IMAGE: CNS/Paul Haring
By Junno Arocho Esteves
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Turning your head away from the suffering
of others is a grave sin, and simply saying some prayers or going to Mass does not make a good Christian of someone who ignores those in need , Pope Francis said.
The plight of those who
suffer in the world today is a modern-day Calvary that “spurs us on to
offer ever new signs of mercy,” the pope said Sept. 3 at a special audience
for people engaged in the works of mercy, as well as for pilgrims in Rome for
the canonization of Blessed Teresa of Kolkata.
“I will never tire of
saying that the mercy of God is not some beautiful idea but rather a concrete
action,” Pope Francis said. “There is no mercy without concreteness.
Mercy is not doing something good while passing by; it means involving yourself
there where there is evil, where there is sickness, where there is hunger,
where there is human exploitation.”
Making his way around the
square in his popemobile, the pope invited six blue-shirted girls from a choir to ride with him.
The special audience began with testimonies. With his
voice breaking with emotion, Roberto Giannone, an Italian,
told about how he served time in prison for crimes he didn’t commit. His
experience, he said, led him to dedicate his life to visiting and assisting the
imprisoned with the
Society of St. Vincent de Paul.
The pope and thousands of pilgrims sat on the edge of
their chairs listening to the
testimony of Missionaries of Charity Sister Mary Sally, the sole member of
Mother Teresa’s order who survived a brutal attack at a nursing home Yemen in March.
Four
Missionaries of Charity and 12 other people were killed by uniformed gunmen,
who entered the home the sisters operated for the elderly and disabled in Aden. A Salesian priest who
worked with the sisters was kidnapped and his whereabouts are still unknown.
With shortages of food, water and medicine and the
increasing violence going on around them in Yemen, Sister Mary Sally said her heart
was “filled with greater love and enthusiasm.”
“We beg
God to continue using our nothingness to make the church present in the world
today through the mission entrusted to us by our Mother Teresa, even amid
dangerous surroundings,” she said.
In his talk, the pope
reflected on St. Paul’s
call to live with a love, which “bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things,
endures all things.”
“The love of which the apostle
speaks is not something abstract or vague,” the pope said. “Rather, it is a love that is
seen, touched and experienced first-hand.”
The
culmination of this love is Jesus’ death on Calvary, a love that can be seen today in those who
suffer due to poverty, sickness and evil, he said. The church “cannot look
away and turn her back on the many forms of poverty that cry out for
mercy,” he said.
Pope Francis thanked
Catholic volunteers,
saying their work in giving “shape and visibility to mercy”
makes them “among the most precious things in the church.”
By making
those who suffer feel loved, the volunteers are the “extended hand of
Christ” and defy
the individualism in today’s culture that causes people to think only of
themselves and “to ignore the brother or sister in need.”
“The
world stands in need of concrete signs of solidarity, especially as it is faced
with the temptation to indifference,” the pope said.
On the eve of the Sept. 4 canonization
of Mother Teresa, the pope called on the volunteers to follow her and other saints in making
“the love of Christ visible.”
“Let us
also imitate their example, as we ask to be humble instruments in God’s hands
in order to alleviate the world’s sufferings and to share the joy and hope of
the resurrection,” the pope
said.
At the end of
the audience, Pope Francis led the volunteers in a moment of silent prayer for
the “suffering, for those who are discarded by society and for the
volunteers who go in search of the flesh of Christ.”
The pope also
prayed for those “who look the other way; who in their hearts hear a voice that
says, ‘It is not my concern; I don’t care.'”
– – –
Follow Arocho on Twitter: @arochoju.
– – –
Copyright © 2016 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.
