Pope: Coronavirus, God help families to discover new expressions of love

Yesterday Francis went to pray to the Virgin Salus populi Romani, Health of Romans, kept in Saint Mary Major and the large miraculous Crucifix which in 1522 was carried in procession through the districts of the city to end the "Great Plague" in Rome and which is located in the church of San Marcello al Corso.

Vatican City (AsiaNews) - In these days of forced coexistence, God help families to discover new expressions of love.

Pope Francis dedicated Mass this morning at Casa Santa Marta especially to families. The global pandemic continues to be at the center of Pope Francis prayers. Yesterday (see photos) he went to pray for an end to the pandemic before the Virgin Salus populi romani, Our Lady Health of Romans, kept in Saint Mary Major, and the large miraculous Crucifix that in 1522 he was carried in procession through the districts of the city to end the "Great Plague" in Rome and which is located in the church of San Marcello al Corso.

Today, therefore, in addition to inviting people to continue praying for the sick, Francis had a particular thought for families. “I think - he said - of families, cooped up, children do not go to school, perhaps parents cannot go out; some will be in quarantine. May the Lord help them to discover new ways, new expressions of love, of living together in this new situation. It's a beautiful opportunity to rediscover affection…. Let's pray for families so that the relationships within the family at this moment might flourish always for the good."

In his homily, commenting on the readings of the day, taken from the second Book of Kings (2 Kings 5, 1-15) and from the Gospel of Luke (Lk 4, 24-30), Francis pointed out that "in both texts that today the Liturgy calls us to meditate on an attitude that draws attention, a human attitude, but not a good one: contempt. These people of Nazareth began to hear Jesus, he liked Mary and Joseph, he was a carpenter! What are you going to tell us?” The people became indignant. This outrage leads them to violence. Jesus whom they had admired at the beginning of the sermon is now chased away, they want to throw him off the mountain. Naaman too, Naaman was a good man, he was open to faith, but when the prophet tells him to bathe seven times in the Jordan he becomes indignant. Why? 'Here, I thought, he will certainly emerge still standing, invoke the name of the Lord his God, shake his hand towards the sick part and take away my leprosy. Are the Abanà and Parpar rivers of Damascus not better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not bathe there and purify myself? He turned and left angry." Full of contempt."

"Even in Nazareth there were good people; but what's behind these good people that they resort to indignation? And in Nazareth worse: violence. Both the people of the synagogue of Nazareth and Naamàn thought that God manifested himself only in the extraordinary, in things out of the ordinary; that God could not act in the common things of life, in simplicity. They despised the simple things. And our God makes us understand that He always acts through the simple things: the simplicity of the house of Nazareth…the simplicity of everyday work…the simplicity of prayer…simple things. Instead, the worldly spirit moves us toward vanity, toward appearances. Both end in violence. Naaman, who was very educated, slams the door in the prophet’s face and takes off – violence, a violent action. The people in the synagogue begin to get angrier and angrier. They make the decision to kill Jesus, however unconsciously. They drive him out to push him over the cliff. Contempt is an ugly temptation that leads to violence. "

Francis then shared that a few days ago he was shown a video on a smart phone “of the door of a building that was in quarantine. There was a person, a young gentleman, who wanted to go out. And the guard told him he couldn't. And he punched him, with indignation, with contempt: ‘Who do you think you are ‘negro’ to stop me leaving?' Contempt is the attitude of the proud, but of the proud poor, of the proud with a poverty of  an ugly spirit, of the proud who live only with the illusion of being more than they are. It is a spiritual class, people who are indignant: indeed, often these people need to be indignant, to have contempt, inorder to feel like a person. This can also happen to us: 'the Pharisaic scandal', theologians call it, when we are scandalized by things that are the simplicity of God, the simplicity of the poor, the simplicity of Christians, to say: 'But this is not God. No, no. Our god is more cultured, wiser, more important. God cannot act in this simplicity." Anger always leads to violence; both to physical violence and to the violence of gossip, which kills just like physical violence ".

"Let us meditate on these two passages, these two passages: the anger of the people in the synagogue of Nazareth and the anger of Naaman, because they did not understand the simplicity of our God".

Returning to yesterday, Francis left the Vatican to pray for the end of the epidemic. He first went to the basilica of Saint Mary Major, to address a prayer to the Virgin Salus populi Romani, whose icon is kept and venerated there.

Subsequently, he walked a stretch of Via del Corso on foot to the church of San Marcello al Corso, where a miraculous Crucifix is ​​found. Tradition holds that in 1522 it was carried in procession through the districts of the city to end the "Great Plague" in Rome.