At 7:00am this morning in Rome (1:00am EST), the Holy Father celebrated Mass in the chapel at the Casa Santa Marta.
Let us continue to pray for those who are suffering from this epidemic. And today, in a special way, I wish to pray for those who are in prison, for our brothers and our sisters who are locked up in prisons. They are suffering and we should be close to them with our prayers, asking the Lord to help them, to console them at this difficult moment.
Do not abandon me, O Lord, my God; do not stay away from me; come quickly to my help, Lord, my salvation (Ps 38:22-23).
Greetings of the Holy Father, Pope Francis
prior to the beginning of the Mass
Let us continue to pray for those who are suffering from this epidemic. And today, in a special way, I wish to pray for those who are in prison, for our brothers and our sisters who are locked up in prisons. They are suffering and we should be close to them with our prayers, asking the Lord to help them, to console them at this difficult moment.
Do not abandon me, O Lord, my God; do not stay away from me; come quickly to my help, Lord, my salvation (Ps 38:22-23).
Homily of the Holy Father, Pope Francis
during the Mass celebrated on 11 March 2020
The first reading is a passage from the Book of the prophet Jeremiah. It is truly a prophecy concerning the Lord's passion. This is what some of his friends said: let us destroy him by his own tongue; let us carefully note his every word (Jer 18:18). We place obstacles in their way. When we speak like this, outside, we make life difficult. Jeremiah's friends contrive a plot against him. These words describe the prophet's suffering but they also provide a prophecy about Jesus.
Jesus also speaks about this in the gospel: Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death, and hand him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and scourged and crucified, ... (Mt 20:18-19). This was not just a sentence of death. There was more. There was humiliation. There was fury, and when there is fury ... in the persecution of a Christian, of a person, the demon is present. The devil has two styles: seduction, with all the promises of the world like he did with Jesus in the desert, to seduce him ... and he tried to exchange seduction for redemption ... and if this is not possible, fury reigns. The demon doesn't have a point where he stops. His appetite is so large that he seeks to destroy and to destroy, enflaming his destruction with fury.
We can think of the persecution of many of the saints, of many Christians. They are not just killed. They are made to suffer. Their persecutors seek out all possible ways to humiliate them ... even unto death. We should not confuse a simple persecution - social, political or religious - with the devil's fury. The devil is cunning and intent on destroying everything. We can think about the Apocalypse, when the devil aims to swallow up the son that is born of the woman.
The two thieves who were crucified with Jesus were condemned, crucified and then left to die in peace. No one was insulting them. They weren't interested in them. Insults were a temptation that were reserved for Jesus. Jesus told the apostles that he would be condemned to die but he would be ridiculed, flagellated, crucified, that they would make a clown out of him.
There was a path to get away from the devil's fury, from all this destruction: it is the worldly spirit, the spirit of that mother, the wife of Zebedee who asked on behalf of her children ... Jesus speaks about humiliation as his own destiny, and she asked for appearance, power. Vanity, a worldly spirit is the very path that the devil offered in order to accompany the cross of Jesus. Our own achievements, careerism, worldly success are all non-Chrisian paths. They are all ways to cover up Jesus' cross.
May the Lord give us the grace to be able to discern when we face the spirit who wants to destroy us with its fury and when this same spirit seeks to console us with worldly appearances, with vanity. And let us not forget: when we experience fury, there is also hatred and vindication, the devil is fighting. It is still this way, even today, in our homes. We can think of many Christians who are cruelly persecuted. In these days, the newspapers are speaking about Aisha Bibi. She spent nine years in prison, suffering the devil's fury. May the Lord give us the grace to discern the path of the Lord which leads to the cross and the path of the world that is based on vanity and appearance.
Jesus also speaks about this in the gospel: Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death, and hand him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and scourged and crucified, ... (Mt 20:18-19). This was not just a sentence of death. There was more. There was humiliation. There was fury, and when there is fury ... in the persecution of a Christian, of a person, the demon is present. The devil has two styles: seduction, with all the promises of the world like he did with Jesus in the desert, to seduce him ... and he tried to exchange seduction for redemption ... and if this is not possible, fury reigns. The demon doesn't have a point where he stops. His appetite is so large that he seeks to destroy and to destroy, enflaming his destruction with fury.
We can think of the persecution of many of the saints, of many Christians. They are not just killed. They are made to suffer. Their persecutors seek out all possible ways to humiliate them ... even unto death. We should not confuse a simple persecution - social, political or religious - with the devil's fury. The devil is cunning and intent on destroying everything. We can think about the Apocalypse, when the devil aims to swallow up the son that is born of the woman.
The two thieves who were crucified with Jesus were condemned, crucified and then left to die in peace. No one was insulting them. They weren't interested in them. Insults were a temptation that were reserved for Jesus. Jesus told the apostles that he would be condemned to die but he would be ridiculed, flagellated, crucified, that they would make a clown out of him.
There was a path to get away from the devil's fury, from all this destruction: it is the worldly spirit, the spirit of that mother, the wife of Zebedee who asked on behalf of her children ... Jesus speaks about humiliation as his own destiny, and she asked for appearance, power. Vanity, a worldly spirit is the very path that the devil offered in order to accompany the cross of Jesus. Our own achievements, careerism, worldly success are all non-Chrisian paths. They are all ways to cover up Jesus' cross.
May the Lord give us the grace to be able to discern when we face the spirit who wants to destroy us with its fury and when this same spirit seeks to console us with worldly appearances, with vanity. And let us not forget: when we experience fury, there is also hatred and vindication, the devil is fighting. It is still this way, even today, in our homes. We can think of many Christians who are cruelly persecuted. In these days, the newspapers are speaking about Aisha Bibi. She spent nine years in prison, suffering the devil's fury. May the Lord give us the grace to discern the path of the Lord which leads to the cross and the path of the world that is based on vanity and appearance.
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