Pope Francis' Homily for Mass at
Temuco: Full text
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| Pope Francis at the Mass in Temuco.(Vatican Media) |
Full text of Pope Francis' homily during the Mass celebrated
at Maquehue Airport in Temuco
APOSTOLIC VISIT OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS
TO CHILE
TO CHILE
Homily at the Mass for the Progress of Peoples
Temuco
Temuco
Wednesday, 17 January 2018
“Mari, Mari” [Good morning!]
“Küme tünngün ta niemün” [“Peace be with you!” (Lk 24:36)]
I thank God for allowing me to visit this beautiful part of
our continent, the Araucanía. It is a land blessed by the Creator with
immense and fertile green fields, with forests full of impressive araucarias –
the fifth “praise” offered by Gabriela Mistral to this Chilean land[1] – and with its majestic snow-capped volcanoes, its
lakes and rivers full of life. This landscape lifts us up to God, and it
is easy to see his hand in every creature. Many generations of men and
women have loved this land with fervent gratitude. Here I would like to
pause and greet in a special way the members of the Mapuche people, as well as
the other indigenous peoples who dwell in these southern lands: the Rapanui
(from Easter Island), the Aymara, the Quechua and the Atacameños, and many
others.
Seen through the eyes of tourists, this land will thrill us
as we pass through it, but if we put our ear to the ground, we will hear it
sing: “Arauco has a sorrow that cannot be silenced, the injustices of centuries
that everyone sees taking place”.[2]
In the context of thanksgiving for this land and its people,
but also of sorrow and pain, we celebrate this Eucharist. We do so in
this Maqueue aerodrome, which was the site of grave violations of human
rights. We offer this Mass for all those who suffered and died, and for
those who daily bear the burden of those many injustices. The sacrifice
of Jesus on the cross bears all the sin and pain of our peoples, in order to
redeem it.
In the Gospel we have just heard, Jesus prays to the Father
“that they may all be one” (Jn 17:21). At a crucial moment in
his own life, he stops to plea for unity. In his heart, he knows that one
of the greatest threats for his disciples and for all mankind will be division
and confrontation, the oppression of some by others. How many tears would
be spilled! Today we want to cling to this prayer of Jesus, to enter with
him into this garden of sorrows with those sorrows of our own, and to ask the
Father, with Jesus, that we too may be one. May confrontation and
division never gain the upper hand among us.
This unity implored by Jesus is a gift that must be
persistently sought, for the good of our land and its children. We need
to be on our watch against temptations that may arise to “poison the roots” of
this gift that God wants to give us, and with which he invites us to play a
genuine role in history.
1. False synonyms
One of the main temptations we need to resist is that of
confusing unity with uniformity. Jesus does not ask his Father that all
may be equal, identical, for unity is not meant to neutralize or silence
differences. Unity is not an idol or the result of forced integration; it
is not a harmony bought at the price of leaving some people on the
fringes. The richness of a land is born precisely from the desire of each
of its parts to share its wisdom with others. Unity can never be a
stifling uniformity imposed by the powerful, or a segregation that does not
value the goodness of others. The unity sought and offered by Jesus acknowledges
what each people and each culture are called to contribute to this land of
blessings. Unity is a reconciled diversity, for it will not allow
personal or community wrongs to be perpetrated in its name. We need the
riches that each people has to offer, and we must abandon the notion that there
are higher or lower cultures. A beautiful “chamal” requires weavers who
know the art of blending the different materials and colours, who spend time
with each element and each stage of the work. That process can be imitated
industrially, but everyone will recognize a machine-made garment. The art
of unity requires true artisans who know how to harmonize differences in the
“design” of towns, roads, squares and landscapes. It is not “desk art”,
or paperwork; it is a craft demanding attention and understanding. That
is the source of its beauty, but also of its resistance to the passage of time
and to whatever storms may come its way.
The unity that our people need requires that we listen to
one another, but even more importantly, that we esteem one another. “This
is not just about being better informed about others, but rather about reaping
what the Spirit has sown in them”.[3] This sets us
on the path of solidarity as a means of weaving unity, a means of building
history. The solidarity that makes us say: We need one another, and our
differences so that this land can remain beautiful! It is the only weapon
we have against the “deforestation” of hope. That is why we pray: Lord,
make us artisans of unity.
2. The weapons of unity.
If unity is to be built on esteem and solidarity, then we
cannot accept any means of attaining it. There are two kinds of violence
that, rather than encouraging the growth of unity and reconciliation, actually
threaten them. First, we have to be on our guard against coming up with
“elegant” agreements that will never be put into practice. Nice words,
detailed plans – necessary as these are – but, when unimplemented, end up
“erasing with the elbow, what was written by the hand”. This is one kind
of violence, because it frustrates hope.
In the second place, we have to insist that a culture of
mutual esteem may not be based on acts of violence and destruction that end up
taking human lives. You cannot assert yourself by destroying others, because
this only leads to more violence and division. Violence begets violence,
destruction increases fragmentation and separation. Violence eventually
makes a most just cause into a lie. That is why we say “no to destructive
violence” in either of its two forms.
Those two approaches are like the lava of a volcano that
wipes out and burns everything in its path, leaving in its wake only barrenness
and desolation. Let us instead seek the path of active non-violence, “as
a style of politics for peace”.[4] Let us seek,
and never tire of seeking, dialogue for the sake of unity. That is why we
cry out: Lord, make us artisans of your unity.
All of us, to a certain extent, are people of the earth
(cf. Gen 2:7). All of us are called to “the good life”
(Küme Mongen), as the ancestral wisdom of the Mapuche people reminds us.
How far we have to go, and how much we still have to learn! Küme Mongen,
a deep yearning that not only rises up from our hearts, but resounds like a
loud cry, like a song, in all creation. Therefore, brothers and sisters,
for the children of this earth, for the children of their children, let us say
with Jesus to the Father: may we too be one; make us artisans of unity.
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