At 7:00am local time this morning (1:00am EST), the Holy Father, Pope Francis celebrated Mass inside the chapel at the Casa Santa Marta.
Let us continue to pray for the sick. I am thinking about families who are isolated: their children are not going to school, the parents cannot go out because we are in quarantine. May the Lord help them to discover new ways, new expressions of love, of living together in this new situation. It is a good exercise because it will help us to find ways to spend time together with creativity in our families. Let us pray for families, for relationships within our families at this time, that these relationships might flower and bring about much good.
Both of the texts that have been read today as part of this liturgy help us to meditate. There is an attitude that catches our attention. A bad attitude but one that is not born of a good spirit: indignation. Those people from Nazareth began by listening to Jesus; they were happy to listen to him speaking. Then someone said: But which university did he attend, where did he study? This is the son of Mary and Joseph, he is a carpenter. What is he trying to tell us? And the people grew contemptuous. We enter into this indignity, and this scorn leads to violence. When Jesus would walk around freely at the beginning of his preaching, they wanted to push him over the precipice.
Naaman too. He was a good man, Naaman. He too lost his faith, but when the prophet told him to go and bathe seven times in the Jordan, he grew scornful. Why? I thought that he would surely come out and stand there to invoke the Lord his God, and would move his hand over the spot, and thus cure the leprosy. Are not the rivers of Damascus, the Abana and the Pharpar, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be cleansed? (2 Kings 5:11-12) Scorn.
Also in Nazareth, there are good people. But what is behind all these good people that leads them to this attitude of indignation? Surely, there is violence in Nazareth. In both cases: among the people in the synagogue in Nazareth, and in the case of Naaman, in both cases they thought that God would make Himself known only in extraordinary ways, in uncommon ways; a belief that God could not act in the everyday activities of our lives, in simplicity. They scorned that which was simple. They scorned, hated simple things, and our God tells us that he is always present in simplicity: simplicity in a house in Nazareth, the simplicity of everyday work, the simplicity of prayer ... simple things.
On the other hand, the spirit of worldliness leads us toward vanity, toward the importance of appearances, and both cases end up in violence. Naaman was a very educated man, but he slammed the door in the face of the prophet and went away. Violence, an act of violence. The people in the synagogue became agitated, and they made the decision to kill Jesus, but unconsciously, they wanted to push him over the precipice. Scorn is a terrible temptation that can lead to violence.
A few days ago, I saw - on a portable telephone - a film of a doorway to a palace that is under quarantine. There was a person, a young man who wanted to get out, and the guard told him he couldn't. And he punched him, with indignation, with contempt: But who are you, 'nigger', to prevent me from leaving? Indignation is the attitude of those who think themselves better than others, but such people - poor them - they suffer from a terrible spiritual poverty. Those who think themselves to be better than others live only with the illusion of being more than they really are. This is a spiritual struggle among those who suffer from indignation. Rather, it often happens that these people need to be scornful, to be resentful in order to feel important.
This can happen to us too. The pharisaical scandal that is known as theology. I am scandalized by things that should be seen as the simplicity of God, the simplicity of the poor, the simplicity of Christians who choose to believe that God cannot exist in simple things. Our God is more important, more wise, greater than that. God can't act in such simple ways. It is always indignation that leads to violence: either physical violence or the violence of idle chatter ... this can kill just as effectively as physical violence can.
Let us think about these two passages. Indignation on the part of the people in the synagogue in Nazareth, and Naaman's indignation ... because they did not understand the simplicity of our God.
Greetings of the Holy Father, Pope Francis
prior to the celebration of the Mass
Let us continue to pray for the sick. I am thinking about families who are isolated: their children are not going to school, the parents cannot go out because we are in quarantine. May the Lord help them to discover new ways, new expressions of love, of living together in this new situation. It is a good exercise because it will help us to find ways to spend time together with creativity in our families. Let us pray for families, for relationships within our families at this time, that these relationships might flower and bring about much good.
Homily of His Holiness, Pope Francis
during the Mass celebrated on 16 March 2020
Both of the texts that have been read today as part of this liturgy help us to meditate. There is an attitude that catches our attention. A bad attitude but one that is not born of a good spirit: indignation. Those people from Nazareth began by listening to Jesus; they were happy to listen to him speaking. Then someone said: But which university did he attend, where did he study? This is the son of Mary and Joseph, he is a carpenter. What is he trying to tell us? And the people grew contemptuous. We enter into this indignity, and this scorn leads to violence. When Jesus would walk around freely at the beginning of his preaching, they wanted to push him over the precipice.
Naaman too. He was a good man, Naaman. He too lost his faith, but when the prophet told him to go and bathe seven times in the Jordan, he grew scornful. Why? I thought that he would surely come out and stand there to invoke the Lord his God, and would move his hand over the spot, and thus cure the leprosy. Are not the rivers of Damascus, the Abana and the Pharpar, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be cleansed? (2 Kings 5:11-12) Scorn.
Also in Nazareth, there are good people. But what is behind all these good people that leads them to this attitude of indignation? Surely, there is violence in Nazareth. In both cases: among the people in the synagogue in Nazareth, and in the case of Naaman, in both cases they thought that God would make Himself known only in extraordinary ways, in uncommon ways; a belief that God could not act in the everyday activities of our lives, in simplicity. They scorned that which was simple. They scorned, hated simple things, and our God tells us that he is always present in simplicity: simplicity in a house in Nazareth, the simplicity of everyday work, the simplicity of prayer ... simple things.
On the other hand, the spirit of worldliness leads us toward vanity, toward the importance of appearances, and both cases end up in violence. Naaman was a very educated man, but he slammed the door in the face of the prophet and went away. Violence, an act of violence. The people in the synagogue became agitated, and they made the decision to kill Jesus, but unconsciously, they wanted to push him over the precipice. Scorn is a terrible temptation that can lead to violence.
A few days ago, I saw - on a portable telephone - a film of a doorway to a palace that is under quarantine. There was a person, a young man who wanted to get out, and the guard told him he couldn't. And he punched him, with indignation, with contempt: But who are you, 'nigger', to prevent me from leaving? Indignation is the attitude of those who think themselves better than others, but such people - poor them - they suffer from a terrible spiritual poverty. Those who think themselves to be better than others live only with the illusion of being more than they really are. This is a spiritual struggle among those who suffer from indignation. Rather, it often happens that these people need to be scornful, to be resentful in order to feel important.
This can happen to us too. The pharisaical scandal that is known as theology. I am scandalized by things that should be seen as the simplicity of God, the simplicity of the poor, the simplicity of Christians who choose to believe that God cannot exist in simple things. Our God is more important, more wise, greater than that. God can't act in such simple ways. It is always indignation that leads to violence: either physical violence or the violence of idle chatter ... this can kill just as effectively as physical violence can.
Let us think about these two passages. Indignation on the part of the people in the synagogue in Nazareth, and Naaman's indignation ... because they did not understand the simplicity of our God.
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