Last Friday, June 27, the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, also designated as the World Day of Prayer for the Sanctification of Priests, the Holy Father was supposed to visit the Gimelli Policlinic and the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery at the Catholic University of Rome. However, the Pope was not able to attend due to an unforeseen circumstance so instead, he sent His Eminence, Angelo Cardinal Scola to preside at the Mass which was celebrated there on that day. Cardinal Scola read the text of the Holy Father's homily, which had been prepared for that occasion.
The Lord has set his heart on you and has chosen you (Dt 7:7).
God has set his heart on us, he has chosen us, and this bond is forever, not so much because we have been faithful, but because the Lord is faithful and forgives our infidelity, our reluctance to respond to his love, our failings.
God is not afraid of this bond. This can seem a bit strange: at times we refer to God as the Almighty which literally means unfettered, independent, unlimited, but in reality, our Father is always and only almighty in his love for us: love for the covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, with Jacob and so on. He loves such bonds, he creates them: bonds that liberate, not bonds that constrain.
In the psalms, we have repeated the words: The love of the Lord lasts forever (cf. Ps 103). However, about us men and women, another psalm affirms: fidelity among the sons of man has disappeared (cf. Ps 12:2). Today, in particular, faithfulness is a value which is in crisis because we are always tempted to seek out change, supposedly to seek out novelty, even at the roots of our existence and of our faith without allegiance to these roots, however, such a society cannot advance: it can make great technical strides, but cannot provide an integral development of the whole person, nor of all people.
The faithful love of God for his people is fully manifested and fulfilled in Jesus Christ, who in obedience to the allegiance between God and his people, made himself our slave, stripped himself of his glory and assumed the form of a servant. Out of love for us, he did not yield to our ingratitude or even to rejection. Saint Paul reminds us that: If we are unfaithful, he - Jesus - remains faithful, because he cannot deny himself (2 Tim 2:13). Jesus remains faithful, he never betrays: even when we falter, He is always waiting to forgive: he is the Father's merciful face.
This love, this faithfulness of the Lord is shown to us in the humility of his heart: Jesus did not come to conquer the hearts of men like the kings and the powerful of this world, but he came to offer love with gentleness and humility. He himself explains it this way: Learn from me, for I am gentle and humble of heart (Mt 11:29). This is the sense of the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, which we celebrate today, a truth that we discover more and more. Let us wrap ourselves in this humble faithfulness and in the gentleness of the love of Christ, the revelation of the Father's mercy, so that we might experience and savor the tenderness of this love in every stage of life: in times of joy and in times of sadness, in times of health and well being as well as in times of infirmity and illness.
God's faithfulness teaches us to welcome life as a gift of his love and allows us to witness to this love for the sake of our brothers and sisters through humble and gentle service. This is what we are all called to do, but especially the doctors and paramedics in this Policlinic, which is part of the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart. Here, every one of you shares a bit of the love of the Heart of Christ with those who are sick, and you do it with competence and professionalism. This indicates your faithfulness to the fundamental values which Father Gemelli proposed as the root of all study for Italian Catholics, to combine scientific research illuminated by faith with the preparation of qualified Christian professionals.
Dear brothers, in Christ we contemplate the faithfulness of God, Every gesture, every word of Jesus reveals the mercy and faithfulness of the Father.
Therefore, in His presence, we ask ourselves: do I love my neighbour? Do I know how to be faithful? Or am I fickle, choosing to follow instead my own moods and preferences? Each of us can respond to these questions according to our own consciences. But above all, we can say to the Lord: Lord Jesus, make my heart more and more like yours, full of love and faithfulness.
Homily of the Holy Father, Pope Francis
read by His Eminence, Angelo Cardinal Scola
for the Mass celebrated at the Gemelli Policlinic
The Lord has set his heart on you and has chosen you (Dt 7:7).
God has set his heart on us, he has chosen us, and this bond is forever, not so much because we have been faithful, but because the Lord is faithful and forgives our infidelity, our reluctance to respond to his love, our failings.
God is not afraid of this bond. This can seem a bit strange: at times we refer to God as the Almighty which literally means unfettered, independent, unlimited, but in reality, our Father is always and only almighty in his love for us: love for the covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, with Jacob and so on. He loves such bonds, he creates them: bonds that liberate, not bonds that constrain.
In the psalms, we have repeated the words: The love of the Lord lasts forever (cf. Ps 103). However, about us men and women, another psalm affirms: fidelity among the sons of man has disappeared (cf. Ps 12:2). Today, in particular, faithfulness is a value which is in crisis because we are always tempted to seek out change, supposedly to seek out novelty, even at the roots of our existence and of our faith without allegiance to these roots, however, such a society cannot advance: it can make great technical strides, but cannot provide an integral development of the whole person, nor of all people.
The faithful love of God for his people is fully manifested and fulfilled in Jesus Christ, who in obedience to the allegiance between God and his people, made himself our slave, stripped himself of his glory and assumed the form of a servant. Out of love for us, he did not yield to our ingratitude or even to rejection. Saint Paul reminds us that: If we are unfaithful, he - Jesus - remains faithful, because he cannot deny himself (2 Tim 2:13). Jesus remains faithful, he never betrays: even when we falter, He is always waiting to forgive: he is the Father's merciful face.
This love, this faithfulness of the Lord is shown to us in the humility of his heart: Jesus did not come to conquer the hearts of men like the kings and the powerful of this world, but he came to offer love with gentleness and humility. He himself explains it this way: Learn from me, for I am gentle and humble of heart (Mt 11:29). This is the sense of the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, which we celebrate today, a truth that we discover more and more. Let us wrap ourselves in this humble faithfulness and in the gentleness of the love of Christ, the revelation of the Father's mercy, so that we might experience and savor the tenderness of this love in every stage of life: in times of joy and in times of sadness, in times of health and well being as well as in times of infirmity and illness.
God's faithfulness teaches us to welcome life as a gift of his love and allows us to witness to this love for the sake of our brothers and sisters through humble and gentle service. This is what we are all called to do, but especially the doctors and paramedics in this Policlinic, which is part of the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart. Here, every one of you shares a bit of the love of the Heart of Christ with those who are sick, and you do it with competence and professionalism. This indicates your faithfulness to the fundamental values which Father Gemelli proposed as the root of all study for Italian Catholics, to combine scientific research illuminated by faith with the preparation of qualified Christian professionals.
Dear brothers, in Christ we contemplate the faithfulness of God, Every gesture, every word of Jesus reveals the mercy and faithfulness of the Father.
Therefore, in His presence, we ask ourselves: do I love my neighbour? Do I know how to be faithful? Or am I fickle, choosing to follow instead my own moods and preferences? Each of us can respond to these questions according to our own consciences. But above all, we can say to the Lord: Lord Jesus, make my heart more and more like yours, full of love and faithfulness.
No comments:
Post a Comment