Pope at Mass in Tokyo: Gospel of
life urges us to be a “field hospital”
Pope Francis celebrates Mass on Monday afternoon at the
Tokyo Dome stadium. In his homily, the Pope says we need to get our priorities
right, in line with the life of Jesus.
By Robin Gomes
As the starting point of his homily on Monday, Pope Francis
drew attention to the Sermon on the Mount, saying it indicates the beauty of
the path we are called to take to reach Jesus, in whom we have the freedom of
becoming God’s beloved children.
Hurdles to being God’s children
Yet along the way, the Pope observed, the freedom of being
God’s children can be repressed and weakened by a vicious circle of anxiety and
competition. A frenetic pursuit of productivity and consumerism becomes the
sole criterion for measuring or defining who we are or what we are worth.
The Pope warned that this criterion slowly makes us
insensitive to the really important things and yearn for things that are
superfluous or ephemeral.
The Pope noted that in Japan, with its highly developed
economy, many people are socially isolated on the margins who are unable to
grasp the meaning of their life and existence. He lamented that home, school,
and community, which are meant to be places where we support and help one
another, are being eroded by excessive competition in the pursuit of profit and
efficiency. As a result, many lose their peace and stability.
Setting priorities right
As an antidote to this, Pope Francis offered the words of
Jesus soon after His Sermon the Mount: “Do not be anxious about your life…
about tomorrow”. The Pope said these words are not an encouragement to ignore
what happens around us or to be irresponsible about our daily duties and
responsibilities. Rather, they are an invitation to get our priorities right,
according to His way: “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and
all these things shall be yours as well”.
Thus, the Lord is inviting us to re-evaluate our daily
decisions and not to become trapped or isolated in the pursuit of success at
any cost, including the cost of our very lives.
“Worldly attitudes that look only to one’s profit or gain in
this world, and a selfishness that pursues only individual happiness,” the Pope
said, “in reality leave us profoundly unhappy and enslaved, and hinder the
authentic development of a truly harmonious and humane society".
Embracing life as it is
The opposite of an isolated, enclosed and even asphyxiated
“I”, the Pope said, can only be a “we” that is shared, celebrated and
communicated. In this regard, he said, “genuine care for our own lives and our
relationships with nature is inseparable from fraternity, justice, and
faithfulness to others”.
Hence, the Christian community is invited to protect all
life and testify with wisdom and courage to a way of living marked by gratitude
and compassion, generosity and simple listening. The Christian community is one
that is capable of embracing and accepting life as it is, with all its
fragility and its simplicity, such as a disabled or frail person, a foreigner,
someone who made a mistake, someone ill or in prison.
In this, Jesus leads by example. He embraced the leper, the
blind man, the paralytic, the Pharisee, the sinner, the thief on the cross and
even forgave those who crucified Him.
Christian community a field hospital
The Pope said that the proclamation of the Gospel of Life
urgently requires that we as a community become a field hospital, ready to heal
wounds and to offer always a path of reconciliation and forgiveness. For the
Christian, the only possible measure by which we can judge each person and
situation is that of the Father’s compassion for all His children.
This way, the Pope said, we can become the prophetic leaven
of a society that increasingly protects and cares for all life.
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