Vatican
City, 6 May 2013
(VIS) – Yesterday, under incessant rain, thousands of persons,
members of confraternities from Italy, France, Spain, Ireland, Malta,
Poland … paraded up Via della Conciliazione to gather in St.
Peter's Square for the Mass presided by the Holy Father for the
confraternities' pilgrimage to Rome on the Year of Faith.
In
his greeting to the Pope, Archbishop Rino Fisichella, president of
the Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelization, said
that “here are represented ten centuries of history that few know
about because it is made of simple, everyday gestures, etched
nevertheless, in people's hearts. Confraternities have been an
expression of faith's most genuine fruit: charity toward the poor,
the abandoned, the suffering, and the marginalized.”
“It
is brave of you to come here in this rain,” the Bishop of Rome
responded. “May the Lord bless you abundantly! As part of the
journey of the Year of Faith, I am happy to celebrate this Eucharist
dedicated in a special way to confraternities: a traditional reality
in the Church, which in recent times has experienced renewal and
rediscovery.”
Continuing,
the Pope recalled that “whoever loves the Lord Jesus welcomes him
and his Father interiorly and, thanks to the Holy Spirit, receives
the Gospel in his or her heart and life. Here we are shown the centre
from which everything must go forth and to which everything must
lead: loving God and being Christ’s disciples by living the Gospel.
When Benedict XVI spoke to you, he used this expression: 'evangelical
spirit'. Dear confraternities, the popular piety of which you are an
important sign is a treasure possessed by the Church, which the
bishops of Latin America defined, significantly, as a spirituality, a
form of mysticism, which is 'a place of encounter with Jesus Christ'.
… Down the centuries, confraternities have been crucibles of
holiness for countless people who have lived in utter simplicity an
intense relationship with the Lord. Advance with determination along
the path of holiness; do not rest content with a mediocre Christian
life, but let your affiliation serve as a stimulus, above all for you
yourselves, to an ever greater love of Jesus Christ.”
He
then commented on the passage of the day's Liturgy from the Acts of
the Apostles that “speaks to us about what is essential. In the
early Church there was immediately a need to discern what was
essential about being a Christian, about following Christ, and what
was not. … Difficulties were overcome: not from without, but from
within the Church. And this brings up a second element which I want
to remind you of, as Benedict XVI did, namely: 'ecclesial spirit'.
Popular piety is a road which leads to what is essential, if it is
lived in the Church in profound communion with your pastors. Dear
brothers and sisters, the Church loves you! Be an active presence in
the community, as living cells, as living stones. The Latin American
Bishops wrote that the popular piety which you reflect is 'a
legitimate way of living the faith, a way of feeling that we are part
of the Church'. This is wonderful! ... Love the Church! Let
yourselves be guided by her! In your parishes, in your dioceses, be a
true 'lung' of faith and Christian life, a breath of fresh air! In
this Square I see a great variety: earlier on it was a variety of
umbrellas, and now of colours and signs. This is also the case with
the Church: a great wealth and variety of expressions in which
everything leads back to unity; the variety leads back to unity, and
unity is the encounter with Christ.”
Finally,
he touched upon the third characteristic of the confraternities:
“missionary spirit”.” You have a specific and important
mission,”he explained, “that of keeping alive the relationship
between the faith and the cultures of the peoples to whom you belong.
You do this through popular piety. When, for example, you carry the
crucifix in procession with such great veneration and love for the
Lord, you are not performing a simple outward act; you are pointing
to the centrality of the Lord’s paschal mystery, his passion, death
and resurrection which have redeemed us, and you are reminding
yourselves first, as well as the community, that we have to follow
Christ along the concrete path of our daily lives so that he can
transform us. Likewise, when you express profound devotion for the
Virgin Mary, you are pointing to the highest realization of the
Christian life.”
“You
express this faith, born of hearing the word of God, in ways that
engage the senses, the emotions and the symbols of the different
cultures … In doing so you help to transmit it to others, and
especially the simple persons whom, in the Gospels, Jesus calls “the
little ones”. In effect, 'journeying together towards shrines, and
participating in other demonstrations of popular piety, bringing
along your children and engaging other people, is itself a work of
evangelization'.”
“May
you also be true evangelizers! May your initiatives be 'bridges',
means of bringing others to Christ, so as to journey together with
him. And in this spirit may you always be attentive to charity. Each
individual Christian and every community is missionary to the extent
that they bring to others and live the Gospel, and testify to God’s
love for all, especially those experiencing difficulties. Be
missionaries of God’s love and tenderness! Be missionaries of God’s
mercy, which always forgives us, always awaits us and loves us
dearly.”
“Evangelical
spirit, ecclesial spirit, and missionary spirit,” the pontiff
repeated. “Three themes! Do not forget them! Let us ask the Lord
always to direct our minds and hearts to him, as living stones of the
Church, so that all that we do, our whole Christian life, may be a
luminous witness to his mercy and love. In this way we will make our
way towards the goal of our earthly pilgrimage, towards that
extremely beautiful shrine, the heavenly Jerusalem.”
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