Greetings of the Holy Father, Pope Francis
prior to the celebration of the Mass
In these days of such suffering, there is a lot of fear. Fear on the part of the elderly, who are alone in homes for the aged or in hospitals or in their own homes, alone, and they do not know what is going to happen. There is the fear of unemployed workers who are wondering how they will provide food for their children and who see hunger on the way. There is the fear of many civil servants who at this moment are helping to keep society going and who can catch the disease. There is also fear - there are fears - that each one of us has: we all know what our fears are. Let us pray to the Lord to help us trust and to tolerate and overcome our fears.
Homily of the Holy Father, Pope Francis
during the Mass celebrated on 26 March 2020
In the first reading there is the scene of the mutiny of the people. Moses went up the Mount to receive the Law: God gave it to him, in stone, written by his finger. But the people got bored and crowded around Aaron and said: But, this Moses, for a long time we don't know where he is, where he went and we are without a guide. Make us a god to help us move forward. And Aaron, who later will be a priest of God ... but there he was a priest of stupidity, of idols, said: Yes, give me all the gold and silver you have, and they gave everything and made that golden calf (cf Ex: 32,1-7).
In the Psalm we heard God's lament: They made a calf on Horeb, prostrated themselves to a metal statue, exchanged their glory with the figure of a bull eating grass (Ps 105 (106): 19- 20). And here, at this moment, when the reading begins: The Lord said to Moses: 'Go, go down, because your people who you brought out of the land of Egypt were perverted. They did not delay in moving away from the way I had indicated to them. They made a calf of molten metal then prostrated themselves before him, offered sacrifices and said: 'Here is your god, Israel, the one who brought you out of the land of Egypt'' (Ex 32: 7-9). A true apostasy! From the living God to idolatry. They did not have patience to wait for Moses to come back: they wanted some news, they wanted something, a liturgical show, something ...
On this point, I would like to mention some things. First of all, that idolatrous nostalgia in the people: in this case, they were thinking about the idols of Egypt, about the nostalgia of returning to those idols, returning to the worst, not knowing how to wait for the living God. This nostalgia is a disease, even ours. We begin to walk with the enthusiasm of being free, but then the complaints begin: But yes, this is a hard time, the desert, I am thirsty, I want water, I want meat ... but in Egypt we ate onions, the good things and there is none of that here … Idolatry is always selective: it makes you think about the good things it gives you, but it doesn't make you see bad things. In this case, they thought about how they were at the table, with those meals - so good - that they liked them so much, but they forgot that this was the table of slavery. Idolatry is selective.
Then, another thing: idolatry makes you lose everything. In order to make the calf, Aaron asked them: Give me gold and silver: but that was the gold and silver that the Lord had given them when he said to them: Ask the Egyptians for gold on loan, and then they went along with him. This was a gift from the Lord and with the Lord's gift, they made the idol (Ex 11:1-9). And this is very bad. But this mechanism also happens to us: when we have attitudes that lead us to idolatry, we are attached to things that distance us from God, because we create another god and we do it using the gifts that the Lord has given us. With intelligence, with will, with love, with heart ... they are the gifts proper to the Lord that we use to practice idolatry.
Yes, some of you can tell me: But I don't have idols at home. I have the Crucifix, the image of the Madonna, who are not idols ... - No, no: in your heart. And the question we should ask today is: what is the idol you have in your heart, in my heart. That hidden exit where I feel good, which takes me away from the living God. And we also have a very clever attitude regarding idolatry: we know how to hide idols, as Rachel did when she ran away from her father and hid them in the camel saddle and between cloths. We too, among our favorite clothes, have hidden many idols.
The question I would like to ask today is: what is my idol? My idol of worldliness ... and idolatry also affects piety, because they wanted the golden calf not to make a circus: no. To adore: They prostrated themselves before it (cf Ps 105 (106): 19 and Ex 32:8). Idolatry leads you to a wrong religiosity, on the contrary: many times, worldliness - which is an idolatry - makes you change the celebration of a sacrament into a worldly feast. An example: I don't know, I think, we think, I don't know, let alone a wedding celebration. You do not know if it is a sacrament where the newlyweds really give everything and love each other before God and promise to be faithful before God and receive the grace of God, or whether it is an exhibition of models, how they are dressed etcetera etcetera ... worldliness. It is an idolatry. This is an example. Because idolatry does not stop: it always goes on.
Today the question that I would like to ask of all of us, of everyone: what are my idols? Everyone has their own. What are my idols? Where do I hide them? And may the Lord not find us at the end of life, and say of each of us: “You are perverted. You have strayed from the way I had pointed out. You prostrated yourself before an idol.
Let us ask the Lord for the grace of knowing our idols. And if we cannot chase them away, at least keep them away from us ...
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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