At 7:00am local time this morning (2:00am EDT), the Holy Father, Pope Francis celebrated Mass inside the chapel at the Casa Santa Marta.
I have heard that some doctors and priests have died in these days, I don't know if any nurses have died, but there are some who got infected, they took sick because they were at the service of the sick. Let us pray for them, for their families, and I thank God for the example of heroism they are giving us in treating the sick.
Today's liturgy makes us reflect on water, water as a symbol of salvation, because it is a means of salvation, but water is also a means of destruction: we can think of the flood ... But in these readings water is a sign of salvation.
In the first reading (cf Ez 47: 1-9, 12), we see water that brings life, that heals the waters of the sea, a new water that heals. And in the Gospel (cf Jn 5: 1-16), the pool, that pool where the sick went, full of water, to recover, because it was said that every now and then the waters moved, as if the pool were a river, because an angel came down from heaven to move them, and the first, or the first who threw themselves into the water would be healed. And many sick people would lay there: a great number of the sick, blind, lame, paralyzed (Jn 5: 3), waiting for healing, for the water would move.
There was a man who had been ill for thirty eight years. He had spent thirty-eight years there, waiting for healing! It makes you think this, doesn't it? It's a bit too much ... Because someone who wants to be healed usually gets someone else to help him, he moves, he is a little quick, even a little smart ... But this man, thirty-eight years there, to the point that it was not known if he was sick or dead ... Jesus, seeing him lying there, and knowing the reality, that he had been there for a long time, said to him: Do you want to be healed? (Jn 5: 6). And the answer is interesting: he doesn't say yes, he complains. About the disease? No. The sick man replied: Sir, I don't have anyone to immerse me in the pool when the water is stirred up. While in fact I am about to go there - while I am about to make the decision to go - another person comes down before me (Jn 5: 7). He was a man who always arrived late. Jesus said to him: Get up, take your mat and walk (Jn 5: 8). Instantly that man recovered (Jn 5: 9).
This encounter makes us think of this man's attitude. Was he sick? Yes, perhaps he had some paralysis, but it seems that he could walk a little. But he was sick in the heart, he was sick in the soul, he was sick with pessimism, he was sick with sadness, he was sick with sloth. This is the illness of this man: Yes, I want to live, but ..., he was there. And his answer is not: Yes, I want to be healed! No, he complained: The others come first, always the others. The response to Jesus' offer to heal is a complaint against others. And so, he had thirty-eight years to complain about others. And he was doing nothing to heal himself.
It was a Saturday: we heard what the doctors of the Law did (cf Jn 5: 10-13). But the key is the meeting with Jesus afterwards. He found him in the temple and said to him: Here: you are healed! Do not sin any more, lest something worse happen to you (Jn 5: 14). That man was in sin, but not because he had made a big deal of it, no: the sin of surviving and complaining about the lives of others; the sin of sadness that is the seed of the devil, the seed of the inability to make a decision about one's life, and instead looking at the lives of others to complain. Not to criticize them: to complain. They go first, I am the victim of this life: complaints, these people breathe complaints.
If we draw a comparison with the man who was blind from birth, which we heard last Sunday (cf Jn 9): with how much joy, with how much decisiveness he had accepted the healing, and also with how much decisiveness he went on to discuss his situation with the doctors of the Law! Meanwhile, this paralytic only went and informed: Yes, that is it. Period. (see Jn 5: 15). Without compromising with life ... it makes me think of many of us, of many Christians who experience this state of sloth; they are unable to do anything but complain about everything. And sloth is a poison, it is a fog that surrounds the soul and does not make it live. And it is also a drug because if you taste it often, you get to like it. And you become a sadness-addict, a sloth-addict ... It's like the air you breathe. And this is a fairly usual sin among us: sadness and sloth, I do not say melancholy but it is approaching that level.
It will do us good to re-read chapter 5 of the gospel of John, to see what this disease is that we can fall into. Water is meant to save us. But can't I save myself - Why? - Because the fault lies with others. And I stayed there thirty-eight years ... Jesus has healed me: you cannot see the reaction of the others who have been healed, who have picked up their stretchers and danced, sung, given thanks, proclaimed it to the whole world! No, go on like this. They told him it shouldn't be done, and he said: "He who healed me told me yes, and he went on. And then, instead of going to Jesus, thanking him and everything, he informed everyone else: that was what happened. A grey life, but grey with this bad spirit which is sloth, sadness, melancholy.
Let us think about the water, that water which is a symbol of our strength, our life, the water that Jesus uses to regenerate us: Baptism. And we can also think about ourselves, if any of us is in danger of slipping into this sloth, into this sin of neutrality: the sin of neutrality is this, neither white nor black, no one knows what it is. And this is a pity that the devil can use to annihilate our spiritual life and also our life as people. May the Lord help us to understand how ugly and how evil this sin is.
After the completion of the Mass, the Holy Father spent some time in prayer before the Blessed Sacrament. His Holiness offered the following prayer, leading all those who were united with him in prayer via various media:
My Jesus, I believe that you are truly present in the Blessed Sacrament of the altar. I love you above all things and I desire you in my soul. Since I cannot receive You sacramentally now, at least spiritually come to my heart. As you have already come, I embrace you and I join myself to you. Do not let me ever be separated from you.
Greetings of the Holy Father, Pope Francis
prior to the celebration of Mass
I have heard that some doctors and priests have died in these days, I don't know if any nurses have died, but there are some who got infected, they took sick because they were at the service of the sick. Let us pray for them, for their families, and I thank God for the example of heroism they are giving us in treating the sick.
Homily of the Holy Father, Pope Francis
during the Mass celebrated on 24 March 2020
Today's liturgy makes us reflect on water, water as a symbol of salvation, because it is a means of salvation, but water is also a means of destruction: we can think of the flood ... But in these readings water is a sign of salvation.
In the first reading (cf Ez 47: 1-9, 12), we see water that brings life, that heals the waters of the sea, a new water that heals. And in the Gospel (cf Jn 5: 1-16), the pool, that pool where the sick went, full of water, to recover, because it was said that every now and then the waters moved, as if the pool were a river, because an angel came down from heaven to move them, and the first, or the first who threw themselves into the water would be healed. And many sick people would lay there: a great number of the sick, blind, lame, paralyzed (Jn 5: 3), waiting for healing, for the water would move.
There was a man who had been ill for thirty eight years. He had spent thirty-eight years there, waiting for healing! It makes you think this, doesn't it? It's a bit too much ... Because someone who wants to be healed usually gets someone else to help him, he moves, he is a little quick, even a little smart ... But this man, thirty-eight years there, to the point that it was not known if he was sick or dead ... Jesus, seeing him lying there, and knowing the reality, that he had been there for a long time, said to him: Do you want to be healed? (Jn 5: 6). And the answer is interesting: he doesn't say yes, he complains. About the disease? No. The sick man replied: Sir, I don't have anyone to immerse me in the pool when the water is stirred up. While in fact I am about to go there - while I am about to make the decision to go - another person comes down before me (Jn 5: 7). He was a man who always arrived late. Jesus said to him: Get up, take your mat and walk (Jn 5: 8). Instantly that man recovered (Jn 5: 9).
This encounter makes us think of this man's attitude. Was he sick? Yes, perhaps he had some paralysis, but it seems that he could walk a little. But he was sick in the heart, he was sick in the soul, he was sick with pessimism, he was sick with sadness, he was sick with sloth. This is the illness of this man: Yes, I want to live, but ..., he was there. And his answer is not: Yes, I want to be healed! No, he complained: The others come first, always the others. The response to Jesus' offer to heal is a complaint against others. And so, he had thirty-eight years to complain about others. And he was doing nothing to heal himself.
It was a Saturday: we heard what the doctors of the Law did (cf Jn 5: 10-13). But the key is the meeting with Jesus afterwards. He found him in the temple and said to him: Here: you are healed! Do not sin any more, lest something worse happen to you (Jn 5: 14). That man was in sin, but not because he had made a big deal of it, no: the sin of surviving and complaining about the lives of others; the sin of sadness that is the seed of the devil, the seed of the inability to make a decision about one's life, and instead looking at the lives of others to complain. Not to criticize them: to complain. They go first, I am the victim of this life: complaints, these people breathe complaints.
If we draw a comparison with the man who was blind from birth, which we heard last Sunday (cf Jn 9): with how much joy, with how much decisiveness he had accepted the healing, and also with how much decisiveness he went on to discuss his situation with the doctors of the Law! Meanwhile, this paralytic only went and informed: Yes, that is it. Period. (see Jn 5: 15). Without compromising with life ... it makes me think of many of us, of many Christians who experience this state of sloth; they are unable to do anything but complain about everything. And sloth is a poison, it is a fog that surrounds the soul and does not make it live. And it is also a drug because if you taste it often, you get to like it. And you become a sadness-addict, a sloth-addict ... It's like the air you breathe. And this is a fairly usual sin among us: sadness and sloth, I do not say melancholy but it is approaching that level.
It will do us good to re-read chapter 5 of the gospel of John, to see what this disease is that we can fall into. Water is meant to save us. But can't I save myself - Why? - Because the fault lies with others. And I stayed there thirty-eight years ... Jesus has healed me: you cannot see the reaction of the others who have been healed, who have picked up their stretchers and danced, sung, given thanks, proclaimed it to the whole world! No, go on like this. They told him it shouldn't be done, and he said: "He who healed me told me yes, and he went on. And then, instead of going to Jesus, thanking him and everything, he informed everyone else: that was what happened. A grey life, but grey with this bad spirit which is sloth, sadness, melancholy.
Let us think about the water, that water which is a symbol of our strength, our life, the water that Jesus uses to regenerate us: Baptism. And we can also think about ourselves, if any of us is in danger of slipping into this sloth, into this sin of neutrality: the sin of neutrality is this, neither white nor black, no one knows what it is. And this is a pity that the devil can use to annihilate our spiritual life and also our life as people. May the Lord help us to understand how ugly and how evil this sin is.
After the completion of the Mass, the Holy Father spent some time in prayer before the Blessed Sacrament. His Holiness offered the following prayer, leading all those who were united with him in prayer via various media:
Prayer to make a spiritual communion
My Jesus, I believe that you are truly present in the Blessed Sacrament of the altar. I love you above all things and I desire you in my soul. Since I cannot receive You sacramentally now, at least spiritually come to my heart. As you have already come, I embrace you and I join myself to you. Do not let me ever be separated from you.
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