This
afternoon in Rome, at 5:00pm local time, the Holy Father, Francis celebrated a
Mass pro Ecclesia (for the Church) in the Sistine Chapel with the
Cardinal electors who participated in the Conclave this week.
During
this Eucharistic celebration, the following scripture passages were proclaimed:
Following
the proclamation of the Gospel, the Holy Father spoke the following homily:
In these
three readings, I see that there is something in common: that is
movement. In the First Reading, the movement is walking; in the Second
Reading, the movement is toward the building of the Church; and in the third,
in the Gospel, the movement is toward confession. Walking, building,
confession.
Walking: Come,
descendants of Jacob, let us walk in the light of the Lord (Is 2:5).
This was the first thing that God said to Abraham. Walk in my
presence and be blameless. Walking: our life is a journey and when we stop,
it's wrong. Walk in the presence of the Lord, in the light of the Lord, trying
to live with the blamelessness that God asked of Abraham, in his promise.
Building. Build the
Church. There is talk of stones: stones have consistency, but living stones,
stones anointed by the Holy Spirit build up the Church, the Bride of Christ,
the cornerstone which is the Lord. Here is another movement in our lives: to
build.
Thirdly, confession. We can walk as we want, we can build a lot of things, but
if you do not confess Jesus Christ, something is missing: we effectively become a non-governmental organization, but it should not be so with the Church, the Bride of Christ. When you don't walk, you stop
moving. When we do not build on the rock what happens? The same thing happens
as happens to children when they are on a beach building sand castles,
everything can be destroyed if it's flimsy. When we do not confess Jesus
Christ, I am reminded of the words of Léon Bloy: Whoever does not pray to
God, prays to the devil. When we do not confess Jesus Christ, we confess
the worldliness of the devil, the worldliness of evil.
Walking, building, confession. But it is not so easy, because in walking,
building, and confessing, sometimes there are shocks, there are movements that
are not movements in the right direction; there are also movements that can
pull us backwards.
This Gospel continues with a special situation. The same Peter who confessed
Jesus Christ, tells him: You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. I
will follow you, but let us not speak of the Cross. This doesn't make
sense. I will follow you with other possibilities, without the Cross.When we walk without the Cross, when we build without the Cross and when we
confess Christ without a Cross, we are not disciples of the Lord, we are
worldly, we Bishops, Priests, Cardinals, Popes, but not disciples of the Lord.
I wish that all, after these days of grace, have the courage, the courage just
to walk in the Lord's presence, with the Cross of the Lord to build the Church
on the foundation of the Blood of the Lord, which is shed on the Cross, and to
confess as our only glory, Christ Crucified. In this way, the Church will go
on.
My prayer for all of us is that the Holy Spirit, through the intercession of
Mary, our Mother, may grant us this grace: walking, building, and confessing
Jesus Christ Crucified. Amen.
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