Pope at Mass in UAE: ‘Jesus at
our side when we are alone’
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| Pope francis celebrates Mass in Abu Dhabi (Vatican Media) |
During the concluding Mass of his Apostolic Journey to the
UAE on Tuesday, Pope Francis invites the region’s Christians to live in peace
and to remember that Jesus always walks at their side.
By Devin Watkins
Pope Francis told the largely-expat Catholic community
living in the United Arab Emirates that Jesus walks at our side, even when we
think we are alone.
The vast majority of Christians living in the UAE are
migrants who have mostly come from the Philippines and India to look for work.
Celebrating Mass in the Zayed Sports City in Abu Dhabi on
Tuesday, the Holy Father brought them a message of comfort and hope.
“It is most certainly not easy for you to live far from
home,” he said, “missing the affection of your loved ones, and perhaps also
feeling uncertainty about the future.” But, the Pope said, “the Lord is
faithful and does not abandon his people.”
Peace in midst of pain
Pope Francis celebrated the Mass for Peace and Justice, and
reflected on how the Beatitudes relate to Christians living in the Middle East.
He said they are blessed, and noted that
blessedness is not a future state but a present reality. Jesus, he said,
repeats his message of blessing today. “If you are with Jesus, if you love to
listen to his word as the disciples of that time did, if you try to live out
this word every day, then you are blessed.”
The Pope called it “a joy that gives peace also in the midst
of pain”.
Beatitudes: roadmap for life
Pope Francis said Jesus’ life shows us that blessedness
cannot be measured according to worldly standards. The Beatitudes overturn
popular thinking that those who are successful, rich, and powerful are blessed.
Rather, the poor, meek, just, and persecuted attain that category.
“He came to serve and not to be served,” said Pope Francis,
“he taught us that greatness is not found in having but rather in giving.”
The Pope said the meaning of life is living “in communion
with him and in our love for others”.
The Beatitudes, said Pope Francis, are a roadmap for life.
“They do not require superhuman actions, but rather the imitation of Jesus in
our everyday life.”
Gospel tune
He thanked all those present – some 180,000 persons from
over 100 countries, including around 4,000 Muslims – for “the way in which you
live the Gospel we heard.”
Comparing the written and lived Gospel to written and
performed music, Pope Francis said they know the Gospel’s tune and follow its
rhythm with enthusiasm. “You are a choir composed of numerous nations,
languages and rites; a diversity that the Holy Spirit loves and wants to
harmonize ever more, in order to make a symphony.”
Then Pope Francis compared the Church of the UAE to the
ancient Church of Philadelphia, which Jesus addresses in the Book of Revelation
(Rev 3:7-13). The Pope said the Lord does not reproach it for anything. “That
Church,” he said, “kept Jesus’ word without renouncing his name and persevered,
went forward, even in the midst of difficulties.”
Philadelphia, he noted, means “brotherly love” or “fraternal
love”, a reference to his attendance at the Global Conference of Human
Fraternity on Monday.
Pope Francis concluded by inviting all people of the United
Arab Emirates – indeed the entire region – “to preserve peace, unity”, and “to
take care of each other, with that beautiful fraternity in which there are no
first or second class Christians.”
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