At the mass in St. Peter’s Basilica that Benedict XVI. and dedicated to the cardinals and bishops who died this year, the Pope emphasized Jesus’ compassion for people who rely not on their own strength but on God: “It is they who reveal to us the smallness that is so important to the Lord The Pope quotes his predecessor and Deus caritas est: “Faith is not an idea to be understood or a morality to be adopted, but a person to be met: Christ.”
Tiziana Campisi – Vatican City
Compassion and humility: these are the two words that the Pope chooses in the homily of the Mass held in St. Peter’s Basilica in the consecration of Benedict XVI. and the six cardinals and 147 bishops who died during the year, to make it clear that on the path of compassion and humility: “God gives us his life, which conquers death”. First, the Pope reflects on today’s Gospel page, in which Jesus is described in Nain before the funeral procession of a boy, the only child of a widowed mother.
Christ “sees and allows himself to be filled with compassion,” notes Francis, remembering Pope Ratzinger and quoting his first encyclical Deus caritas est, in which we read that “Jesus’ program is ‘a heart that sees’.” Benedict XVI has repeatedly “reminded us that faith is not primarily an idea to be understood or a morality to be adopted, but a person to be encountered, Jesus Christ,” the Pope reminds, adding that “his gaze is one of compassion Jesus stops before the pain of the widow of Nain, touches the coffin of her son and resurrects him. His divinity “shines in contact with our misery, because his heart is compassionate,” explains Francis, “ “the gift of life that conquers death” springs precisely from “the compassion of the Lord who is moved by our evil extremity, death.” .
The Altar of the Chair
God will wipe away the tears from every face
It is important to direct a “look of compassion toward those who experience the pain of the death of their loved ones,” the Pope emphasizes. With his compassion, Jesus removed distances and came close to the woman who had lost her son.
This is God’s style, which consists of closeness, compassion and tenderness. And of just a few words. Christ does not preach about death, but only tells this mother one thing: “Don’t cry!” Why? Is it wrong to cry? No, Jesus himself weeps in the Gospels. But to this mother he says: “Don’t cry,” because with the Lord tears don’t last forever, they have an end. He is the God who, as the Scriptures prophesy, will “take away death” and “wipe away tears from every face.” He made our tears his own to take them away from us.
Some concelebrating cardinals and bishops
The smallness that leads to heaven
Francis then points out that the protagonists of Luke’s page are an orphan and a widow, a color “which the Bible describes, along with the stranger, as the only and most abandoned, who cannot trust anyone other than God” and for the Aus For this reason, “the widow, the orphan, the stranger” are “the people closest and dearest to the Lord,” so much so that, the Pope warns, “one cannot be trustworthy and dear to God by ignoring them, who enjoy it.” his protection and his preference. And it is precisely when we look at the widow, the orphan and the stranger, Francis adds, that we come to know humility, they “are in fact the humble par excellence, those who put all their hope in the Lord and not in themselves have thus moved the center of life.” Life in God.” They do not rely on their own strength, “but on the one who takes care of them”, “they recognize that they need God” and reveal to us “their smallness , which is pleasing to the Lord, the way that leads to heaven.” .
God is looking for humble people who hope in Him, not in themselves and their own plans. Brothers and sisters, that is Christian humility: it is not one virtue among others, but the basic attitude of life: believing that you need God and giving him space to trust him with everything. This is Christian humility.
Cardinal Re-incenses the altar
The Christian is called to serve
Humility is what God prefers, the Pope continues, “because it allows him to interact with us,” the Lord loves it “because he himself is humble.” It rises toward us, it descends; it doesn’t impose itself, it leaves space. Not only is God humble, he is also humility.”
God loves those who decentralize, who are not at the center of everything, in fact he loves the humble: they resemble him more than anyone else. Therefore, as Jesus says, “He who humbles himself will be exalted.” And I fondly remember Pope Benedict’s first words: “humble worker in the Lord’s vineyard.” Yes, Christians, especially the Pope, cardinals and bishops, are called to be humble workers: to serve, not to be served; to think of the fruits of the Lord’s vineyard before one’s own fruits. And how beautiful it is to renounce yourself for the Church of Jesus!
We must ask God for “a compassionate look and a humble heart,” concludes Francis, who finally invites us to pray for the cardinals and bishops who died last year, whose “heart was pastoral, compassionate and humble, for the meaning of her Life was the Lord.”
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