Pope to priests, religious: A
Church forgiven of her sins goes out to serve wounded humanity
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| Pope Francis addresses priests, religious and seminarians in the Cathedral of Santiago, Chile, 16 January 2018.- AFP |
Pope Francis held out St. Peter as a model of a Church which
despite being wounded by sin is shown mercy by the Lord, and which goes out to
serve a wounded humanity.
By Robin Gomes
Reflecting on the transformation of St. Peter the
Apostle, Pope Francis urged Chilean priests, religious and seminarians to be a
prophetic Church, which washed of her sins is not afraid to go out and serve a
wounded humanity.
Speaking to them in the Cathedral of Santiago, Tuesday
evening, the Pope dwelt on John’s Gospel where Peter, disillusioned after the
Resurrection, goes back to fishing but catches nothing. However, at the
Lord’s behest, he casts the net on the right side and comes up with a
miraculous haul of fish.
Transformation of Peter
Pope Francis reminded the priests and religious about the
personal and communitarian dimensions of their vocation. He thus
reflected on Peter and the community disheartened, Peter and the community
shown mercy, and Peter and the community transfigured.
Speaking about the “hours of dismay and confusion” in the
life of Peter in the aftermath of the Resurrection, the Pope acknowledged that
in times “when the tempest of persecutions, tribulations, doubts, and so forth,
is raised by cultural and historical events, it is not easy to find the path
to follow.” But, he said, the “worst temptation of all is to keep
dwelling on our own unhappiness”
Pain of abuse of minors
Alongside the “fidelity of the immense majority” of priests
and religious, the Pope admitted there are also “weeds of evil and their
aftermath of scandal and desertion”. Pope Francis particularly spoke
about the “pain resulting from cases of abuse of minors” in the Church of Chile,
which he said cause harm and sufferings to the victims and
their families, to ecclesial communities and also to priests and religious
themselves. He thus urged them to ask God for the grace of
“clear-sightedness to call reality by its name, the strength to seek
forgiveness and the ability to listen to what He tells us.”
Journey of conversion
Amidst changes taking place in Chilean society, Pope Francis
urged the priests and religious to fight the temptation of being closed and
isolated and defending their ways, forgetting that the “Gospel is a journey of
conversion.”
Pointing out that Peter experienced his limitation, his
frailty and his sinfulness, Pope Francis said that as disciples and Church “we
have to face not our success but our weakness”. Jesus wants to save Peter from
self-centredness and isolation, from bring downcast and negative.
Wounded Church heals world’s wounds
The one thing that sustains his apostles, the Pope said, is
that they have received mercy. Priests and religious, he said
are not superheroes or better than others, but “are sent as men and women
conscious of having been forgiven.”
Just as Jesus did not hide his wounds, so too we
are “not asked to ignore or hide our wounds,” the Pope said, adding, “a Church
with wounds can understand the wounds of today’s world and make them her own,
suffering with them, accompanying them and seeking to heal them.” “A
wounded Church does not make herself the centre of things,… but puts at the
centre the one who can heal those wounds, whose name is Jesus Christ.”
The acknowledgement that we are wounded, the Pope said,
frees us from becoming self-referential and thinking
ourselves superior.” Our wounds that are risen in Jesus,
inspire solidarity; they help us to tear down the walls that enclose us
in elitism and they impel us to build bridges and to encounter
all those yearning for that merciful love which Christ alone can give.
Peter who is disheartened and then transfigured, the Pope
said, is the image of a prophetic Church, which washed of her sin, is unafraid
to go out to serve a wounded humanity. It is an invitation to
pass from being a Church of the unhappy and disheartened to a Church that
serves all those people who are unhappy and disheartened in our midst – a
Church capable of serving her Lord in those who are hungry, imprisoned,
thirsting, homeless, naked and infirm.
Kingdom of heaven
The problem the Pope said, is not feeding the poor, clothing
the naked and visiting the sick, but rather recognizing that the poor, the
naked, the sick, prisoners and the homeless have the dignity to sit at our
table, to feel “at home” among us, to feel part of a family.
"This is the sign that the kingdom of heaven is in our midst. This
is the sign of a Church wounded by sin, shown mercy by the Lord, and made
prophetic by his call," the Pope added.
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