Pope at Marian Shrine of Şumuleu
Ciuc: We are pilgrims
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| Holy Mass at the Marian Shrine of Sumuleu Ciuc (Vatican Media) |
On an overcast and foggy day in Romanian, tens of thousands
of pilgrims took part in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass at the Sanctuary at
Şumuleu Ciuc
By Christopher Wells
“We have come here as children to meet our Mother, and to
acknowledge that we are all brothers and sisters”, Pope Francis said at the
Marian Shrine at Şumuleu Ciuc. “Shrines”, he explained, “are like ‘sacraments’
of a Church that is a field hospital: they keep alive the memory of God’s
faithful people who, in the midst of tribulation, continue to seek the source
of living water that renews our hope”.
The Shrine at Şumuleu Ciuc is one of the most popular
pilgrimage destinations in eastern Europe. Each year, tens of thousands of
pilgrims, many from Hungary, travel to the shrine on the Saturday before
Pentecost to commemorate a 16th century victory over a
Protestant force that had been sent to convert them.
We are pilgrims
In his homily, Pope Francis said, “We have come here for a
reason: we are pilgrims”; and he reflected on what it means to go on
pilgrimage.
Going on pilgrimage: Looking to past, present, and future
“To go on pilgrimage”, he said, “is to realize that we are
in a way returning home as a people”. Alluding to the history of the shrine,
the Pope said, “Complicated and sorrow-filled situations from the past must not
be forgotten or denied, yet neither must they be an obstacle or an excuse
standing in the way of our desire to live together as brothers and sisters”.
Going on pilgrimage, he continued, involves feeling “called
and compelled to journey together, asking the Lord for the grace to change past
and present resentments and mistrust into new opportunities for fellowship”.
Finally, he said, “To go on pilgrimage is to look not so
much at what might have been (and wasn’t), but at everything that awaits us and
cannot be put off much longer”. It means building a future that includes
everyone. This, the Pope said, “requires a certain skill, the art of weaving
the threads of the future”. That, he said, “is why we are here today, to say
together, ‘Mother, teach us to weave the future’”.
Let us journey together
Recalling the Annunciation, Pope Francis invoked the image
of Mary saying ‘yes’ to the message of an angel. “Such is the mystery of God’s
election”, he said. “He looks to the lowly and confounds the powerful; he
encourages and inspires us to say ‘Yes’, like Mary, and to set out on the paths
of reconciliation”.
So, he concluded, “let us journey, and let us journey
together”.
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