Pope at daily Mass: To evangelize, go out, listen,
rejoice
people, and always with joy. That was the message of Pope
Francis this morning in the homily for the morning Mass at
the Casa Santa Marta.
In the first eight chapters of the Acts of the Apostles, the
Pope said, “there is a summary of the whole history of the Church”: preaching,
baptism, conversion, miracles, persecution, joy, but also the ugly sin of those
who join themselves to the Church for their own ends, “those benefactors of the
Church who in the end cheat the Church,” like Ananias and Sapphira. The Holy
Father began his homily with this reflection, then moved on to a consideration
of the day’s readings. He first emphasized that the Lord from the beginning
accompanied His disciples, confirming the Word with miraculous signs. He never
left them alone, not even in the worst moments.
Pope Francis the focused on three “words” taken from the
day’s first Reading, inviting those present to re-read the passage at home. The
first saying was the words of an angel to Philip: “Get up and go.”
“This,” the Pope said, “is a sign of evangelization”: the vocation, and the
great consolation of the Church, is to evangelize.
“But in order to evangelize: ‘Get up and go!’ One doesn’t
say: ‘Stay seated, calm, in your house’: No! In order to be faithful to the
Lord, the Church should always be on its feet and on the journey: ‘Get up and
go.’ A Church that does not rise up, that is not on the journey, is sick.”
And, the Pope continued, this can cause the Church to be
closed in on itself, with many psychological and spiritual traumas – “closed
into a little world of gossiping, of things… closed, without horizons.” And so,
he said, the Church must “get up and go,” it must be “on its feet and on the
journey.” This is how the Church must go about evangelizing.
“Go up and join with that chariot” – the second
message Philip received from the Spirit – was the next expression Pope Francis
emphasized. In the chariot was an Ethiopian, a proselyte of the Jewish
religion, a eunuch who had come to Jerusalem to worship God. As he travelled,
he was reading the prophet Isaiah. The passage concerns the conversion of a
“finance minister,” which, the Pope said, means it was a “great miracle.” The
Spirit called Philip to join himself to that man, Pope Francis continued,
emphasizing how important it was for the Church to know she must listen to the
restlessness in the heart of every man:
“All men, all women have a restlessness in their hearts –
[they may be] good or bad, but there is a restlessness. Listen to that
restlessness. It’s not saying: ‘Go out and proselytise.’ No, no! ‘Go and
listen.’ Listening is the second step. The first: ‘Get up and go’; the second:
‘Listen.’ That ability to listen: What do people feel? What does the heart of
the people feel? What does it think? But do they think mistaken things? But I
want to hear these mistaken things, in order to understand where the
restlessness is. We all have this restlessness within. The second step for the
Church is to find the restlessness of the people.”
It is, then, the Ethiopian himself who, seeing Philip
approach, asks who the prophet is speaking about, and asks him to join him in
the chariot. And so, the Pope said, Philip began to preach “with meekness.” The
restlessness in the heart of that man found an explanation that responded to
the hope in his heart. This was possible, Pope Francis continued, “because
Philip joined him and listened to him.”
While the Ethiopian listened, the Lord was working within
him. In this way, the man understood that the Prophet Isaiah was speaking of
Jesus. His faith in Jesus then grew to such a point that when they arrived at a
place where there was water, he asked to be baptized. “He asked for Baptism
because the Lord had worked in his heart,” the Pope said. Then, after he had
been baptized, when the Spirit took Philip and bore him away, the eunuch
continued on his way, filled with joy. This “joy of the Christian,” Pope
Francis said, is the third “word” from the Reading.
Pope Francis concluded his homily with the hope that the
Church would be “on its feet,” “a mother who listens,” and “with the grace of
the Holy Spirit … finds the Word to say”:
“Mother Church, which gives so many children to the light
with this method, we would say – let us use the word – this method which is not
proselytistic: it is the method of the witness to obedience. The Church, which
tells us today: ‘Rejoice.’ To rejoice; joy. The joy of being Christian,
even in ugly moments. Because after the stoning of Stephen a great persecution
arose, and the Christians scattered everywhere, like seed carried on the wind.
And it fell to them to preach the Word of Jesus. May the Lord give to all of us
the grace to live the Church in this way: on our feet and going out, listening
to the restlessness of the people, and always in joy.”
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