks, we heard it yesterday. Return, come home. From the same book of the prophet Hosea, we find the response: Come, let us return to the Lord. This is a response that comes from our hearts when we come home, when we come back to the Lord. He has torn us to pieces but he will heal us. He has struck us down but he will bandage our wounds ... Let us set ourselves to know the Lord; his coming is as certain as the dawn. He says: trust in the Lord, trust in the Lord is secure. He will come to us as surely as showers come like spring rains, watering the earth (Hos 6:1-3), and with this hope, the people begin their journey to return to the Lord. One of the ways we can find the Lord is through prayer. We can pray to the Lord, return to him.
In the gospel, Jesus teaches us how to pray. There are two men. One is presumptuous. He goes to pray but he begins with how good he himself is (cf Lk 18:11-12), as if to say to the Lord: Look, see how good I am? If you need anything, ask me and I will take care of your problem. This is the way he interacted with God. Presumptuousness. Perhaps he did indeed do everything that the Lord told him: he fasted twice a week, he paid tithes on all that he received (cf Lk 18:12). Look at me, I'm good.
This reminds us of two other men. It reminds us of the elder son in the parable of the prodigal son, when he goes to the father and says: I am so good, yet you have never thrown a banquet for me, but now you have thrown one for him (cf Lk 15:29-30). Presumptuousness. The other story that we have heard recently is the story of the rich man, without a name, but he was rich (cf Lk 16:19). He was capable of making a name for himself but the sufferings of others didn't matter to him at all. These are people who have self-confidence and money and power ...
And then there is the other man, the tax collector (Lk 18:13). He doesn't stand at the altar. He remains at a distance. He doesn't even dare to raise his eyes to heaven. Instead, he beat his breast and prayed: God, be merciful to me a sinner. This makes us remember the prodigal son, after all the terrible things that he had done, he also beat his breast and said to himself: I will return to my father and say, 'Father, I have sinned' (Lk 15:18-19). Humiliation. This reminds us also of the poor man, the beggar Lazarus at the rich man's door. He lived in misery and suffering in the face of the rich man's presumption. In the gospel, there is always this comparison between two different people. With this, the Lord teaches us how to pray, how to draw near, how we need to draw near to the Lord: with humility.
There is a beautiful image in the liturgical hymn for the Feast of Saint John the Baptist. It says that the people drew near to the Jordan to receive baptism with both their souls and feet bared, so we pray with our souls bared, without any makeup, without the costumes of our own virtue. He forgives every sin, but he needs us to show him our sins, with our own humility. Praying in this way, naked, with an uncovered honesty, praying between you and me, face to face, with a soul that has been stripped naked.
This is what the Lord teaches us. Instead, when we go to the Lord, a bit too confident in ourselves, we fall into the presumption of the elder son or the man who didn't need anything. Let us leave our self-confidence aside and go to the Lord because we need to go to the Lord, not to be educated. I can speak to him one on one. That''s not the way. The way is to make myself low, the path is our reality. The only one who understood that reality was the tax collector: You are God and I am a sinner. That's the reality, but it's not only a matter of saying that I am a sinner but also from the heart, a matter of really meaning what we say, knowing that we are sinners. Let's not forget this lesson that the Lord teaches us.
To justify ourselves is a matter of pride, a matter of exalting ourselves and of dressing ourselves up as someone we are not, while everything remains inside. The Pharisees justified themselves. We must confess our own sins without justifying them, without saying: Oh, no. It wasn't my fault. Yes, I did it, but it isn't my fault. A soul that is naked. May the Lord teach us to understand this attitude when we pray. When we begin our prayer with our own justification, with our own securities, that's not prayer. That's like speaking to a mirror. Instead, when we begin our prayer with the true reality of admitting: I am a sinner, this is a good step forward, allowing the Lord to look at us. May the Lord teach us this lesson.
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