Pope Francis celebrates Holy
Mass in Trujillo: Full text
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| Pope Francis rides through the crowds on his way to celebrate Mass in Trujillo.- AFP |
On the second full day of his apostolic visit to Peru, Pope
Francis celebrated Mass in the northern coastal town of Trujillo. This is the
full text of his homily:
Homily of the Holy Father
Mass in Huanchaco
Saturday, 20 January 2018
These lands have the flavour of the Gospel. Everything
around us, against the backdrop of this immense sea, helps us better to
understand the experience that the apostles had with Jesus and that today we
too are invited to relive. I am happy to know that you have come from
different parts of northern Peru to celebrate this joy of the Gospel.
Those disciples, like so many of you today, made their
living from fishing. They went out in boats, just like some of you who
continue to go out in your caballitos de totora (traditional
reed boats), for the same reason that you do: to earn your daily bread.
Much of our daily fatigue has to do with just this: trying to support our
families and to provide them with what will help them to build a better future.
This “lake of golden fish”, as you call it, has been a
source of life and blessing for many generations. It has nurtured dreams
and hopes over the years.
Like the apostles, you know the power of nature, you have
experienced its force. Just as the apostles faced the storm on the
sea, you had to face the brunt of the “Niño costero” whose painful consequences
are still present in so many families, especially those who are not yet able to
rebuild their homes. This is also why I wanted to be here and to pray
with you.
We also bring to this Eucharistic celebration that difficult
moment that questions our faith and often causes it to waver. We want to
unite ourselves to Jesus. He knows our pain and our trials; he endured
the greatest of sufferings in order to accompany us in our own trials.
The crucified Jesus wants to be close to us in every painful situation,
to give us a hand and to help lift us up. Because he entered into our
history, he wanted to share in our journey and touch our wounds. Ours is
a God who is not unfamiliar with what we feel and suffer; on the contrary, in
the midst of our pain, he stretches out his hand to us.
These times of being “buffeted” call into question and
challenge our strength of spirit and our deepest convictions. They make
us realize how important it is to stand united, not alone, and to be filled
with that unity which is a fruit of the Holy Spirit.
What happened to the virgins in the Gospel passage that we
just listened to? Suddenly they heard a loud cry that woke them up and
made them scurry. Some of them realized that they did not have sufficient
oil to make their way in the darkness, while others filled their lamps and
could see and follow the path that led to the bridegroom. At the
appointed time, each of them showed what they had filled their life with.
The same thing happens to us. There are times when we
realize what we have filled our lives with. How important it is to fill
our lives with the oil that lets us light our lamps in situations of darkness
and to find the paths to move forward!
I know that, in the time of darkness, when you felt the
brunt of the Niño, these lands kept moving forward; you had the oil needed to
go out to help one another like true brothers and sisters. You had the
oil of solidarity and generosity that stirred you to action, and you went out
to meet the Lord with countless concrete gestures of support. In the
midst of darkness, you, together with so many others, were like living candles
that lighted up the path with open hands, ready to help soothe the pain and
share what you had, from your poverty, with others.
In the Gospel account, we see how the virgins who did not
have oil went to the town to buy some. At the crucial moment of their
lives, they realized that their lamps were empty and that they lacked what was
essential to find the path of authentic joy. They went off by themselves,
and so they missed out on the party. There are things, as you well know,
that cannot be improvised, much less be bought. The soul of a community
is measured by how it manages to come together to face times of difficulty and
adversity, in order to keep hope alive. By doing so, they give the
greatest witness to the Gospel: “By this everyone will know that you are my
disciples, if you have love for one another” (Jn 13:35). For
faith opens us to a love that is concrete, practical, generous and
compassionate, a love that can build and rebuild hope when it seems that all is
lost. In this way, we share in God’s own work, which the apostle John
describes in showing us a God who wipes the tears of his children. God
carries out this divine work with the same tender love that a mother has when
she dries the tears of her children. What a beautiful question the Lord
will ask us: how many tears did you dry today?
Other “storms” can hit these coasts, with devastating
effects on the lives of the children of these lands. These storms too
make us question ourselves as a community and test the strength of our
spirit. Among these are organized violence, like “contract killings”, and
the insecurity that they breed. Or the lack of educational and employment
opportunities, especially among young people, which prevents them from building
a future with dignity. Or the lack of secure housing for so many families
forced to live in highly unstable areas without safe access. Or the many
other situations that you have to experience, which, like terrible earthquakes,
destroy the mutual trust so necessary to build a network of support and hope;
earthquakes that shake the soul and require all the oil we have, if we are
respond to them.
We often wonder about how to face these storms, or how to
help our children pull through in these situations. I want to tell you
that no better way exists than that of the Gospel: it is called Jesus Christ.
Fill your lives always with the Gospel. I want to encourage you to
be a community that lets itself be anointed by the Lord with the oil of the
Spirit. He transforms, renews and strengthens everything. In Jesus,
we have the strength of the Spirit not to treat as natural the things that hurt
us, that dry up our spirit and, what is worse, rob us of hope. In Jesus,
we have the Spirit who keeps us united so that we can support one another and
take a stand against whatever would take away all that is best in our families.
In Jesus, God makes us a believing community able to sustain itself; a
community that hopes and therefore struggles to reverse and transform every
adversity; a community that loves, because it will not let us fold our arms.
With Jesus, the soul of this town of Trujillo can continue to be called
“the city of eternal spring”, because with him, everything is an opportunity
for hope.
I know of the love that this land has for the Virgin, and I
know how devotion to Mary always sustains you and lifts you up to Jesus.
Let us ask Our Lady to cover us with her mantle and always bring us to
her Son. But let us do so by singing along to that lovely Andean marinera [folk
dance]: “Our Lady of the Gate, grant me your blessing. Our Lady of the
Gate, give us peace and much love”.
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