IMAGE: CNS/Paul Haring
By Cindy Wooden
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — People have a basic choice in the way
they live: either striving to build up treasures on earth or giving to others
in order to gain heaven, Pope Francis said.
“What we invest in love remains, the rest vanishes,”
the pope said in his homily Nov. 19, the first World Day of the Poor.
Between 6,000 and 7,000 poor people attended the Mass in St.
Peter’s Basilica as special guests, the Vatican said. While almost all of them
live in Europe, they include migrants and refugees from all over the world.
Among the altar servers were young men who are either poor,
migrants or homeless. The first reader at the Mass, Tony Battah, is a refugee
from Syria. Those presenting the gifts at the offertory were led by the
Zambardi family from Turin, whom the Vatican described as living in a
“precarious condition” and whose 1-year-old daughter has cystic
fibrosis.
In addition to the bread and wine that were consecrated at
the Mass, the offertory included a large basket of bread and rolls that were
blessed to be shared at the lunch the pope was offering after Mass. Some 1,500
poor people joined the pope in the Vatican’s audience hall for the meal, while
the other special guests were served at the Pontifical North American College
— the U.S. seminary in Rome — and other seminaries and Catholic-run soup
kitchens nearby.
Preaching about the Gospel “parable of the
talents” (Mt 25:14-30), Pope Francis said the servant in the story who
buried his master’s money was rebuked not because he did something wrong, but
because he failed to do something good with what he was given.
“All too often, we have the idea that we haven’t done
anything wrong, and so we rest content, presuming that we are good and
just,” the pope said. “But to do no wrong is not enough. God is not
an inspector looking for unstamped tickets; he is a Father looking for children
to whom he can entrust his property and his plans.”
If in the eyes of the world, the poor they have little
value, he said, “they are the ones who open to us the way to heaven; they
are our ‘passport to paradise.’ For us it is an evangelical duty to care for
them, as our real riches, and to do so not only by giving them bread, but also
by breaking with them the bread of God’s word, which is addressed first to
them.”
Where the poor are concerned, the pope said, too many people
are often guilty of a sin of omission or indifference.
Thinking it is “society’s problem” to solve,
looking the other way when passing a beggar or changing the channel when the
news shows something disturbing are not Christian responses, he said.
“God will not ask us if we felt righteous indignation,”
he said, “but whether we did some good.”
People please God in a similar way to how they please anyone
they love. They learn what that person likes and gives that to him or her, the
pope said.
In the Gospels, he said, Jesus says that he wants to be
loved in “the least of our brethren,” including the hungry, the sick,
the poor, the stranger and the prisoner.
“In the poor, Jesus knocks on the doors of our heart,
thirsting for our love,” he said. True goodness and strength are shown
“not in closed fists and crossed arms, but in ready hands outstretched to
the poor, to the wounded flesh of the Lord.”
Before joining his guests for lunch, Pope Francis recited
the Angelus prayer with thousands of people in St. Peter’s Square.
The previous day in Detroit, he told the people, Capuchin
Father Solanus Casey was beatified. “A humble and faithful disciple of
Christ, he was known for his untiring service to the poor. May his witness help
priests, religious and laypeople live with joy the bond between the
proclamation of the Gospel and love for the poor.”
Pope Francis told the crowd that he hoped “the poor
would be at the center of our communities not only at times like this, but
always, because they are at the heart of the Gospel. In them, we encounter
Jesus who speaks to us and calls us through their suffering and their
needs.”
Offering special prayers for people living in poverty
because of war and conflict, the pope asked the international community to make
special efforts to bring peace to those areas, especially the Middle East.
Pope Francis made a specific plea for stability in Lebanon,
which is in the middle of a political crisis after its prime minister announced
his resignation. He prayed the country would “continue to be a ‘message’
of respect and coexistence throughout the region and for the whole world.”
– – –
Copyright © 2017 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. www.catholicnews.com. All rights reserved. Republishing or redistributing of CNS content, including by framing or similar means without prior permission, is prohibited. You may link to stories on our public site. This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. To request permission for republishing or redistributing of CNS content, please contact permissions at cns@catholicnews.com.
