Pope Francis in Fatima: homily of Card. Parolin at vigil
Mass
(Vatican Radio) The Secretary of State of the Holy See,
Cardinal Pietro Parolin, celebrated Mass for hundreds of thousands of pilgrims
gathered in the great open plaza of the Marian shrine in Fatima on Friday
evening, following the recitation of the Holy Rosary with Pope Francis, who is
on pilgrimage to the shrine to mark the centenary of the apparitions of Our
Lady there. Below, please find the full text of the homily Cardinal
Parolin prepared for the occasion, in their official English translation...
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Homily of Cardinal Pietro Parolin
Vigil Mass, Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary of Fatima
12 May 2017
Vigil Mass, Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary of Fatima
12 May 2017
Dear Pilgrims to Fatima,
With joy and gratitude, we have gathered at this Shrine that
commemorates the apparitions of Our Lady to the three shepherd children.
We join the throngs of pilgrims who in these hundred years have come here to
show their trust in the Mother of Heaven. We are celebrating this
Eucharist in honour of her Immaculate Heart. In the first reading, we
heard the people exclaim: “You averted our ruin, walking in the straight path
before our God” (Jdt 13:20). These words of praise and
gratitude were addressed by the city of Bethulia to Judith, their champion,
whom “the Lord God, who created the heavens and the earth… guided to cut off
the head of the leader of our enemies” (Jdt 13:18). But they
take on their full meaning in the Immaculate Virgin Mary. Thanks to her
offspring – Christ the Lord – she was able to “crush the head” (cf. Gen 3:15)
of the “ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the
whole world”. He, in turn, “was angry with the woman, and went off to
make war on the rest of her children, those who keep the commandments of God
and hold the testimony of Jesus” (Rev 12:9.17).
As a Mother concerned for the trials of her children, Mary appeared
here with a message of consolation and hope for a world at war and for the
Church in travail: “In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph” (Apparition
of July, 1917). In other words: “Trust! In the end, love and
peace will triumph, because God’s mercy is stronger than the power of
evil. What seems impossible to men is possible to God”. Our Lady
also asks us to join in this battle of her divine Son, particularly by the
daily recitation of the Rosary for peace in the world. Even though
everything depends on God and his grace, we still need to act as if everything
depended on us, by asking the Virgin Mary that the hearts of individuals, the
homes of families, the history of peoples and the fraternal soul of all
humanity be consecrated to her and placed under her protection and
guidance. She wants people who entrust themselves to her! “If they
do what I tell you, many souls will be saved and have peace” (Apparition of
July, 1917). In the end, what will win the war is a heart: the Heart of
the Mother will obtain the victory, at the head of millions of her sons and
daughters.
This evening, we offer thanks and praise to the Most Holy
Trinity for the commitment of so many men and women to this mission of peace
entrusted to the Virgin Mother. From East to West, the love of the
Immaculate Heart of Mary has won a place in the heart of peoples as a source of
hope and consolation. The Second Vatican Ecumenical Council met in order
to renew the face of the Church, and presented itself essentially as the Council
of love. The faithful, the bishops, the Pope did not fail to heed the
requests of the Mother of God and of man: the whole world was consecrated to
her. Everywhere groups and communities of believers continue to
grow. Awakening from yesterday’s apathy, they now work to show to the
world the true face of Christianity.
“If they do what I tell you, they will have peace”. A
hundred years after the apparitions, it is true that, as Pope Francis has
observed, “for many people today, peace appears as a blessing to be taken for
granted, for all intents an acquired right to which not much thought is given,
yet for all too many others, peace remains merely a distant dream.
Millions of people still live in the midst of senseless conflicts. Even
in places once considered safe, a general sense of fear is felt. We are
frequently overwhelmed by images of death, by the pain of innocent men, women
and children who plead for help and consolation, by the grief of those mourning
the loss of a dear one due to hatred and violence, and by the drama of refugees
fleeing war and migrants meeting tragic deaths” (Address to the Diplomatic
Corps, 9 January 2017). In the midst of great concern and uncertainty
about the future, what does Fatima ask of us? Perseverance in the
consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, shown daily by the recitation of
the Rosary. And what if, despite our prayers, wars continue? Even
though immediate results may not be evident, let us persevere in prayer.
Prayer is never useless. Sooner or later, it will bear fruit.
Prayer is capital in the hands of God; he turns it to good account in his own
times and ways, which are very different from our own.
Our responsorial psalm was the Canticle of the Magnificat,
with its sharp contrast between the “great” story of the nations and their
conflicts, the story of the great and powerful with its own chronology and
geography of power, and the “little” history of the poor, the humble and the
powerless. The latter are called to work for peace with another force,
with other seemingly useless or ineffective means, such as conversion,
reparation, and trust. They are asked to halt the advance of evil by
plunging into the ocean of divine Love as resistance – not surrender – to the
banality and the inevitability of evil.
What must we do? Let me explain with an example(cf.
Eloy Bueno de la Fuente, A Mensagem de Fátima. A misericórdia de
Deus: o triunfo do amor nos dramas da história, 22014,
235-237). If someone passes us a counterfeit banknote, a spontaneous and
even logical reaction could be to pass it on to somebody else. This shows
us how ready we are to fall into a perverse logic that takes over and makes us
spread evil. If I act according to this logic, my situation
changes. I was an innocent victim when I received the counterfeit
banknote, a victim of the evil of others. But once I decide to pass the
counterfeit notes to someone else, I am innocent no longer. I have been
won over by the seductive power of evil, creating a new victim. I have
become an agent of evil, now responsible and guilty. The alternative is
to halt the advance of evil, but that happens only by paying a price, by
keeping the counterfeit banknote and thus freeing others from the advance of
evil.
This is the only reaction that can stop evil and prevail
over it. Human beings win this victory when they are capable of a
sacrifice that becomes reparation. Christ carries it out, thus showing
that his way of loving is mercy. This excess of love can be seen in the
cross of Jesus. He takes on the full weight of the hatred and violence
that rain down on him, without responding with insults or threatening
revenge. Instead, he forgives, and thus shows that there is a greater
love. Only he can do this, taking on – as it were – the “counterfeit
banknote”. His death was a victory over the evil unleashed by his
tormentors, which all of us are. Jesus, crucified and risen, is our peace
and reconciliation (cf. Eph 2:14; 2 Cor 5:18).
“You averted our ruin, walking in the straight path before
our God”. Let us pray at this evening vigil as a great pilgrim people,
following in the footsteps of the risen Jesus, enlightening one another and
helping one another to advance, based on our faith in Christ Jesus. The
Fathers of the Church tell us that Mary conceived Jesus first in faith and then
in the flesh, when she said “Yes” to God’s call to her through the angel.
But what took place in a singular way in the Virgin Mother takes place
spiritually in us whenever we hear the word of God and put it into practice, as
the Gospel says (cf. Lk 11:28). Imitating Mary’s
generosity and courage, let us present our bodies to Jesus so that he can
continue to dwell in our midst. Let us offer him our hands to caress the
little ones and the poor, our feet to draw near to our brothers and sisters,
our arms to shore up the weak and to work in the Lord’s vineyard, our minds to
think and plan in the light of the Gospel, and above all, our hearts to love
and make decisions in accordance with God’s will.
In this way, may the Virgin Mother shape us, pressing us to
her Immaculate Heart, as she did with Lucia, Blessed Francisco and Blessed
Jacinta. On this centenary of the apparitions, with gratitude for the
gift which the event, the message and the shrine of Fatima have been throughout
the past century, let us join our voices to that of the Virgin Mary: “My soul
magnifies the Lord… for he has looked with favour on the lowliness of his
servant… his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation” (Lk 1:46-50).
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