SANTA MESSA CON I CARDINALI

OMELIA DEL SANTO PADRE FRANCESCO

Cappella Sistina
Giovedì, 14 marzo 2013

 

In queste tre Letture vedo che c’è qualcosa di comune: è il movimento. Nella Prima Lettura il movimento nel cammino; nella Seconda Lettura, il movimento nell’edificazione della Chiesa; nella terza, nel Vangelo, il movimento nella confessione. Camminare, edificare, confessare.

Camminare. «Casa di Giacobbe, venite, camminiamo nella luce del Signore» (Is 2,5). Questa è la prima cosa che Dio ha detto ad Abramo: Cammina nella mia presenza e sii irreprensibile. Camminare: la nostra vita è un cammino e quando ci fermiamo, la cosa non va. Camminare sempre, in presenza del Signore, alla luce del Signore, cercando di vivere con quella irreprensibilità che Dio chiedeva ad Abramo, nella sua promessa.

Edificare. Edificare la Chiesa. Si parla di pietre: le pietre hanno consistenza; ma pietre vive, pietre unte dallo Spirito Santo. Edificare la Chiesa, la Sposa di Cristo, su quella pietra angolare che è lo stesso Signore. Ecco un altro movimento della nostra vita: edificare.

Terzo, confessare. Noi possiamo camminare quanto vogliamo, noi possiamo edificare tante cose, ma se non confessiamo Gesù Cristo, la cosa non va. Diventeremo una ONG assistenziale, ma non la Chiesa, Sposa del Signore. Quando non si cammina, ci si ferma. Quando non si edifica sulle pietre cosa succede? Succede quello che succede ai bambini sulla spiaggia quando fanno dei palazzi di sabbia, tutto viene giù, è senza consistenza. Quando non si confessa Gesù Cristo, mi sovviene la frase di Léon Bloy: “Chi non prega il Signore, prega il diavolo”. Quando non si confessa Gesù Cristo, si confessa la mondanità del diavolo, la mondanità del demonio.

Camminare, edificare-costruire, confessare. Ma la cosa non è così facile, perché nel camminare, nel costruire, nel confessare, a volte ci sono scosse, ci sono movimenti che non sono proprio movimenti del cammino: sono movimenti che ci tirano indietro.

Questo Vangelo prosegue con una situazione speciale. Lo stesso Pietro che ha confessato Gesù Cristo, gli dice: Tu sei Cristo, il Figlio del Dio vivo. Io ti seguo, ma non parliamo di Croce. Questo non c’entra. Ti seguo con altre possibilità, senza la Croce. Quando camminiamo senza la Croce, quando edifichiamo senza la Croce e quando confessiamo un Cristo senza Croce, non siamo discepoli del Signore: siamo mondani, siamo Vescovi, Preti, Cardinali, Papi, ma non discepoli del Signore.

Io vorrei che tutti, dopo questi giorni di grazia, abbiamo il coraggio, proprio il coraggio, di camminare in presenza del Signore, con la Croce del Signore; di edificare la Chiesa sul sangue del Signore, che è versato sulla Croce; e di confessare l’unica gloria: Cristo Crocifisso. E così la Chiesa andrà avanti.

Io auguro a tutti noi che lo Spirito Santo, per la preghiera della Madonna, nostra Madre, ci conceda questa grazia: camminare, edificare, confessare Gesù Cristo Crocifisso. Così sia.



These three readings have something in common: it is movement. In the First Reading, movement in the walking [il cammino – the way]*; in the Second Reading, movement in the building of the Church; in the third, the Gospel, movement in the confession [profession]**. To walk, to build, to profess.

To walk. “House of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord” (Is 2,5). This is the first thing that God said to Abraham: Walk in my presence and be blameless. To walk: our life is a journey and when we stop it doesn't work. To always walk, in the presence of the Lord, by the light of the Lord, seeking to live with that blamelessness that God asked of Abraham in his promise.

To build. To build the Church. We are talking about stones: Stones are durable; but living stones, stones joined by the Holy Spirit. To build the Church, the Spouse of Christ, on that corner stone which is the same Lord. Here we have another movement of our life: to build.

Third, to profess. We can walk as much as we like, we can build so many things, but if we do not profess Jesus Christ, it doesn't work. We will become a helpful NGO, but not the Church, the Spouse of the Lord. When you do not walk, you stop. When you do not build on rock what happens? The same thing happens that happens to children on the beach when they make sand castles, everything falls down, there is no durability. When you do not profess Jesus Christ, I am reminded of the phrase of Leon Bloy: “The one who does not pray to the Lord, prays to the devil.” When you do not profess Jesus Christ, you profess the worldliness*** of the devil, the worldliness of the demon.

To walk, to build-construct, to profess. But this project is not that easy, because in walking, in building, in professing, suddenly there are setbacks, there are movements [steps] that are not proper movements of the way: they are movements that drag us backwards.

This Gospel continues with a special situation. The same Peter who professed Jesus Christ says to him: You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. I follow you, but let's not talk about the Cross. This does not come into it. I follow you with other possibilities, without the Cross. When we walk without the Cross, when we build without the Cross and when we profess a Christ without the Cross, we are not disciples of the Lord: we are worldly people, we are Bishops, Priests, Cardinals, Popes, but not disciples of the Lord.

I wish everyone, after these days of grace, would have the courage, yes the courage,**** to walk in the presence of the Lord, with the Cross of the Lord; to build the Church on the blood of the Lord which was shed on the Cross; and to profess the only glory: Christ Crucified. In this way the Church will go forward. 

I wish you all that the Holy Spirit, through the prayer of the Madonna, our Mother, give you this grace: to walk, to build, to profess Jesus Christ Crucified. Amen.



Notes: If this address might be seen to present the new Pope's agenda, then we have three cardinal points: to walk, to build, to profess. Notably absent is any reference to conservation, to being faithful to tradition, to preserving the truth committed to the Church.

Now, about the translation. For fear of missing the point of the pope's thought, I think it is necessary to reflect the energy of his words even at the expense of a smooth English sentence.

* The first difficulty is in 'camminare' and 'il cammino'. We have to say 'to walk', or we could say 'to march'; we could say 'the journey', or we could say 'the path', 'the way', 'the pilgrim way' (as in el Camino da San Diego).

I suspect that we might hear a lot about il cammino from pope Francis, so it might be useful to become aware that he does not mean a 'walk in the park', nor a journey by car, ship or plane, or even camel or donkey. To use his own primary reference, it is what Abraham did when he was called to 'leave his father and his father's people and …' 'Walk in my presence and be without reproach.'

It is striking that what is common to the three readings is identified as movement. Our attention is directed not to action, still less to conservation, but to the movement. It might be argued that the term 'movement' includes the notion of change, of transformation, and that movement is characteristic of life.

** Then there's 'confessare' – to confess, but in English we speak of professing our faith, which can be spelt out as 'the act of confessing our belief in such and such, or our commitment to something.' I have used 'profess' throughout, because we are definitely not talking about confessing our sins, but professing our commitment to Jesus.

*** Worldliness: I think it would have to be 'belonging to the world' rather than 'being worldly' in the sense often used by religious who try to 'be spiritual'.

**** Finally, the closing challenge: 'I wish everyone would have the courage, yes the courage, to walk in the presence of the Lord, to build on the blood of the Lord shed on the Cross, and to profess Christ Crucified...' This is a very strong challenge.