MIL OSI Translation. Region: Italy –
Source: The Holy See in Italian
Sunday, September 22, 2024
Vatican Media
Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) – “We, all of us, are alive because we have been welcomed”. Pope Francis returns to St. Peter’s Square for the traditional Sunday Angelus prayer and thus comments on today’s Gospel passage, in which Jesus announces his death and resurrection to his disciples. But “while Jesus confided to them the meaning of his life”, Francis points out, “they spoke of power. And so now shame closes their mouths, just as pride had previously closed their hearts”. Yet Christ, explains the Pontiff, “openly responds to the whispered words along the way: ‘If anyone wants to be first, let him be last’. Do you want to be great? Make yourself small, put yourself at the service of all”. “This makes you great”, adds the Bishop of Rome off the cuff, then pointing out the reason why the Master “calls a child, places him among the disciples and embraces him. The child has no power: he needs. When we take care of man, we recognize that man always needs life”. “We are all alive because we have been welcomed, but power makes us forget this truth. Then we become masters, not servants, and the first to suffer are precisely the last: the small, the weak, the poor”. “How many people – warns Francis – suffer and die because of power struggles! They are lives that the world rejects, as it rejected Jesus. When He was delivered into the hands of men, He did not find an embrace, but a cross. The Gospel remains, however, a living word full of hope: He who was rejected, is risen”. After the blessing, the Pope’s thoughts go to Honduras, where Juan Antonio López, delegate of the Word of God, coordinator of the social pastoral care of the Diocese of Trujillo and founding member of the pastoral care of integral ecology in Honduras, was killed: “I join in the mourning of that Church – the words of the Pontiff – and in the condemnation of every form of violence. I am close to those who see their basic rights trampled upon and to those who are committed to the common good in response to the cry of the poor and the earth”. Then, a new appeal for peace: “Let us continue to pray for peace. Unfortunately, tension is very high on the war fronts. Let us listen to the voice of the peoples, who ask for peace. Let us not forget the tormented Ukraine, Palestine, Israel, Myanmar, many countries that are at war. Let us pray for peace”. Finally, the inevitable greeting: “I wish everyone a happy Sunday. And please do not forget to pray for me. Enjoy your lunch and goodbye!”. (FB) (Agenzia Fides 22/9/2024) Share:
EDITOR’S NOTE: This article is a translation. Apologies should the grammar and/or sentence structure not be perfect.