Having completed his visit to Prato, the Pope travelled by helicopter to Florence, where he was welcomed upon his arrival - at 9:30am in the Luigi Ridolfi athletic stadium - by His Eminence, Giuseppe Cardinal Betori, Archbishop of Florence; by the President of the Tuscan Region, Doctor Enrico Rossi; by the Prefect, Doctor Alessio Giuffrida; and by the Mayor, Doctor Dario Nardella.
Pope Francis travelled by car to the Baptistry where, at the entrance, the City Banner with historical trumpets welcomed the Holy Father. The Pope was also welcomed by Monsignor Giancarlo Corti, representative of the Chapter of the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, and by eight members of the Council of Work from Santa Maria del Fiore.
The Holy Father then crossed the Baptistry and paused briefly before the White crucifixion by Marc Chagall (currently being displayed as part of an exhibition entitled Divine beauty, held at the Stronzzi Palace) which was explained by Douglas Druick, Arturo Galansino and Carlo Sisi. The then walked to the adjacent Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore.
In the Square outside the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, the Holy Father, Pope Francis was welcomed at 10:00am by the President of the Italian Episcopal Conference, the Archbishop of Genoa, Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco; by the President of the Preparatory Committee for the Ecclesial Convention, the Archbishop of Turin, His Excellency, Cesare Nosiglia; and by the Secretary General of the Italian Episcopal Conference, His Excellency, Nunzio Galantino. Then, the Pope crossed the central nave and met with the priests who were waiting for him.
In the Cathedral, there were 2,500 people, taking part in the 5th National Convention of the Church in Italy, who are meting from November 9 to 13 and focusing on the theme: In Jesus Christ, the new humanism.
Following a few words of welcome offered by Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco and a few witnesses presented by Francesca Massarelli, a married woman who is a catechumen; by Pierluigi and Gabriella Proietti, a married couple; and by Father Bledar Xhuli, and Albanian immigrant who is now a priest of the Diocese of Florence; the Holy Father, Pope Francis shared the following speech:
New humanism in Christ Jesus
Dear brothers and sisters, in the cupola of this beautiful Cathedral, there is an image of the final judgement. In the centre is Jesus, our light. The inscription that we read at the top of the fresco says: Ecce Homo. Looking at this cupola, we are drawn upward, while we contemplate the transformation from Christ judged by Pilate to Christ seated on the throne of judgement. An angel carries a sword, but Jesus does not take on the symbols of judgment, he only raises his right hand, showing the signs of his passion, since he gave himself as a ransom for all (1 Tim 2:6). God did not send his Son into the world in order to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him (Jn 3:17).
In the light of this merciful Judge, our knees bend in prayer and adoration and our hands and our feet are reinvigorated. We can only speak of humanism if we begin with the centrality of Jesus, discovering in Him the traits of man's true face. In contemplation of the face of Jesus who died and rose again, our humanity is restored, even though we have been fragmented by the worries of life, or marked by sin. We cannot tame the power of the face of Christ. The face is the image of his transcendence. He is the misericordiae vultus - the merciful face. Let us look to Him. Jesus is our humanism. Let us allow our souls to always be unsettled by his question: And you, who do you say I am? (Mt 16:15)
What do we see as we gaze upon his face? First, the emptied face of God, the face of a God who has taken on the condition of a servant, humiliated and obedient even unto death (cf Phil 2:7). The face of Jesus is similar to that of many of our humiliated brothers, enslaved, emptied. God has taken on their face, and this face that gazes upon us. God - who is the being of which there is none better, as Saint Anselm says, or the Deus semper maior defined by Saint Ignatius of Loyola - always becomes greater than himself by lowering himself. If we do not lower ourselves we can never see his face. We will never see anything of his fullness if we cannot accept the fact that God emptied himself ... and we will never understand anything about Christian humanism and our words will be beautiful, cultivated, refined, but they will never be words of faith. They will be words resonating in a vacuum.
My intention is not to define a new humanism in abstract, a certain idea about mankind, but simply to present a few characteristics of Christian humanism according to the mind of Christ Jesus (Phil 2:5). These are not abstract provisional sensations of the soul; they represent the warm interior strength that makes it possible for us to live and to make decisions.
What are these sentiments? Today I want to speak about at least three of them.
The first sentiment is humility. Each of you, in all humility, consider others as superior to yourselves (Phil 2:3), said Saint Paul to the Philippians. Later, the Apostle spoke of the fact that Jesus didn't consider it a privilege to be like God (Phil 2:6). Here, there is a precise message. The obsession with preserving one's own glory, one's own dignity, one's own influence should not be part of our sentiments. We should seek the glory of God, and this has nothing to do with our own glory. The glory of God shone in the humility of the grotto in Bethlehem or in the dishonour of the cross of Christ always surprises us.
Another of Jesus' sentiments that gives form to Christian humanism is disinterest. Each of you should not look for your own interests, but rather those of others (Phil 2:4), Saint Paul asks. Therefore, rather than disinterest, we should seek the happiness of those around us. The humanity of a Christian is always found in going out. It is not narcissistic, self-referential. When our hearts are rich and satisfied with our own state in life, we no longer find room for God. We avoid Him, pleased to shut ourselves up in structures that give us false protection, standards that become implacable judges, habits in which we feel comfortable (Evangelii gaudium, 49).
Our duty is to work toward making this world a better place and to fight. Our faith is a revolutionary impulse that comes from the Holy Spirit. We should follow this impulse in order to go out of ourselves, in order to be people according to the gospel of Jesus. Whatever life we live should be decided based on our capacity to give of ourselves, for it is there that it transcends itself, and we realize the fruitfulness of our actions.
Another sentiment of Jesus Christ is that of blessedness. The Christian is a blessing, possesses the joy of the gospel within. In the Beatitudes, the Lord shows us the way. Through it, we human beings can find happiness that is more authentically human and divine. Jesus speaks of the happiness that we experience only when we are poor in spirit. For the great saints, blessedness has to do with humiliation and poverty. But even for the most humble of us, there is much, there is a lot of blessedness: for those who know the wealth of solidarity, of sharing even the little that they possess; the wealth of the daily sacrifice of work, at times difficult and poorly remunerated, but done out of love for the sake of loved ones; and even that of their sufferings, which however, lived with trust in providence and in the mercy of God the Father, fuel humble gentleness.
The beatitudes that we read about in the Gospels begin with a blessing and end with a promise of consolation. They introduce us to a path of greatness that is possible, that of the spirit, and when the spirit is ready all the rest comes into being. Certainly, if we do not have hearts that are open to the Holy Spirit, the beatitudes will seem to us to be nonsense because they do not lead us to success. To be blessed, to enjoy the consolation of friendship with Jesus Christ, we must have open hearts. Blessedness is a laborious thing, made up of sacrifice, listening and learning, whose fruits are harvested with time, giving us incomparable peace: Taste and see that the Lord is good (Psalm 34:9)!
Humility, disinterest, blessedness: these are three traits that I want to present today for your meditation on Christian humanism that begins in the humanity of the Son of God. These traits also say something about the Church in Italy that gathers today to journey together in an example of synodality. These traits tell us that we don't have to be obsessed with power, even when it takes on the face of a useful and functional social image of the Church. If the Church does not adopt the sentiments of Jesus, it becomes disoriented, it looses its sense of self. If however you accept it, it can be worthy of its mission. The sentiments of Jesus tell us that a Church that considers itself and its own interests would be a sad situation. Instead, the beatitudes are the mirror in which we can see ourselves, that which allows us to know if we are walking the right road: it is a mirror that doesn't lie.
A Church that presents these three traits - humility, disinterest, blessedness - is a Church that knows how to recognize the actions of the Lord in the world, in culture, in the daily lives of her people. I have said this more than once and I will repeat it again today for you: I prefer a bumpy Church, wounded and dirty, that can go outside of itself on the streets, rahter than a Church that is sick because it is closed in on itself and comfortable as it clings to its own safety. I don't want a Church that is preoccupied with being at the centre and that ends up trapped in a maze of obsessions and procedures (Evangelii gaudium, 49).
However, we know that temptations exist; the temptations that face us are many. I will present two of them. Don't panic, this will not be a list of temptations! Like the fifteen that I told to the Curia!
The first of them is the Pelagian. It pushes the Church not to be humble, unselfish and blessed. And it does so with the appearance of a good. Pelagianism leads us to have trust in the structures, in the organizations, in the plans, which are perfect because they are abstract. Often it even leads us to assume a style of control, of hardness, of normativity. The norm gives to the Pelagian the security of feeling superior, of having a precise orientation. He finds his strength in this, not in the lightness of the Spirit’s breath. Faced with the evils or problems of the Church it is useless to seek solutions in conservatism and fundamentalism, in the restoration of surmounted conduct and forms that do not even have culturally the capacity to be significant. Christian Doctrine is not a closed system incapable of generating questions, doubts, questionings, but it is alive, it is able to disquiet, it is able to encourage. It does not have a rigid face; it has a body that moves and develops; it has tender flesh: Christian Doctrine is called Jesus Christ. The reform of the Church then – and the Church is always reforming – is alien to Pelagianism. It does not exhaust itself in an umpteenth plan to change the structures. It means, instead, to be grafted and rooted in Christ, allowing oneself to be led by the Spirit. Then everything will be possible with genius and creativity.
The Italian Church must let herself be led by her powerful breath and hence sometimes disquieting breath. She must always assume the spirit of her great explorers, who on ships were passionate about navigation in the open sea and not frightened by frontiers and tempests. May she be a free Church, open to the challenges of the present, never vulnerable out of fear of losing something. May she never be vulnerable out of fear of losing something. And encountering people along their streets, may she assume the resolution of Saint Paul. To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some (1 Corinthians 9:22).
A second temptation to overcome is that of Gnosticism. It leads to trust in logical and clear reasoning, which, however, loses the tenderness of the brother’s flesh. The fascination of Gnosticism is that of a faith closed in in subjectivism, where only a determined experience is of interest or a series of reasons and knowledge that one believes can comfort and illuminate, but where the subject in the end remains closed in the immanence of his own reason and his sentiments (Evangelii Gaudium, 94). Gnosticism cannot transcend. The difference between Christian transcendence and some form of Gnostic spiritualism lies in the mystery of the Incarnation. Not to put into practice, not to lead the Word to the reality, means to build on sand, to remain in a pure idea and to degenerate into intimism that does not give fruit, that renders its dynamism sterile.
The Italian Church has great Saints by whose example they can help her to live the faith with humility, unselfishness and gladness, from Francis of Assisi to Philip Neri. But we also think of the simplicity of invented personages, such as Don Camillo who teams up with Peppone. I am struck by how, in Guareschi’s stories, the prayer of a good parish priest is united to evident closeness with the people. Dom Camillo said of himself: I am a poor country priest who knows his parishioners one by one, who loves them, who knows their sorrows and joys, who suffers and is able to laugh with them. Closeness to the people and prayer are the key to living a popular, humble, generous and happy Christian humanism. If we lose this contact with the people faithful to God we lose in humanity and go nowhere.
But then, what must we do, Father? – you might say. What is the Pope asking of us?
It is up to you to decide: people and Pastors together. Today I simply invite you to raise your head and contemplate once again the Ecce Homo that we have above our heads. Let us pause to contemplate the scene. We turn to Jesus who is represented here as Universal Judge. What will happen? When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the Angels with Him, then He will sit on his glorious throne (Matthew 25:34-36). There comes to mind the priest who received a very young priest who gave testimony.
However, He could also say: Depart from me, your cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his Angels; for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me (Matthew 25:41-43).
The Beatitudes and the words we have just read on the Universal Judgment help us to live the Christian life at the level of holiness. They are few, simple but practical words. Two pillars: the Beatitudes and the words of the Last Judgment. May the Lord give us the grace to understand this message of His! And we look once again at the features of Jesus’ face and at his gestures. We see Jesus who eats and drinks with sinners (Mark 2:16; Matthew 11:19); let us contemplate Him while He speaks with the Samaritan woman (John 4:7-26); let us watch Him while He meets at night with Nicodemus (John 7:33); let us relish with affection the scene of Him who has his feet anointed by a prostitute (cf Luke 7:36-50); let us feel His saliva on the tip of our tongue, which is thus loosed (Mark 7:33). Let us admire the attraction of all the people that surround his disciples, namely us, and let us experience their gladness and simplicity of heart (Acts 2:46).
I ask the Bishops to be Pastors, nothing more: Pastors. May this be your joy: I am a Pastor. It will be the people, your flock that will sustain you. Recently I read about a Bishop who was in the Metro during the rush hour and there were so many people that he no longer knew where to put his hand to hold on. Pushed from right to left, he leaned on persons so as not to fall. And so he thought that, in addition to prayer, what makes a Bishop stand is his people.
May nothing and no one take from you the joy of being supported by your people. As Pastors, do not be preachers of complex doctrines, but heralds of Christ, who died and rose for us. Point to the essential, to the kerygma. There is nothing more solid, profound and certain than this proclamation. But may it be that all the People of God proclaim the Gospel, people and Pastors, I hope. I expressed this pastoral concern of mine in the Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium (cf EG 111-134).
I recommend to the whole Italian Church what I indicated in that Exhortation: the social inclusion of the poor, who have a privileged place in the People of God, and the capacity for encounter and dialogue to foster social friendship in your country, seeking the common good.
The preferential option for the poor is a special form of primacy in the exercise of Christian charity, attested by the whole Tradition of the Church (John Paul II, Encyclical Sollicitudo Rei Socialis, 42). This option is implicit in Christological faith in that God who made Himself poor for us, to enrich us through His poverty (Benedict XVI, Address to the Opening Session of the 5th General Conference of the Latin American and Caribbean Episcopate). The poor know well Christ Jesus’ sentiments because they know the suffering Christ by experience. We are called to discover Christ in them, to loan them our voice in their causes, but also to be their friends, to listen to them, to understand them and to receive the mysterious wisdom that God wills to communicate to us through them (Evangelii Gaudium, 198).
May God protect the Italian Church from every surrogate of power, of image, of money. Evangelical poverty is creative, receives, supports and is rich in hope. We are here in Florence, a city of beauty. How much beauty in this city has been placed at the service of charity! I am thinking of the Hospital of the Innocents, for instance. One of the first Renaissance architectures, it was created for the service of abandoned children and desperate mothers. Often these mothers left, together with the newborns, medals cut in half with which they hoped, when presenting the other half, to be able to recognize their own children in better times. See, we must imagine that our poor have a cut medal. We have the other half. Because Mother Church has in Italy half of the medal of all and she recognizes all her abandoned, oppressed, exhausted children. And this has always been one of your virtues, because you know well that the Lord shed his Blood not for some, or for a few or for many but for all.
In a special way, I also recommend to you the capacity to dialogue and to encounter. To dialogue is not to negotiate. To negotiate is to try to take one’s slice of the common cake. This is not what I mean, but it is to seek the common good for all. Discuss together, I dare say get angry together, think of the best solutions for all. Many times a meeting is involved in conflict. There is conflict in dialogue: it is logical and foreseeable that it be so. And we must not fear it or ignore it, but accept it. We must accept to accept to endure the conflict, to resolve it and to transform it into a ring of connection of a new process (Evangelii Gaudium, 227).
However, we must always remember that there is no genuine humanism that does not see love as a bond between human beings, be it of an inter-personal nature, profound, social, political or intellectual. Founded on this is the necessity of dialogue and of encounter to build the civil society together with others. We know that the best answer to the conflictive nature of the human being, of the famous homo homini lupus of Thomas Hobbes, is the Ecce Homo of Jesus who does not recriminate, but receives and, paying in person, saves.
Italian society is built when its diverse cultural riches can dialogue constructively: the popular, the academic, the youthful, the artistic, the technological, the economic, the political, the media ... May the Church be ferment of dialogue, of encounter and of unity. Moreover, our formulations of faith themselves are the fruit of dialogue and encounter between cultures, and different communities and entities. We must not be afraid of dialogue: in fact it is precisely confrontation and criticism that help us to keep theology from being transformed into ideology.
In addition, remember that the best way to dialogue is not to talk and argue, but to do something together, to build together, to make plans but not on our own, between Catholics, but together with all those who have good will – and without the fear of carrying out the necessary exodus to every genuine dialogue. Otherwise it is not possible to understand the other’s reasons, or to understand in depth that a brother counts more than the positions that we judge far from our own though genuine certainties. He is a brother.
But the Church must also be able to give a clear answer in the face of the threats that arise within the public debate: this is one of the ways of the specific contribution of believers to the building of the common society. Believers are citizens. And I say it here, in Florence, where art, faith and citizenship have always been in a dynamic balance between denunciation and proposal. The nation is not a museum, but a collective work in permanent construction in which the things that differentiate one, including political and religious membership, are to be put in common.
I appeal above all to you, young people, because you are strong, said the Apostle John (1 John 2:14). Young people, overcome apathy. May no one scorn your youth, but learn to be models in speaking and acting (cf 1 Timothy 4:12) I ask you to be builders of Italy, to get to work for a better Italy. Please, do not look at life from the balcony, but commit yourselves, immerse yourselves in the wide social and political dialogue. May the hands of your faith be raised to Heaven, but may they do so while building a city constructed on relations in which the love of God is the foundation. And thus you will be free to accept today’s challenges, to live the changes and the transformations.
It can be said that today we do not live in an age of change but in a change of age. Therefore, the situations we are living today pose new challenges, which, for us at times are difficult to understand. Our times require that we live problems as challenges and not as obstacles: the Lord is active and at work in the world. Therefore, you must go out to the streets and to the crossroads: call all those you find, exclude no one (cf Matthew 22:9). Above all, accompany the one who remained at the side of the street, the lame, the maimed, the blind, the dumb, (Matthew 15:30). Wherever you are, never build walls or borders, but Squares and field hospitals.
I am pleased with a restless Italian Church, always closer to the abandoned, the forgotten, the imperfect. I desire a happy Church with the face of a mother, who understands, accompanies and caresses. You also dream of this Church; believe in her; innovate with freedom. The Christian humanism you are called to live affirms radically the dignity of every person as Son of God; it establishes between every human being an essential fraternity, it teaches us to understand work, to inhabit Creation as a common home, it furnishes reasons for joy and humour, also in the midst of a life that is so often hard.
Although it is not for me to say how to realize this dream today, allow me to leave one indication with you for the forthcoming years: in every community, in every parish and institution, in every Diocese and circumscription, in every region seek to begin, in a synodal way, a deeper reflection on Evangvelii Gaudium, to draw practical criteria from it and to act on its dispositions, especially on the three or four priorities that you have singled out in this Congress. I am certain of your ability to get into a creative movement to concretize this study. I am sure of it because you are an adult Church, very ancient in the faith, solid in roots and ample in fruits. Therefore, be creative in expressing that genius that your greats, from Dante to Michelangelo, expressed in a matchless way. Believe in the genius of Italian Christianity, which is not the patrimony either of individuals or of an elite, but of the community, of the people of this extraordinary country.
I entrust you to Mary, who here in Florence is venerated as “Most Holy Annuziata.” In the fresco found in the Basilica with the same name – where I will go shortly --, the Angel is silent and Mary speaks saying: “Ecce ancilla Domini.” All of us are in those words. May the whole Italian Church speak them with Mary. Thank you.
[01932-IT.02] [Testo originale: Italiano]
Al termine del discorso, il Papa ha salutato alcuni Rappresentanti del Convegno. Quindi ha lasciato la Cattedrale per raggiungere in auto la Basilica della Santissima Annunziata.
Pope Francis travelled by car to the Baptistry where, at the entrance, the City Banner with historical trumpets welcomed the Holy Father. The Pope was also welcomed by Monsignor Giancarlo Corti, representative of the Chapter of the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, and by eight members of the Council of Work from Santa Maria del Fiore.
The Holy Father then crossed the Baptistry and paused briefly before the White crucifixion by Marc Chagall (currently being displayed as part of an exhibition entitled Divine beauty, held at the Stronzzi Palace) which was explained by Douglas Druick, Arturo Galansino and Carlo Sisi. The then walked to the adjacent Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore.
In the Square outside the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, the Holy Father, Pope Francis was welcomed at 10:00am by the President of the Italian Episcopal Conference, the Archbishop of Genoa, Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco; by the President of the Preparatory Committee for the Ecclesial Convention, the Archbishop of Turin, His Excellency, Cesare Nosiglia; and by the Secretary General of the Italian Episcopal Conference, His Excellency, Nunzio Galantino. Then, the Pope crossed the central nave and met with the priests who were waiting for him.
In the Cathedral, there were 2,500 people, taking part in the 5th National Convention of the Church in Italy, who are meting from November 9 to 13 and focusing on the theme: In Jesus Christ, the new humanism.
Following a few words of welcome offered by Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco and a few witnesses presented by Francesca Massarelli, a married woman who is a catechumen; by Pierluigi and Gabriella Proietti, a married couple; and by Father Bledar Xhuli, and Albanian immigrant who is now a priest of the Diocese of Florence; the Holy Father, Pope Francis shared the following speech:
Speech of the Holy Father, Pope Francis
to participants in the 5th Italian National Ecclesial Convention
New humanism in Christ Jesus
Dear brothers and sisters, in the cupola of this beautiful Cathedral, there is an image of the final judgement. In the centre is Jesus, our light. The inscription that we read at the top of the fresco says: Ecce Homo. Looking at this cupola, we are drawn upward, while we contemplate the transformation from Christ judged by Pilate to Christ seated on the throne of judgement. An angel carries a sword, but Jesus does not take on the symbols of judgment, he only raises his right hand, showing the signs of his passion, since he gave himself as a ransom for all (1 Tim 2:6). God did not send his Son into the world in order to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him (Jn 3:17).
In the light of this merciful Judge, our knees bend in prayer and adoration and our hands and our feet are reinvigorated. We can only speak of humanism if we begin with the centrality of Jesus, discovering in Him the traits of man's true face. In contemplation of the face of Jesus who died and rose again, our humanity is restored, even though we have been fragmented by the worries of life, or marked by sin. We cannot tame the power of the face of Christ. The face is the image of his transcendence. He is the misericordiae vultus - the merciful face. Let us look to Him. Jesus is our humanism. Let us allow our souls to always be unsettled by his question: And you, who do you say I am? (Mt 16:15)
What do we see as we gaze upon his face? First, the emptied face of God, the face of a God who has taken on the condition of a servant, humiliated and obedient even unto death (cf Phil 2:7). The face of Jesus is similar to that of many of our humiliated brothers, enslaved, emptied. God has taken on their face, and this face that gazes upon us. God - who is the being of which there is none better, as Saint Anselm says, or the Deus semper maior defined by Saint Ignatius of Loyola - always becomes greater than himself by lowering himself. If we do not lower ourselves we can never see his face. We will never see anything of his fullness if we cannot accept the fact that God emptied himself ... and we will never understand anything about Christian humanism and our words will be beautiful, cultivated, refined, but they will never be words of faith. They will be words resonating in a vacuum.
My intention is not to define a new humanism in abstract, a certain idea about mankind, but simply to present a few characteristics of Christian humanism according to the mind of Christ Jesus (Phil 2:5). These are not abstract provisional sensations of the soul; they represent the warm interior strength that makes it possible for us to live and to make decisions.
What are these sentiments? Today I want to speak about at least three of them.
The first sentiment is humility. Each of you, in all humility, consider others as superior to yourselves (Phil 2:3), said Saint Paul to the Philippians. Later, the Apostle spoke of the fact that Jesus didn't consider it a privilege to be like God (Phil 2:6). Here, there is a precise message. The obsession with preserving one's own glory, one's own dignity, one's own influence should not be part of our sentiments. We should seek the glory of God, and this has nothing to do with our own glory. The glory of God shone in the humility of the grotto in Bethlehem or in the dishonour of the cross of Christ always surprises us.
Another of Jesus' sentiments that gives form to Christian humanism is disinterest. Each of you should not look for your own interests, but rather those of others (Phil 2:4), Saint Paul asks. Therefore, rather than disinterest, we should seek the happiness of those around us. The humanity of a Christian is always found in going out. It is not narcissistic, self-referential. When our hearts are rich and satisfied with our own state in life, we no longer find room for God. We avoid Him, pleased to shut ourselves up in structures that give us false protection, standards that become implacable judges, habits in which we feel comfortable (Evangelii gaudium, 49).
Our duty is to work toward making this world a better place and to fight. Our faith is a revolutionary impulse that comes from the Holy Spirit. We should follow this impulse in order to go out of ourselves, in order to be people according to the gospel of Jesus. Whatever life we live should be decided based on our capacity to give of ourselves, for it is there that it transcends itself, and we realize the fruitfulness of our actions.
Another sentiment of Jesus Christ is that of blessedness. The Christian is a blessing, possesses the joy of the gospel within. In the Beatitudes, the Lord shows us the way. Through it, we human beings can find happiness that is more authentically human and divine. Jesus speaks of the happiness that we experience only when we are poor in spirit. For the great saints, blessedness has to do with humiliation and poverty. But even for the most humble of us, there is much, there is a lot of blessedness: for those who know the wealth of solidarity, of sharing even the little that they possess; the wealth of the daily sacrifice of work, at times difficult and poorly remunerated, but done out of love for the sake of loved ones; and even that of their sufferings, which however, lived with trust in providence and in the mercy of God the Father, fuel humble gentleness.
The beatitudes that we read about in the Gospels begin with a blessing and end with a promise of consolation. They introduce us to a path of greatness that is possible, that of the spirit, and when the spirit is ready all the rest comes into being. Certainly, if we do not have hearts that are open to the Holy Spirit, the beatitudes will seem to us to be nonsense because they do not lead us to success. To be blessed, to enjoy the consolation of friendship with Jesus Christ, we must have open hearts. Blessedness is a laborious thing, made up of sacrifice, listening and learning, whose fruits are harvested with time, giving us incomparable peace: Taste and see that the Lord is good (Psalm 34:9)!
Humility, disinterest, blessedness: these are three traits that I want to present today for your meditation on Christian humanism that begins in the humanity of the Son of God. These traits also say something about the Church in Italy that gathers today to journey together in an example of synodality. These traits tell us that we don't have to be obsessed with power, even when it takes on the face of a useful and functional social image of the Church. If the Church does not adopt the sentiments of Jesus, it becomes disoriented, it looses its sense of self. If however you accept it, it can be worthy of its mission. The sentiments of Jesus tell us that a Church that considers itself and its own interests would be a sad situation. Instead, the beatitudes are the mirror in which we can see ourselves, that which allows us to know if we are walking the right road: it is a mirror that doesn't lie.
A Church that presents these three traits - humility, disinterest, blessedness - is a Church that knows how to recognize the actions of the Lord in the world, in culture, in the daily lives of her people. I have said this more than once and I will repeat it again today for you: I prefer a bumpy Church, wounded and dirty, that can go outside of itself on the streets, rahter than a Church that is sick because it is closed in on itself and comfortable as it clings to its own safety. I don't want a Church that is preoccupied with being at the centre and that ends up trapped in a maze of obsessions and procedures (Evangelii gaudium, 49).
However, we know that temptations exist; the temptations that face us are many. I will present two of them. Don't panic, this will not be a list of temptations! Like the fifteen that I told to the Curia!
The first of them is the Pelagian. It pushes the Church not to be humble, unselfish and blessed. And it does so with the appearance of a good. Pelagianism leads us to have trust in the structures, in the organizations, in the plans, which are perfect because they are abstract. Often it even leads us to assume a style of control, of hardness, of normativity. The norm gives to the Pelagian the security of feeling superior, of having a precise orientation. He finds his strength in this, not in the lightness of the Spirit’s breath. Faced with the evils or problems of the Church it is useless to seek solutions in conservatism and fundamentalism, in the restoration of surmounted conduct and forms that do not even have culturally the capacity to be significant. Christian Doctrine is not a closed system incapable of generating questions, doubts, questionings, but it is alive, it is able to disquiet, it is able to encourage. It does not have a rigid face; it has a body that moves and develops; it has tender flesh: Christian Doctrine is called Jesus Christ. The reform of the Church then – and the Church is always reforming – is alien to Pelagianism. It does not exhaust itself in an umpteenth plan to change the structures. It means, instead, to be grafted and rooted in Christ, allowing oneself to be led by the Spirit. Then everything will be possible with genius and creativity.
The Italian Church must let herself be led by her powerful breath and hence sometimes disquieting breath. She must always assume the spirit of her great explorers, who on ships were passionate about navigation in the open sea and not frightened by frontiers and tempests. May she be a free Church, open to the challenges of the present, never vulnerable out of fear of losing something. May she never be vulnerable out of fear of losing something. And encountering people along their streets, may she assume the resolution of Saint Paul. To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some (1 Corinthians 9:22).
A second temptation to overcome is that of Gnosticism. It leads to trust in logical and clear reasoning, which, however, loses the tenderness of the brother’s flesh. The fascination of Gnosticism is that of a faith closed in in subjectivism, where only a determined experience is of interest or a series of reasons and knowledge that one believes can comfort and illuminate, but where the subject in the end remains closed in the immanence of his own reason and his sentiments (Evangelii Gaudium, 94). Gnosticism cannot transcend. The difference between Christian transcendence and some form of Gnostic spiritualism lies in the mystery of the Incarnation. Not to put into practice, not to lead the Word to the reality, means to build on sand, to remain in a pure idea and to degenerate into intimism that does not give fruit, that renders its dynamism sterile.
The Italian Church has great Saints by whose example they can help her to live the faith with humility, unselfishness and gladness, from Francis of Assisi to Philip Neri. But we also think of the simplicity of invented personages, such as Don Camillo who teams up with Peppone. I am struck by how, in Guareschi’s stories, the prayer of a good parish priest is united to evident closeness with the people. Dom Camillo said of himself: I am a poor country priest who knows his parishioners one by one, who loves them, who knows their sorrows and joys, who suffers and is able to laugh with them. Closeness to the people and prayer are the key to living a popular, humble, generous and happy Christian humanism. If we lose this contact with the people faithful to God we lose in humanity and go nowhere.
But then, what must we do, Father? – you might say. What is the Pope asking of us?
It is up to you to decide: people and Pastors together. Today I simply invite you to raise your head and contemplate once again the Ecce Homo that we have above our heads. Let us pause to contemplate the scene. We turn to Jesus who is represented here as Universal Judge. What will happen? When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the Angels with Him, then He will sit on his glorious throne (Matthew 25:34-36). There comes to mind the priest who received a very young priest who gave testimony.
However, He could also say: Depart from me, your cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his Angels; for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me (Matthew 25:41-43).
The Beatitudes and the words we have just read on the Universal Judgment help us to live the Christian life at the level of holiness. They are few, simple but practical words. Two pillars: the Beatitudes and the words of the Last Judgment. May the Lord give us the grace to understand this message of His! And we look once again at the features of Jesus’ face and at his gestures. We see Jesus who eats and drinks with sinners (Mark 2:16; Matthew 11:19); let us contemplate Him while He speaks with the Samaritan woman (John 4:7-26); let us watch Him while He meets at night with Nicodemus (John 7:33); let us relish with affection the scene of Him who has his feet anointed by a prostitute (cf Luke 7:36-50); let us feel His saliva on the tip of our tongue, which is thus loosed (Mark 7:33). Let us admire the attraction of all the people that surround his disciples, namely us, and let us experience their gladness and simplicity of heart (Acts 2:46).
I ask the Bishops to be Pastors, nothing more: Pastors. May this be your joy: I am a Pastor. It will be the people, your flock that will sustain you. Recently I read about a Bishop who was in the Metro during the rush hour and there were so many people that he no longer knew where to put his hand to hold on. Pushed from right to left, he leaned on persons so as not to fall. And so he thought that, in addition to prayer, what makes a Bishop stand is his people.
May nothing and no one take from you the joy of being supported by your people. As Pastors, do not be preachers of complex doctrines, but heralds of Christ, who died and rose for us. Point to the essential, to the kerygma. There is nothing more solid, profound and certain than this proclamation. But may it be that all the People of God proclaim the Gospel, people and Pastors, I hope. I expressed this pastoral concern of mine in the Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium (cf EG 111-134).
I recommend to the whole Italian Church what I indicated in that Exhortation: the social inclusion of the poor, who have a privileged place in the People of God, and the capacity for encounter and dialogue to foster social friendship in your country, seeking the common good.
The preferential option for the poor is a special form of primacy in the exercise of Christian charity, attested by the whole Tradition of the Church (John Paul II, Encyclical Sollicitudo Rei Socialis, 42). This option is implicit in Christological faith in that God who made Himself poor for us, to enrich us through His poverty (Benedict XVI, Address to the Opening Session of the 5th General Conference of the Latin American and Caribbean Episcopate). The poor know well Christ Jesus’ sentiments because they know the suffering Christ by experience. We are called to discover Christ in them, to loan them our voice in their causes, but also to be their friends, to listen to them, to understand them and to receive the mysterious wisdom that God wills to communicate to us through them (Evangelii Gaudium, 198).
May God protect the Italian Church from every surrogate of power, of image, of money. Evangelical poverty is creative, receives, supports and is rich in hope. We are here in Florence, a city of beauty. How much beauty in this city has been placed at the service of charity! I am thinking of the Hospital of the Innocents, for instance. One of the first Renaissance architectures, it was created for the service of abandoned children and desperate mothers. Often these mothers left, together with the newborns, medals cut in half with which they hoped, when presenting the other half, to be able to recognize their own children in better times. See, we must imagine that our poor have a cut medal. We have the other half. Because Mother Church has in Italy half of the medal of all and she recognizes all her abandoned, oppressed, exhausted children. And this has always been one of your virtues, because you know well that the Lord shed his Blood not for some, or for a few or for many but for all.
In a special way, I also recommend to you the capacity to dialogue and to encounter. To dialogue is not to negotiate. To negotiate is to try to take one’s slice of the common cake. This is not what I mean, but it is to seek the common good for all. Discuss together, I dare say get angry together, think of the best solutions for all. Many times a meeting is involved in conflict. There is conflict in dialogue: it is logical and foreseeable that it be so. And we must not fear it or ignore it, but accept it. We must accept to accept to endure the conflict, to resolve it and to transform it into a ring of connection of a new process (Evangelii Gaudium, 227).
However, we must always remember that there is no genuine humanism that does not see love as a bond between human beings, be it of an inter-personal nature, profound, social, political or intellectual. Founded on this is the necessity of dialogue and of encounter to build the civil society together with others. We know that the best answer to the conflictive nature of the human being, of the famous homo homini lupus of Thomas Hobbes, is the Ecce Homo of Jesus who does not recriminate, but receives and, paying in person, saves.
Italian society is built when its diverse cultural riches can dialogue constructively: the popular, the academic, the youthful, the artistic, the technological, the economic, the political, the media ... May the Church be ferment of dialogue, of encounter and of unity. Moreover, our formulations of faith themselves are the fruit of dialogue and encounter between cultures, and different communities and entities. We must not be afraid of dialogue: in fact it is precisely confrontation and criticism that help us to keep theology from being transformed into ideology.
In addition, remember that the best way to dialogue is not to talk and argue, but to do something together, to build together, to make plans but not on our own, between Catholics, but together with all those who have good will – and without the fear of carrying out the necessary exodus to every genuine dialogue. Otherwise it is not possible to understand the other’s reasons, or to understand in depth that a brother counts more than the positions that we judge far from our own though genuine certainties. He is a brother.
But the Church must also be able to give a clear answer in the face of the threats that arise within the public debate: this is one of the ways of the specific contribution of believers to the building of the common society. Believers are citizens. And I say it here, in Florence, where art, faith and citizenship have always been in a dynamic balance between denunciation and proposal. The nation is not a museum, but a collective work in permanent construction in which the things that differentiate one, including political and religious membership, are to be put in common.
I appeal above all to you, young people, because you are strong, said the Apostle John (1 John 2:14). Young people, overcome apathy. May no one scorn your youth, but learn to be models in speaking and acting (cf 1 Timothy 4:12) I ask you to be builders of Italy, to get to work for a better Italy. Please, do not look at life from the balcony, but commit yourselves, immerse yourselves in the wide social and political dialogue. May the hands of your faith be raised to Heaven, but may they do so while building a city constructed on relations in which the love of God is the foundation. And thus you will be free to accept today’s challenges, to live the changes and the transformations.
It can be said that today we do not live in an age of change but in a change of age. Therefore, the situations we are living today pose new challenges, which, for us at times are difficult to understand. Our times require that we live problems as challenges and not as obstacles: the Lord is active and at work in the world. Therefore, you must go out to the streets and to the crossroads: call all those you find, exclude no one (cf Matthew 22:9). Above all, accompany the one who remained at the side of the street, the lame, the maimed, the blind, the dumb, (Matthew 15:30). Wherever you are, never build walls or borders, but Squares and field hospitals.
I am pleased with a restless Italian Church, always closer to the abandoned, the forgotten, the imperfect. I desire a happy Church with the face of a mother, who understands, accompanies and caresses. You also dream of this Church; believe in her; innovate with freedom. The Christian humanism you are called to live affirms radically the dignity of every person as Son of God; it establishes between every human being an essential fraternity, it teaches us to understand work, to inhabit Creation as a common home, it furnishes reasons for joy and humour, also in the midst of a life that is so often hard.
Although it is not for me to say how to realize this dream today, allow me to leave one indication with you for the forthcoming years: in every community, in every parish and institution, in every Diocese and circumscription, in every region seek to begin, in a synodal way, a deeper reflection on Evangvelii Gaudium, to draw practical criteria from it and to act on its dispositions, especially on the three or four priorities that you have singled out in this Congress. I am certain of your ability to get into a creative movement to concretize this study. I am sure of it because you are an adult Church, very ancient in the faith, solid in roots and ample in fruits. Therefore, be creative in expressing that genius that your greats, from Dante to Michelangelo, expressed in a matchless way. Believe in the genius of Italian Christianity, which is not the patrimony either of individuals or of an elite, but of the community, of the people of this extraordinary country.
I entrust you to Mary, who here in Florence is venerated as “Most Holy Annuziata.” In the fresco found in the Basilica with the same name – where I will go shortly --, the Angel is silent and Mary speaks saying: “Ecce ancilla Domini.” All of us are in those words. May the whole Italian Church speak them with Mary. Thank you.
[01932-IT.02] [Testo originale: Italiano]
Al termine del discorso, il Papa ha salutato alcuni Rappresentanti del Convegno. Quindi ha lasciato la Cattedrale per raggiungere in auto la Basilica della Santissima Annunziata.
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