教宗在美国：「我们基督徒，主的门徒，要求世界家庭来帮助我们」
费城（亚洲新闻） - 教宗方济各主持一台露天弥撒，为2015年第八届世界家庭大会正式闭幕, 礼仪在本杰明·富兰克林公园举行。在林荫大道上，绵延大约一英哩，有无数家庭在路旁夹道等候, 洋溢着一种难言的和谐气氛，人数实在难以估计。
教宗在讲道中说: 「我们基督徒，主的门徒，要求世界家庭来帮助我们, 克服狭隘、小爱、封闭自己、对别人不耐烦等弱点！」
为了这样做，教宗呼吁大家一起努力，并感谢和赞赏那些家庭, 他们教导孩子们要对家里每一个动作敏锐，才能克服邪恶; 同时, 这些家庭才会显示圣神是活着和流动, 这触动我们的谢意和赞赏。不管那家庭属于怎么样的家族、民族、地区或宗教, 都是如此！」
弥撒的祈祷和读经, 以英语、拉丁、菲律宾语和越南语进行。对此普世性，教宗训勉也包括家庭的普世价值, 为所有想要分享男女盟约预示会产生生命，揭示天主。」
教宗描述第一家庭是「信仰成为生命及生命成为信仰的正确地方」, 这透过每天的爱和忠诚之「小动作」，例如: 我们晚上期待着的温暖晚餐; 为早起上班的人准备了早午餐; 也有家常动作, 像上床睡觉前的祝福; 从一天的辛苦工作返回家后的一个拥抱。事实上，家庭是信仰打开的窗口, 让在外面的圣神临在和流动。
相反，「诱惑来自曲解天主的自由，祂降雨给义人, 也降雨给不义的人」（玛窦福音5:45），人会绕过官僚、官方程序和内部圈子, 威胁到信仰的真实性。因此，它必须大力拒绝。」这意味着不妨碍圣神的工作，或显示它不能存在于那些不属于我们团体的人, 他们不像我们这样。」
因此，「愿我们的孩子在我们内找到楷模和激励要共融！」他说。「愿我们的孩子在我们身上找到合适的人, 能够与别人一起, 将天父播下的好种子, 开满花儿！」
教宗方济各引述《愿你受赞颂》通谕:「为了建立我们共同的家园, 人类还是有合作的能力。」（13节）他说: 「保护我们家园的迫切挑战，包括努力使整个人类大家庭一起在追求可持续和全面发展的，因为我们知道，这可以改变很多事情。」
该台弥撒是教宗方济各在美国的最后一项活动。同日晚上，教宗离开美国返回罗马。以下是教宗准备好的演辞以及他即兴演说内容的英文译本:
Today the word of God surprises us with powerful and thought-provoking images. Images which challenge us, but also stir our enthusiasm.
In the first reading, Joshua tells Moses that two members of the people are prophesying, speaking God’s word, without a mandate. In the Gospel, John tells Jesus that the disciples had stopped someone from casting out evil spirits in the name of Jesus. Here is the surprise: Moses and Jesus both rebuke those closest to them for being so narrow! Would that all could be prophets of God’s word! Would that everyone could work miracles in the Lord’s name!
Jesus encountered hostility from people who did not accept what he said and did. For them, his openness to the honest and sincere faith of many men and women who were not part of God’s chosen people seemed intolerable. The disciples, for their part, acted in good faith. But the temptation to be scandalized by the freedom of God, who sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous alike (Mt 5:45), bypassing bureaucracy, officialdom and inner circles, threatens the authenticity of faith. Hence it must be vigorously rejected.
Once we realize this, we can understand why Jesus’ words about causing “scandal” are so harsh. For Jesus, the truly “intolerable” scandal consists in everything that breaks down and destroys our trust in the working of the Spirit!
Our Father will not be outdone in generosity and he continues to scatter seeds. He scatters the seeds of his presence in our world, for “love consists in this, not that we have loved God but that he loved us” first (1 Jn 4:10). That love gives us a profound certainty: we are sought by God; he waits for us. It is this confidence which makes disciples encourage, support and nurture the good things happening all around them. God wants all his children to take part in the feast of the Gospel. Jesus says, “Do not hold back anything that is good, instead help it to grow!” To raise doubts about the working of the Spirit, to give the impression that it cannot take place in those who are not “part of our group”, who are not “like us”, is a dangerous temptation. Not only does it block conversion to the faith; it is a perversion of faith!
Faith opens a “window” to the presence and working of the Spirit. It shows us that, like happiness, holiness is always tied to little gestures. “Whoever gives you a cup of water in my name will not go unrewarded”, says Jesus (cf. Mk 9:41). These little gestures are those we learn at home, in the family; they get lost amid all the other things we do, yet they do make each day different. They are the quiet things done by mothers and grandmothers, by fathers and grandfathers, by children. They are little signs of tenderness, affection and compassion. Like the warm supper we look forward to at night, the early lunch awaiting someone who gets up early to go to work. Homely gestures. Like a blessing before we go to bed, or a hug after we return from a hard day’s work. Love is shown by little things, by attention to small daily signs which make us feel at home. Faith grows when it is lived and shaped by love. That is why our families, our homes, are true domestic churches. They are the right place for faith to become life, and life to become faith.
Jesus tells us not to hold back these little miracles. Instead, he wants us to encourage them, to spread them. He asks us to go through life, our everyday life, encouraging all these little signs of love as signs of his own living and active presence in our world.
So we might ask ourselves: How are we trying to live this way in our homes, in our societies? What kind of world do we want to leave to our children (cf. Laudato Si’, 160)? We cannot answer these questions alone, by ourselves. It is the Spirit who challenges us to respond as part of the great human family. Our common house can no longer tolerate sterile divisions. The urgent challenge of protecting our home includes the effort to bring the entire human family together in the pursuit of a sustainable and integral development, for we know that things can change (cf. ibid., 13). May our children find in us models and incentives to communion! May our children find in us men and women capable of joining others in bringing to full flower all the good seeds which the Father has sown!
Pointedly, yet affectionately, Jesus tells us: “If you, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” (Lk 11:13). How much wisdom there is in these few words! It is true that, as far as goodness and purity of heart are concerned, we human beings don’t have much to show! But Jesus knows that, where children are concerned, we are capable of boundless generosity. So he reassures us: if only we have faith, the Father will give us his Spirit.
We Christians, the Lord’s disciples, ask the families of the world to help us! How many of us are here at this celebration! This is itself something prophetic, a kind of miracle in today’s world. Would that we could all be prophets! Would that all of us could be open to miracles of love for the sake of all the families of the world, and thus overcome the scandal of a narrow, petty love, closed in on itself, impatient of others!
I leave each of you with a question to answer: What can one hear in my home? Shouting or words of love and tenderness ? That is a good way to measure our love.
And how beautiful it would be if everywhere, even beyond our borders, we could appreciate and encourage this prophecy and this miracle! We renew our faith in the word of the Lord which invites faithful families to this openness. It invites all those who want to share the prophecy of the covenant of man and woman, which generates life and reveals God!
Anyone who wants to bring into this world a family which teaches children to be excited by every gesture aimed at overcoming evil – a family which shows that the Spirit is alive and at work – will encounter our gratitude and our appreciation. Whatever the family, people, region, or religion to which they belong!
May God grant to all of us, as the Lord’s disciples, the grace to be worthy of this purity of heart which is not scandalized by the Gospel!
