Pope: the daily rain of missiles on Ukraine kills truth and dialogue
Francis issued new appeal during the Angelus. He also expressed his closeness to the people of Sri Lanka, calling for a peaceful solution to that country’s political crisis. He urged the faithful to use summer holidays to open the Gospel and read it slowly, letting themselves to “be challenged by those pages”. Next Sunday, he will begin a “penitential pilgrimage" among the Indigenous peoples of Canada.
Vatican City (AsiaNews) – Addressing the faithful in St Peter’s Square at the end of the Angelus prayer, Pope Francis expressed once again his closeness to the grief-stricken people of Ukraine, “struck every day by a hail of missiles.”
“How can one fail to understand that war only creates destruction and death, driving peoples apart, killing truth and dialogue?” Francis asked. “I pray and hope that all the international actors will truly work to resume negotiations, not to fuel the senselessness of war.”
The pontiff also this occasion to express his renewed closeness to the people of Sri Lanka, who have been struggling with a serious political crisis for weeks.
“I join you in prayer and I urge all parties to seek a peaceful solution to the present crisis, favouring, in particular, the poorest, respecting the rights of all. I join the religious leaders in imploring everyone to refrain from all forms of violence and to initiate a process of dialogue for the common good.
At the start of the Angelus, Pope Francis dwelt on the passage in today’s liturgy (Lk 10:38-42) centred on Martha’s and Mary’s hospitality towards Jesus. “Jesus overturns our way of thinking many times,” while “Martha’s ‘philosophy’ seems to be this: first duty, then pleasure.
Indeed, “hospitality is not composed of fine words, but demands that you put your hand to the stove, that everything necessary is done so the guest feels welcome. Jesus is well aware of this.”
Jesus “acknowledges Martha’s effort. However, he wants to make her understand that there is a new order of priorities, different from the one she had followed until then.”
What is the “better part” that Mary chose? “It is listening to Jesus’s words,” Francis answered. Mary “did not listen while standing, doing other things, but she sat at Jesus’ feet. She understood that he is not like other guests.”
“The word of Jesus is not abstract; it is a teaching that touches and shapes our life, changes it, frees it from the opaqueness of evil, satisfies and infuses it with a joy that does not pass”.
“This does not detract from the value of practical effort, but it must not precede” it; instead, it should “flow from listening to the word of Jesus. It must be enlivened by his Spirit. Otherwise, it is reduced to fussing and fretting over many things, it is reduced to sterile activism.”
From this comes Francis’s call to the faithful to use the holidays to listen to Jesus. “For many people the rhythm of life is frenetic and wearisome.” However, “Summertime can be valuable also for opening the Gospel and reading it slowly, without haste [. . .]. Let us allow ourselves to be challenged by those pages, asking ourselves how our life, my life, is going, if it is in line with what Jesus says”.
The faithful, the pontiff said, ought to ask themselves the following: “When I start my day, do I throw myself headlong into the things to be done, or do I first seek inspiration in the Word of God? At times we begin the day automatically, we start doing things … like hens.
“No. We must start the day by, first of all, looking to the Lord, taking his Word, briefly, but let this be the inspiration for the day. If we leave the house in the morning keeping a word of Jesus in mind, the day will surely acquire a tone marked by that word, which has the power to orient our actions according to the wishes of the Lord.”
At the end of the Angelus, the pope mentioned the apostolic journey that will take him to Canada next Sunday where he is scheduled to meet with the country’s Indigenous peoples who in the past suffered policies of cultural assimilation, including by many Christians as well.
“And now I am about to embark on a penitential pilgrimage, which I hope, with God's grace, will contribute to the journey of healing and reconciliation already undertaken,” Francis said. “I ask you to please accompany me in prayer.”
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