Pope WYD Panama: Homily at
concluding Mass - full text
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| Pope Francis celebrating the concluding Mass of the World Youth Day at Metro Park in Panama City, Jan. 27, 2019. |
Sunday, Jan. 27, was the final day of the World Youth Day in
Panama City. Pope Francis celebrated an open-air Holy Mass at the capital’s
Metro Park to conclude the WYD. Please find below the full text of the Pope's
homily.
Homily – Holy Mass
Metro Park, 27 January 2019
“The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say
to them: ‘Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing’” (Lk
4:20-21).
With these words, the Gospel presents the beginning of Jesus’ public
ministry. It started in the synagogue that saw him grow up; he was in the
midst of neighbours and people he knew, and perhaps even some of his childhood
“catechists” who had taught him the Law. It was an important moment in
the life of the Master: the child who was educated and grew up in that community, stood
up and took the floor to proclaim and put into action God’s dream. A word
previously proclaimed only as a future promise, but now, on the lips of Jesus
alone, could be spoken in the present tense, as it became a reality: “Today it
has been fulfilled”.
Jesus reveals the now of God, who comes to meet us and call us to take part in
his now of “proclaiming good news to the poor… bringing liberty to the captives
and recovering of sight to the blind, setting at liberty those who are oppressed,
announcing the year of the Lord’s favour” (Lk 4:18-19). This is the now
of God. It becomes present with Jesus: it has a face, it is flesh.
It is a merciful love that does not wait for ideal or perfect situations to
show itself, nor does it accept excuses for its appearance. It is God’s
time, that makes every situation and place both right and proper. In
Jesus, the promised future begins and becomes life.
When? Now. Yet not everyone who was listening felt invited or
called. Not all the residents of Nazareth were prepared to believe in
someone they knew and had seen grow up, and who was now inviting them to
realize a long-awaited dream. Not only that, but “they said,
‘Is not this Joseph’s son?’” (Lk 4:22).
The same thing can also happen with us. We do not always
believe that God can be that concrete and commonplace, that close and real, and
much less that he can become so present and work through somebody like a
neighbour, a friend, a relative. We do not always believe that the Lord
can invite us to work and soil our hands with him in his Kingdom in that simple
and blunt a way. It is hard to accept that “God’s love can become
concrete and can almost be experienced in history with all its painful and
glorious vicissitudes” ( BENEDICT XVI, General Audience, 28 September
2005).
Often we too behave like the neighbours in Nazareth: we prefer a distant God:
nice, good, generous but far-off, a God who does not inconvenience us.
Because a close andeveryday God, a friend and brother, demands that
we be concerned with our surroundings, everyday affairs and above all
fraternity. God chose not to reveal himself as an angel or in some
spectacular way, but to give us a face that is fraternal and friendly, concrete
and familiar. God is real because love is real; God is concrete because
love is concrete. Indeed, this “concrete manifestation of love is one of
the essential elements in the life of Christians” (BENEDICT XVI, Homily, 1
March 2006).
We can also run the same risks as the neighbours at Nazareth, when
within our communities the Gospel seeks to be lived concretely. We begin
to say: But these young people, aren’t they the children of Mary, Joseph,
aren’t they the brothers and sisters of so and so? Are these not the
youngsters we saw grow up? That one over there, wasn’t he the one who
kept breaking windows with his ball? What was born as prophecy and
proclamation of the kingdom of God gets domesticated
and impoverished. Attempts to domesticate the word of God
occur daily.
You too, dear young people, can experience this whenever you think that your
mission, your vocation, even your life itself, is a promise far off in the
future, having nothing to do with the present. As if being young were a
kind of waiting room, where we sit around until we are called. And in the
“meantime”, we adults or you yourselves invent a hygienically sealed future,
without consequences, where everything is safe, secure and “well
insured”. A “make-believe” happiness. So we
“ tranquilize ” you, we numb you into keeping quiet, not asking or
questioning; and in that “meantime” your dreams lose their buoyancy, they begin
to become flat and dreary, petty and plaintive (cf. Palm Sunday Homily, 25
March 2018). Only because we think, or you think, that your now
has not yet come, that you are too young to be involved in dreaming about and
working for the future.
One of the fruits of the last Synod was the enrichment that came from being
able to meet and above all to listen to one another. The enrichment of
intergenerational dialogue, the enrichment of exchange and the value of
realizing that we need one another, that we have to work to create channels and
spaces that encourage dreaming of and working for tomorrow, starting
today. And this, not in isolation, but rather side by side, creating a
common space. A space that is not simply taken for granted, or won in a
lottery, but a space for which you too must fight.
You, dear young people, are not the future but the now of God. He invites
you and calls you in your communities and cities to go out and find your
grandparents, your elders; to stand up and with them to speak out and realize
the dream that the Lord has dreamed for you.
Not tomorrow but now, for wherever your treasure is, there will your heart also
be (cf. Mt 6:21). Whatever you fall in love with, it will win over not
only your imagination, it will affect everything. It will be what makes
you get up in the morning, what keeps you going at times of fatigue, what will
break open your hearts and fill you with wonder, joy and gratitude.
Realize that you have a mission and fall in love; that will decide everything
(cf. PEDRO ARRUPE, S.J., Nada es más práctico). We may possess everything,
but if we lack the passion of love, we will have nothing. Let us allow
the Lord to make us fall in love!
For Jesus, there is no “meantime”, but only a merciful love that wants to enter
into and win over our hearts. He wants to be our treasure, because
he is not a “meantime”, an interval in life or a passing fad; he is generous
love that invites us to entrust ourselves.
He is concrete, close, real love. He is festive joy, born of opting for
and taking part in the miraculous draught of hope and charity, solidarity and
fraternity, despite the paralyzed and paralyzing gaze born of fear and
exclusion, speculation and manipulation.
Brothers and sisters, the Lord and his mission are not a “meantime” in our
life, something temporary; they are our life!
In a special way throughout these days, Mary’s fiat has been whispering like a
kind of music in the background. She not only believed in God and in his
promises as something possible, she believed God himself and dared to say “yes”
to taking part in this now of the Lord. She felt she had a mission; she
fell in love and that decided everything.
As in the synagogue of Nazareth, the Lord stands up again among us his friends
and acquaintances; he takes the book and says to us “Today this Scripture has
been fulfilled in your hearing” (Lk 4:21).
Do you want to live out your love in a practical way? May your “yes”
continue to be the gateway for the Holy Spirit to give us a new Pentecost for
the world and for the Church.
* * *
Farewell
At the conclusion of this celebration, I thank God for having given us the
opportunity to share these days together and to experience once more this World
Youth Day.
In particular, I would like to thank the President of Panama, Juan Carlos
Varela Rodríguez, the Presidents of other nations and the other political and
civil authorities for their presence at this celebration.
I thank Bishop José Domingo Ulloa Mendieta, Archbishop of Panama, for his
generosity and hard work in hosting this World Youth Day in his diocese, as well
as the other bishops of this and the neighbouring countries, for all they have
done in their communities to provide accommodation and assistance to the great
numbers of young people.
My thanks also go to all those who have supported us with their prayers, and
who have helped by their efforts and hard work to make this World Youth Day
dream come true in this country.
And to you, dear young people, a big “thank you”. Your faith and joy have
made Panama, America and the entire world shake! As we have heard so many
times in these days in the song of this World Youth Day: “As your pilgrim
people we are gathered here today from every continent and city”. We are
on a journey, keep walking, keep living the faith and sharing it. Do not
forget that you are not the tomorrow, you are not the “meantime”; you are the
now of God.
The venue for the next World Youth Day has already been announced. I ask
you not to let the fervour of these days grow cold. Go back to your
parishes and communities, to your families and your friends, and share this
experience, so that others can resonate with the strength and enthusiasm that
is yours. With Mary, keep saying “yes” to the dream that God has sown in
you.
And, please, do not forget to pray for me.
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