At 5:00pm this afternoon local time (11:00am EDT), at the Grotto of Lourdes located inside the Vatican Gardens, the Holy Father, Pope Francis presided over the Eucharistic Celebration with members of the Vatican Guards, marking the occasion of the Feast of Saint Michael the Archangel, patron and protector of the Italian State Police and the Vatican Guards.
Upon a first reading of the gospel, of this passage from the gospel, we can perhaps miss the message and be led to think that this is a teaching of Jesus in favour of almsgiving, in favour of justice, that is, a teaching by Jesus of a moral character. But this is something altogether different. Jesus wants to enter precisely into the human journey of a whole life, and it is for this reason that this gospel speaks of two lives, of a rich man and a poor man, of how life is for both of them. This Gospel makes us see destiny - not a magical destiny, no - the destiny that a man or a woman can make of him- or herself, because we create our destiny, we walk our path and our journey; many times we do it ourselves. Sometimes the Lord intervenes, the Lord gives grace, but we are responsible for our journey. The Lord gives us the free gift of grace; he helps us to always make our way in his presence but along our own journey, the responsibility of our journey is ours. I would like to go into this message a little.
There was a rich man, who wore clothes of purple and very fine linen, and every day he feasted on lavish banquets. This is one life. There is another one: A poor man, named Lazarus, stood at his door, covered with sores, eager to feed himself with what fell from the rich man's table; but it was the dogs that came to lick his wounds. Two lives. Not a moment of life: two paths of life, because the rich man continued to keep this lifestyle and the poor man continued to suffer in poverty. It is not just a story, this happens every day in every city, in every part of the world. The Lord tells this passage of the gospel with great peace and serenity.
Instead, in the first reading we listened to the prophet Amos who does not speak of this with such serenity. Woe - it begins like this - woe to the carefree of Zion and those who consider themselves safe on the mountains of Samaria! Lying on ivory beds and lying on their sofas they eat the lambs of the flock and the calves raised in the stable. They sing to the sound of the harp, like David, they improvise on musical instruments; they drink wine in large cups and are anointed with the most refined oils, but they do not worry about the ruin of Joseph - that is, the poor, the ruin of the people of Israel. So now they will be the first to go into exile and cease the orgy of the dissolute. There is the orgy of the dissolute, there is the rich man and there is injustice towards the chosen people of the Lord, and here is the threat of the Lord who punishes by sending us into exile.
So far it seems to be only a moral teaching: please do justice among you. But the most essential, the strongest thing, the key to understanding this is given by the opening prayer of the Mass, the Collect, which says: O God, you call your poor by name, while the rich man has no name. That is the question. Both made their way, each with the choices he made in life. One managed to have a name, to make a name for himself, to be called by name, with a noun; the other, the rich man, we do not know what his name is, only the adjective, a rich man: he failed to grow the name, to find dignity before God. Life is played: the consistency of having a name or the inconsistency that leads us to not have a name. The rich man knew that at the door of his house there was this poor man and he pretended not to see him, because he looked only to himself; he was centred on himself, on vanity, he believed himself to be the master of the universe, he worried about riches and parties and the things he did. Didn't he know the poor man's name? Yes, he knew, because when he was in hell he asked Abraham: Send Lazarus. The hypocrisy of vanity, the hypocrisy of those who believe they can be redeemers of themselves, of saving themselves only with things. But their name does not grow, they have no names, they are anonymous. Instead, in the Gospel text, the name of the poor man is spoken five times. Five times, an exaggeration, but why does Jesus do this? Because as the prayer says: Lord, you call your poor by name, while the rich man has no name. This is the story of this gospel, the story of two paths of life: one that has managed to carry on his name; the other who, worried about himself, because of selfishness, is incapable of making his person grow, his dignity. He has no name.
Our whole life is a bit of a journey to consolidate, to make our name strong with the honesty of life, with the path that the Lord indicates to us, and this is the reason why we must help each other.
Someone may say to me: Father, the Gospel is fine, but what does this have to do with the Vatican Guards today? You too must guard all the people who are here, who have the opportunity to grow, to have a name. You are men who work for the dignity of each one of us so that each of us may have a name and carry forward our name, the name that the Lord wants us to bear. And when you perform some disciplinary action - This cannot be done - it is carried out in order to stop this orgy of anonymity which is the ugliest of human orgies: not accepting a name and wanting to return to the darkness of anonymity. That is why it occurred to me that it can be said that the Gendarmerie has the custody of the names, of all our names. Not to clean everyone's folder: if there is something bad, we burn it away ... No, this name is not valid. But to help the discipline of the Vatican City State, that each of its inhabitants has a name. And for this I thank you so much. Continue like this, to work for the dignity of the people, of each one, and in this way, you will carry out your vocation.
Finally, I would just like to say a word about a sin I committed today, and you who are policemen: today I smuggled! At this Mass I smuggled because I have a family of friends who are celebrating the 50th anniversary of their marriage and I had this Mass and they wanted me to celebrate with them and I smuggled them to bring them here with you. They are 46 people, they are there. Spouses, children and grandchildren. In total 46. A beautiful family! Pray for them too, because they have a name. Thank you.
Testo originale nella lingua italiana
Homily of the Holy Father, Pope Francis
for the Mass celebrated with the Vatican Guards
Upon a first reading of the gospel, of this passage from the gospel, we can perhaps miss the message and be led to think that this is a teaching of Jesus in favour of almsgiving, in favour of justice, that is, a teaching by Jesus of a moral character. But this is something altogether different. Jesus wants to enter precisely into the human journey of a whole life, and it is for this reason that this gospel speaks of two lives, of a rich man and a poor man, of how life is for both of them. This Gospel makes us see destiny - not a magical destiny, no - the destiny that a man or a woman can make of him- or herself, because we create our destiny, we walk our path and our journey; many times we do it ourselves. Sometimes the Lord intervenes, the Lord gives grace, but we are responsible for our journey. The Lord gives us the free gift of grace; he helps us to always make our way in his presence but along our own journey, the responsibility of our journey is ours. I would like to go into this message a little.
There was a rich man, who wore clothes of purple and very fine linen, and every day he feasted on lavish banquets. This is one life. There is another one: A poor man, named Lazarus, stood at his door, covered with sores, eager to feed himself with what fell from the rich man's table; but it was the dogs that came to lick his wounds. Two lives. Not a moment of life: two paths of life, because the rich man continued to keep this lifestyle and the poor man continued to suffer in poverty. It is not just a story, this happens every day in every city, in every part of the world. The Lord tells this passage of the gospel with great peace and serenity.
Instead, in the first reading we listened to the prophet Amos who does not speak of this with such serenity. Woe - it begins like this - woe to the carefree of Zion and those who consider themselves safe on the mountains of Samaria! Lying on ivory beds and lying on their sofas they eat the lambs of the flock and the calves raised in the stable. They sing to the sound of the harp, like David, they improvise on musical instruments; they drink wine in large cups and are anointed with the most refined oils, but they do not worry about the ruin of Joseph - that is, the poor, the ruin of the people of Israel. So now they will be the first to go into exile and cease the orgy of the dissolute. There is the orgy of the dissolute, there is the rich man and there is injustice towards the chosen people of the Lord, and here is the threat of the Lord who punishes by sending us into exile.
So far it seems to be only a moral teaching: please do justice among you. But the most essential, the strongest thing, the key to understanding this is given by the opening prayer of the Mass, the Collect, which says: O God, you call your poor by name, while the rich man has no name. That is the question. Both made their way, each with the choices he made in life. One managed to have a name, to make a name for himself, to be called by name, with a noun; the other, the rich man, we do not know what his name is, only the adjective, a rich man: he failed to grow the name, to find dignity before God. Life is played: the consistency of having a name or the inconsistency that leads us to not have a name. The rich man knew that at the door of his house there was this poor man and he pretended not to see him, because he looked only to himself; he was centred on himself, on vanity, he believed himself to be the master of the universe, he worried about riches and parties and the things he did. Didn't he know the poor man's name? Yes, he knew, because when he was in hell he asked Abraham: Send Lazarus. The hypocrisy of vanity, the hypocrisy of those who believe they can be redeemers of themselves, of saving themselves only with things. But their name does not grow, they have no names, they are anonymous. Instead, in the Gospel text, the name of the poor man is spoken five times. Five times, an exaggeration, but why does Jesus do this? Because as the prayer says: Lord, you call your poor by name, while the rich man has no name. This is the story of this gospel, the story of two paths of life: one that has managed to carry on his name; the other who, worried about himself, because of selfishness, is incapable of making his person grow, his dignity. He has no name.
Our whole life is a bit of a journey to consolidate, to make our name strong with the honesty of life, with the path that the Lord indicates to us, and this is the reason why we must help each other.
Someone may say to me: Father, the Gospel is fine, but what does this have to do with the Vatican Guards today? You too must guard all the people who are here, who have the opportunity to grow, to have a name. You are men who work for the dignity of each one of us so that each of us may have a name and carry forward our name, the name that the Lord wants us to bear. And when you perform some disciplinary action - This cannot be done - it is carried out in order to stop this orgy of anonymity which is the ugliest of human orgies: not accepting a name and wanting to return to the darkness of anonymity. That is why it occurred to me that it can be said that the Gendarmerie has the custody of the names, of all our names. Not to clean everyone's folder: if there is something bad, we burn it away ... No, this name is not valid. But to help the discipline of the Vatican City State, that each of its inhabitants has a name. And for this I thank you so much. Continue like this, to work for the dignity of the people, of each one, and in this way, you will carry out your vocation.
Finally, I would just like to say a word about a sin I committed today, and you who are policemen: today I smuggled! At this Mass I smuggled because I have a family of friends who are celebrating the 50th anniversary of their marriage and I had this Mass and they wanted me to celebrate with them and I smuggled them to bring them here with you. They are 46 people, they are there. Spouses, children and grandchildren. In total 46. A beautiful family! Pray for them too, because they have a name. Thank you.
Testo originale nella lingua italiana
No comments:
Post a Comment