Pope
Francis: Homily for Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis marked the Feast of the Exaltation
of the Holy Cross Sunday with Mass celebrated in St. Peter’s basilica during
which he presided over the Sacrament of Marriage of twenty couples.
Below please find the official text of the
Holy Father’s homily:
Today’s first reading speaks to us of the people’s journey
through the desert. We can imagine them as they walked, led by Moses; they were
families: fathers, mothers, sons and daughters, grandparents, men and women of
all ages, accompanied by many children and those elderly who struggled to make
the journey. This people reminds us of the Church as she makes her way across
the desert of the contemporary world, the People of God composed, for the most
part, of families.
This makes us think of families, our families, walking along the
paths of life with all their day to day experiences. It is impossible to
quantify the strength and depth of humanity contained in a family: mutual help,
educational support, relationships developing as family members mature, the
sharing of joys and difficulties. Families are the first place in which we are
formed as persons and, at the same time, the “bricks” for the building up of
society.
Let us return to the biblical story. At a certain point, “the
people became impatient on the way” (Num 21:4). They are tired, water supplies
are low and all they have for food is manna, which, although plentiful and sent
by God, seems far too meagre in a time of crisis. And so they complain and
protest against God and against Moses: “Why did you make us leave?...” (cf.
Num. 21:5). They are tempted to turn back and abandon the journey.
Here our thoughts turn to married couples who “become impatient
on the way” of conjugal and family life. The hardship of the journey causes
them to experience interior weariness; they lose the flavour of matrimony and
they cease to draw water from the well of the Sacrament. Daily life becomes
burdensome, even “nauseating”.
During such moments of disorientation – the Bible says – the
poisonous serpents come and bite the people, and many die. This causes the
people to repent and to turn to Moses for forgiveness, asking him to beseech
the Lord so that he will cast out the snakes. Moses prays to the Lord, and the
Lord offers a remedy: a bronze serpent set on a pole; whoever looks at it will
be saved from the deadly poison of the vipers.
What is the meaning of this symbol? God does not destroy the
serpents, but rather offers an “antidote”: by means of the bronze serpent
fashioned by Moses, God transmits his healing strength, his mercy, which is
more potent than the Tempter’s poison.
As we have heard in the Gospel, Jesus identifies himself with
this symbol: out of love the Father “has given” his only begotten Son so that
men and women might have eternal life (cf. Jn 3:13-17). Such immense love of
the Father spurs the Son to become man, to become a servant and to die for us
upon a cross. Out of such love, the Father raises up his son, giving him
dominion over the entire universe. This is expressed by Saint Paul in his hymn
in the Letter to the Philippians (cf. 2:6-11). Whoever entrusts himself to
Jesus crucified receives the mercy of God and finds healing from the deadly
poison of sin.
The cure which God offers the people applies also, in a
particular way, to spouses who “have become impatient on the way” and who
succumb to the dangerous temptation of discouragement, infidelity, weakness,
abandonment… To them too, God the Father gives his Son Jesus, not to condemn
them, but to save them: if they entrust themselves to him, he will bring them
healing by the merciful love which pours forth from the Cross, with the
strength of his grace that renews and sets married couples and families once
again on the right path.
The love of Christ, which has blessed and sanctified the union
of husband and wife, is able to sustain their love and to renew it when,
humanly speaking, it becomes lost, wounded or worn out. The love of Christ can
restore to spouses the joy of journeying together. This is what marriage is all
about: man and woman walking together, wherein the husband helps his wife to
become ever more a woman, and wherein the woman has the task of helping her
husband to become ever more a man. Here we see the reciprocity of differences.
The path is not always a smooth one, free of disagreements, otherwise it would
not be human. It is a demanding journey, at times difficult, and at times
turbulent, but such is life! Marriage is a symbol of life, real life: it is not
“fiction”! It is the Sacrament of the love of Christ and the Church, a love
which finds its proof and guarantee in the Cross.
(Emer McCarthy)
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