Pope: Commitment to peace is also proclamation of the Gospel

Recalling the example of the Venezuelan Blessed Hernández Cisneros, the "doctor of the poor", Francis invites us "not to stop at words, but to get our hands dirty on the great social, economic and political issues" of our time. The appeal for prayer and solidarity for the flood victims in Libya.

Vatican City (AsiaNews) - Even committing yourself to building peace "is apostolic zeal, it is the proclamation of the Gospel, it is Christian bliss," reflected Pope Francis today during his catechesis in the general audience on Wednesday, held in St. Peter's Square.

The occasion to reiterate this was a reference to the life of the Venezuelan Blessed José Gregorio Hernández Cisneros (1864-1919), whose figure he retraced in the context of the gallery of great witnesses of missionary zeal that the pontiff has been proposing for some months in the weekly appointment with the faithful.

But they are words that take on a particular meaning also in light of the mission to Beijing that, in these very hours and until Friday 15 September, Card. Matteo Zuppi – archbishop of Bologna and president of the Italian Episcopal Conference – is carrying out on behalf of Francis, "to support humanitarian initiatives and the search for paths that can lead to a just peace" in Ukraine.

A layman, an apostle of charity known to all as "the doctor of the poor", Blessed Hernández Cisneros "preferred that of the Gospel to the wealth of money, spending his life to help the needy. In the poor, the sick, the migrants, the suffering, José Gregorio saw Jesus."

Raised in the faith transmitted by his mother, as a young man he wanted to become a priest, but various health problems prevented him. “However, his physical frailty – commented the Pope – did not lead him to withdraw into himself, but to become an even more sensitive doctor to the needs of others. Here is apostolic zeal: it does not follow one's own aspirations, but availability to God's plans."

He first felt "in need of grace" and drew strength from intimacy with God in prayer: in daily Mass - the Pope recalled - "he united everything he lived with the offering of Jesus: he brought the sick and the poor that he helped, his students, the research he undertook, the problems he cared about."

But another gesture also fits into this dynamic: in the years of the First World War, which bloodied Europe, he felt called to offer his life for peace. “It wasn't his continent, but war was breaking out there,” the pontiff observed. And when a friend visited him on June 29, 1919 he found him happy because he had learned that the peace treaty had been signed.

“His offer was accepted, and it is as if he senses that his task on earth is over,” said Francis. That same morning, while he was on the road to bring medicine to a patient, he died when he was hit by a vehicle.

Starting from his example, the Pope invited everyone to ask themselves some questions: "How do I react in front of Jesus present in the poor near me, in front of those who suffer most in the world?".

But the life and death of Blessed Hernández Cisneros are also a stimulus to commitment to the great social, economic and political issues of today. “Many people talk about it, many people badmouth it, many criticize it and say that everything is bad - commented Francesco -. But the Christian is not called to do this, but rather to deal with it, to get his hands dirty: first of all to pray and then to commit himself not to chatter, but to promoting goodness, to building peace and justice in truth".

And in continuity with all this, at the end of the catechesis, the pontiff addressed his thoughts "to the populations of Libya hit hard by violent rains which caused flooding and causing numerous deaths and injuries as well as extensive damage".

He invited everyone to pray for those who lost their lives, for their families and for the displaced. “Let us not lack - he added - our solidarity towards these brothers and sisters who have been so tried by this calamity”. Just as - once again - he invited us to pray for the "noble Moroccan people" hit by the earthquake and for the "tortured Ukraine, whose suffering is always present in our minds and hearts".