Vatican
City, 1 November 2013 (VIS) – This afternoon, at 4 p.m., the Holy
Father celebrated Mass at the entrance to the monumental cemetery of
Verano in Rome. The concelebrants were Cardinal Agostino Vallini,
Archbishop Filippo Iannone, vice-regent of the diocese of Rome, the
auxiliary bishops and Fr. Armando Ambrosi, priest of San Lorenzo
fuori le Mura (St Lawrence outside the Walls) parish church, where
the cemetery is located.
“At
this time, before sunset”, said the Pope in his homily, “we are
gathered in this cemetery to think about our future and about all
those who are no more, those who have gone before us in life and are
now in the Lord … in the Lord God, beauty, goodness, truth,
tenderness, full love. All this awaits us. Those who have preceded us
and are departed to the Lord are there. They proclaim that they have
been saved not only for their works – they have also done good
works – but that they have been saved by the Lord. … It is He Who
saves us, it is He Who at the end of our life leads us by the hand
like a father, to the Heaven where our ancestors await us”.
“We
can enter heaven only thanks to the blood of the lamb, the blood of
Christ … that has justified us, that has opened the doors to Heaven
to us. And if today we recall these brothers and sisters of ours who
have preceded us in life and are now in Heaven, it is because they
have been washed by the blood of Christ. This is our hope: the hope
of the blood of Christ! A hope that does not disappoint. If we walk
the path of life with the Lord, He never disappoints us”.
Francis
went on to cite the passage in the Gospel of St. John: “'See what
great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called
children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does
not know us is that it did not know him'. Dear friends, now we are
children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But
we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall
see him as he is”. To see God is “to be similar to God: this is
our hope. And today, precisely on the day of All Saints and before
the day of All Souls, it is necessary to think a little about hope:
this hope that accompanies us in life. The first Christians depicted
hope as an anchor, as if life was the anchor thrown to the shores of
Heaven and all of us set forth towards that shore, grasping the rope
of the anchor. It is a beautiful image of hope: to anchor our hearts
where our dearly departed await us, where the saints, Jesus and God
are. It is the hope that does not disappoint us. Today and tomorrow
are days of hope”.
Hope,
he continued, “is like leaven, that enlarges the soul; there are
difficult moments in life, but with hope the soul forges ahead and
looks to what awaits us. … Hope also purifies us, and lightens us:
this purification in hope in Jesus Christ allows us to go on swiftly.
As the sun starts to set today, each one of us can think of the
sunset of our own lives”. And if we look forward with joy to being
welcomed by the Lord, “this is a Christian thought, that brings
peace to us. Today is a day of joy, but it is a serene and tranquil
joy, the joy of peace. Let us think of the sunsets of the many
brothers and sisters who have preceded us, and let us think of our
own sunset, when it arrives. And let us think of our hearts, and ask
ourselves, 'Where is my heart anchored?' If it is not anchored well,
let us anchor it there, on that shore, in the knowledge that hope
never disappoints, because the Lord Jesus never disappoints”.
At
the end of the Mass, the Pope blessed the tombs and concluded, “I
would like to pray especially for our brothers and sisters who have
died seeking freedom, a more worthwhile life. We have seen the
photographs depicting the cruelty of the desert; we have seen the sea
where many have drowned. Let us pray for them. And let us also pray
for the survivors, who now languish in shelters, in the hope that the
necessary legal procedures will be completed swiftly so that they
might move on to other more comfortable places, in other centres”.
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