Beginning yesterday, the Holy Father is live streaming his daily Mass from the chapel inside the Casa Santa Marta. As part of the measures being taken to combat COVID-19, the Italian Bishops have cancelled the celebration of public Masses throughout that country at least until the beginning of April.
Here is the video recording of the Mass that was celebrated this morning at 7:00am local time (2:00am EST) by Pope Francis.
Let us continue to pray together for the sick, for health care workers, for the many people who are suffering in this epidemic. Let us pray to the Lord also for our priests, that they may have the courage to go out and to accompany the sick, to take with them the strength of the Word of God and the Eucharist, to accompany the health care workers and the volunteers in this work that they are doing.
Yesterday, the Word of God taught us to recognize our sins and to confess them, but not only with our minds; also with our hearts, with a spirit of shame, with shame that leads to a more noble awareness of ourselves before God on account of our sins.
And today, the Lord calls each of us, for we are all sinners in dialogue with Him. We tend to enclose sin within ourselves. We hide it, or we hide our truth within. This is what happened with Adam and Eve: after they had sinned, they hid, because they were ashamed. They were naked. That's what happens when we realize that we have sinned. Out of shame, we have a tendency to hide, but the Lord calls to us: Come now, let us set things right (Is 1:18), says the Lord. Let us talk about your sins. Let us talk about your situation, and about your fear ... and Isaiah continues: Though your sins be like scarlet, they may become white as snow; though they be crimson red, they may become white as wool.
The Lord says: come, I am capable of changing everything. Don't be afraid to come and talk. Be courageous, with the things that you find difficult too. I am thinking about a saint who was very penitential. He prayed a lot and always sought to do whatever the Lord would ask, but the Lord wasn't content with just that. One day, he was a little angry with the Lord because he had a bad temper, that saint, and he said: Lord, I don't understand you: I give you everything, everything, and you are never satisfied, as though I am still missing something, something is always missing. And the Lord said: Give me your sins. That's what is missing. He had the courage to go, with all his weakness, to speak to the Lord about his sins. Come now, let us set things right. Don't be afraid. Though your sins be like scarlet, they may become white as snow; though they be crimson red, they may become white as wool (Is 1:18).
This is the Lord's invitation, but there is always another side. Instead of speaking with the Lord, we spend our time trying to pretend that we are not sinners. This is what the Lord proposes as a test for the Doctors of the Law: They tie up heavy burdens hard to carry and lay them on people’s shoulders,
but they will not lift a finger to move them ... they widen their phylacteries and lengthen their tassels.
They love places of honour at banquets, seats of honour in synagogues, greetings in marketplaces, and the salutation ‘Rabbi.’ (Mt 23:4-7). It's all about appearance, vanity ... covering the depth of truth within our hearts with vanity. Vanity will never be healed. Vanity can never be healed. Even to the point that if you have this illness, you can keep going, carrying it in your hearts, carrying hardness in your heart. It is a hardness that says: No, no, don't go to the Lord; stay on your own. Vanity is the best way to close ourselves off from the Lord's call.
Instead, the Lord's invitation is that of a father, a brother ... come, let us talk together. In the end, I have the ability to change your life from red to white. May this word of the Lord encourage us, so that our prayer may become a real prayer, about our reality, about our sins, about our sufferings. Let us talk to the Lord. He knows. He knows how we are. We know this, but vanity always invites us to understand things differently. May the Lord help us.
Here is the video recording of the Mass that was celebrated this morning at 7:00am local time (2:00am EST) by Pope Francis.
Greetings of the Holy Father, Pope Francis
prior to the beginning of Mass
Let us continue to pray together for the sick, for health care workers, for the many people who are suffering in this epidemic. Let us pray to the Lord also for our priests, that they may have the courage to go out and to accompany the sick, to take with them the strength of the Word of God and the Eucharist, to accompany the health care workers and the volunteers in this work that they are doing.
Homily of the Holy Father, Pope Francis
during the Mass celebrated on 10 March 2019
Yesterday, the Word of God taught us to recognize our sins and to confess them, but not only with our minds; also with our hearts, with a spirit of shame, with shame that leads to a more noble awareness of ourselves before God on account of our sins.
And today, the Lord calls each of us, for we are all sinners in dialogue with Him. We tend to enclose sin within ourselves. We hide it, or we hide our truth within. This is what happened with Adam and Eve: after they had sinned, they hid, because they were ashamed. They were naked. That's what happens when we realize that we have sinned. Out of shame, we have a tendency to hide, but the Lord calls to us: Come now, let us set things right (Is 1:18), says the Lord. Let us talk about your sins. Let us talk about your situation, and about your fear ... and Isaiah continues: Though your sins be like scarlet, they may become white as snow; though they be crimson red, they may become white as wool.
The Lord says: come, I am capable of changing everything. Don't be afraid to come and talk. Be courageous, with the things that you find difficult too. I am thinking about a saint who was very penitential. He prayed a lot and always sought to do whatever the Lord would ask, but the Lord wasn't content with just that. One day, he was a little angry with the Lord because he had a bad temper, that saint, and he said: Lord, I don't understand you: I give you everything, everything, and you are never satisfied, as though I am still missing something, something is always missing. And the Lord said: Give me your sins. That's what is missing. He had the courage to go, with all his weakness, to speak to the Lord about his sins. Come now, let us set things right. Don't be afraid. Though your sins be like scarlet, they may become white as snow; though they be crimson red, they may become white as wool (Is 1:18).
This is the Lord's invitation, but there is always another side. Instead of speaking with the Lord, we spend our time trying to pretend that we are not sinners. This is what the Lord proposes as a test for the Doctors of the Law: They tie up heavy burdens hard to carry and lay them on people’s shoulders,
but they will not lift a finger to move them ... they widen their phylacteries and lengthen their tassels.
They love places of honour at banquets, seats of honour in synagogues, greetings in marketplaces, and the salutation ‘Rabbi.’ (Mt 23:4-7). It's all about appearance, vanity ... covering the depth of truth within our hearts with vanity. Vanity will never be healed. Vanity can never be healed. Even to the point that if you have this illness, you can keep going, carrying it in your hearts, carrying hardness in your heart. It is a hardness that says: No, no, don't go to the Lord; stay on your own. Vanity is the best way to close ourselves off from the Lord's call.
Instead, the Lord's invitation is that of a father, a brother ... come, let us talk together. In the end, I have the ability to change your life from red to white. May this word of the Lord encourage us, so that our prayer may become a real prayer, about our reality, about our sins, about our sufferings. Let us talk to the Lord. He knows. He knows how we are. We know this, but vanity always invites us to understand things differently. May the Lord help us.
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