Pope in Assisi: May the Middle East and the world find the peace of the "real "St. Francis
Assisi (AsiaNews) - "Let us respect each human being. May there be an end to armed conflicts which cover the earth with blood; may the clash of arms be silenced; and everywhere may hatred yield to love, injury to pardon, and discord to unity." On this " day of tears " for the dead of Lampedusa; from Assisi, Pope Francis invokes the peace of St. Francis for the Middle East and the entire world. But the true peace of St. Francis, that "is not something saccharine ": " Nor is it a kind of pantheistic harmony with forces of the cosmos... That is not Franciscan either; it is a notion some people have invented! The peace of Saint Francis is the peace of Christ, and it is found by those who "take up" their "yoke", namely, Christ's commandment: Love one another as I have loved you (cf. Jn 13:34; 15:12). This yoke cannot be borne with arrogance, presumption or pride, but only with meekness and humbleness of heart".
The
"real" St. Francis is the example and model that the Pope who chose
his name is proposing on this visit to Assisi .
The young man who stripped himself of the clothes of wealth and embarked
on a new life, showing love for the least and weakest, he said during his first
meeting , dedicated to children with disabilities, who warned against the
danger of " worldliness " in the Church, he recalled saluting those assisted
by Caritas , who teaches true peace , he said during the mass.
The Pope is scheduled to have lunch later with those assisted by Caritas in the Hall of spoliation of St. Francis in the bishops' house. As he had done at the Seraphic Institute , the Pope speaks from the heart taking his cue from the locations. "This is a good opportunity to make a call to the Church to strip itself down. But we are all the Church, eh! Everyone! From the first baptized , we are all the Church. And we all have to travel the path of Jesus, who has made a path by stripping himself. He became a servant, a servant willing to be humiliated to the point of the Cross. And if we want to be Christians there is no other way. 'But can we not make Christianity a bit ' more human? 'Some say, without the Cross, without Jesus, without stripping ourselves down. Then we become sweet shop Christians, like beautiful cakes, ... Beautiful, but not really Christians ! Others say : ' But what must we strip the Church of? ' . We must strip it of a very serious danger that threatens every person in the Church today, all of us : the danger of worldliness . Christians can not live with the spirit of the world. Worldliness which leads to vanity , arrogance , pride. This is an idol , it is not God, it is an idol ! And idolatry is the greatest sin!"
"We are all the Church - he said." " And we all have to strip ourselves of this worldliness : the spirit contrary to the spirit of the beatitudes ; contrary to the spirit of Jesus; worldliness wounds us . It is so sad to see a worldly Christian , secure in the confidence that the faith gives him - safe according to him - and certain in security that the world gives him . But you can bat for both teams. The Church , all of us, should give up high society , which leads to vanity , pride , which is idolatry " . "Jesus himself said : ' You can not serve two masters . Your are either servants of God or servants of the money. All of this worldly spirit is found in Money".
"Today - he continued - many of you , have been stripped of this wild world that does not give work, that does not help, no matter what, not matter if there are children starving in the world , no matter if many families have nothing to eat , do not have the dignity of bringing home the bread, no matter that so many people have to escape from slavery, hunger and escape in the search of freedom and with so much pain, so many times, to find only death, which is what happened yesterday at Lampedusa . Today is a day of tears ! This is what a spirit of worldliness does. It is ridiculous that a Christian, a true Christian , a priest , a nun , a bishop , a cardinal , a Pope should want to travel this road of worldliness, with its homicidal attitude. Spiritual worldliness kills! It kills the soul ! It kills people ! It kills the Church . "
"Today, here - he concluded - let us ask for grace for all Christians . May the Lord give us all the courage to strip ourselves, but not of 20 pounds, no, no ... to strip ourselves of the spirit world , which is a leprosy, a cancer in society ! It is a cancer to the revelation of God! A worldly spirit is the enemy of Jesus! I ask the Lord to give all of us the grace to strip ourselves of worldliness "
The program of
Pope Francis in Assisi includes a visit to all the places of the city related
to the events of Saints life including of course his tomb, where the Pope placed
a small bouquet of flowers.
Outside,
the square in front was completely crowded: almost 10 thousand pilgrims "lucky"
to be there, who began to arrive from the first light of dawn. Thousands
more are in the square in front of the Upper Basilica and have warmly welcomed
the Pope as he passed by.
In his homily , he speaks of what the "real" St. Francis's witness tell us today, what he has to say to us, not merely with words - that is easy enough - but by his life. His first and most essential witness is this: that being a Christian means having a living relationship with the person of Jesus; it means putting on Christ, being conformed to him."
The
" journey of Francis to Christ "starts" from the gaze of Jesus
on the cross." For
the Saint, it was the crucifix of Saint Damian's : "Blood is flowing from his wounded
hands, feet and side, but that blood speaks of life. Jesus' eyes are not closed
but open, wide open: he looks at us in a way that touches our hearts. The cross
does not speak to us about defeat and failure; paradoxically, it speaks to us
about a death which is life, a death which gives life, for it speaks to us of love,
the love of God incarnate, a love which does not die, but triumphs over evil
and death. When we let the crucified Jesus gaze upon us, we are re-created, we
become "a new creation".
" We turn to you, Francis, and we ask you: Teach
us to remain before the cross, to let the crucified Christ gaze upon us, to let
ourselves be forgiven, and recreated by his love".
The
second thing is that Francis testifies : "that everyone who follows Christ receives true
peace, the peace that Christ alone can give, a peace which the world cannot
give. Many people, when they think of Saint Francis, think of peace; very few
people however go deeper. What is the peace which Francis received, experienced
and lived, and which he passes on to us? It is the peace of Christ, which is
born of the greatest love of all, the love of the cross. It is the peace which
the Risen Jesus gave to his disciples when he stood in their midst and said:
"Peace be with you!", and in saying this, he showed them his wounded hands and
his pierced side".
" Franciscan peace is not something saccharine.
Hardly! That is not the real Saint Francis! Nor is it a kind of pantheistic
harmony with forces of the cosmos... That is not Franciscan either; it is a notion
some people have invented! The peace of Saint Francis is the peace of Christ,
and it is found by those who "take up" their "yoke", namely, Christ's
commandment: Love one another as I have loved you (cf. Jn 13:34; 15:12). This
yoke cannot be borne with arrogance, presumption or pride, but only with
meekness and humbleness of heart. We turn to you, Francis, and we ask you:
Teach us to be "instruments of peace", of that peace which has its source in
God, the peace which Jesus has brought us".
St.
Francis, finally, "bears
witness to the need to respect all that God has created, and that men and women
are called to safeguard and protect, but above all he bears witness to respect
and love for every human being. God created the world to be a place where
harmony and peace can flourish. Harmony and peace! Francis was a man of harmony
and peace. From this City of Peace, I repeat with all the strength and the
meekness of love: Let us respect creation, let us not be instruments of
destruction! Let us respect each human being. May there be an end to armed
conflicts which cover the earth with blood; may the clash of arms be silenced;
and everywhere may hatred yield to love, injury to pardon, and discord to
unity. Let us listen to the cry of all those who are weeping, who are suffering
and who are dying because of violence, terrorism or war, in the Holy Land, so
dear to Saint Francis, in Syria, throughout the Middle East and everywhere in
the world. We turn to you, Francis, and we ask you: Obtain for us God's gift of
harmony and peace in this our world!".
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