Vatican
City, 15 April 2013
(VIS) – Yesterday afternoon, Pope Francis presided over Mass at
Saint Paul Outside-the-Walls on his first visit to that basilica as
Bishop of Rome. Concelebrating with the Holy Father were Cardinal
James Michael Harvey, archpriest of the basilica, and Abbot Edmund
Power, O.S.B., of the St. Paul Outside-the-Walls Abbey.
In
his homily, the Holy Father recalled that the basilica is built above
the tomb of St. Paul, “a great yet humble Apostle of the Lord, who
proclaimed him by word, bore witness to him by martyrdom and
worshipped him with all his heart.” He added that these were the
three words—proclamation, witness, worship—that he wanted to
reflect upon in light of the Word of God in the liturgy's readings.
Commenting
on the first reading, in which the Apostles are imprisoned for
preaching of the Risen Christ, the Pope observed that Peter and the
Twelve “proclaim courageously, fearlessly, what they have received:
the Gospel of Jesus. And we? Are we capable of bringing the word of
God into the environment in which we live? Do we know how to speak of
Christ, of what He represents for us, in our families, among the
people who form part of our daily lives? Faith is born from
listening, and is strengthened by proclamation.”
“The
proclamation made by Peter and the Apostles,” he emphasized, “does
not merely consist of words: fidelity to Christ affects their whole
lives, which are changed, given a new direction, and it is through
their lives that they bear witness to the faith and to the
proclamation of Christ. In today’s Gospel, Jesus asks Peter three
times to feed his flock, to feed it with his love, and He prophesies
to him: 'When you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and
another will gird you and carry you where you do not wish to go'.
These words are addressed first and foremost to those of us who are
pastors: we cannot feed God’s flock unless we let ourselves be
carried by God’s will even where we would rather not go, unless we
are prepared to bear witness to Christ with the gift of ourselves,
unreservedly, not in a calculating way, sometimes even at the cost of
our lives.”
“But
this also applies to everyone: we all have to proclaim and bear
witness to the Gospel. … In God’s great plan, every detail is
important, even yours, even my humble little witness, even the hidden
witness of those who live their faith with simplicity in everyday
family relationships, work relationships, friendships. There are the
saints of every day, the 'hidden' saints, a sort of 'middle class of
holiness', as a French author said, that 'middle class of holiness'
to which we can all belong.”
“But
in different parts of the world, there are also those who suffer ...
on account of the Gospel; there are those who give their lives in
order to remain faithful to Christ ... Let us all remember this: one
cannot proclaim the Gospel of Jesus without the tangible witness of
one’s life. I am thinking now of some advice that Saint Francis of
Assisi gave his brothers: 'Preach the Gospel and, if necessary, use
words'. Preaching with your life, with your witness. Inconsistency on
the part of pastors and the faithful between what they say and what
they do, between word and manner of life, is undermining the Church’s
credibility.”
“All
this is possible only if we recognize Jesus Christ, because it is He
who has called us, He who has invited us to travel his path, He who
has chosen us. Proclamation and witness are only possible if we are
close to him, just as Peter, John and the other disciples in today’s
Gospel passage were gathered around the Risen Jesus. … And this is
important for us: living an intense relationship with Jesus, an
intimacy of dialogue and of life, in such a way as to recognize him
as 'the Lord'. Worshipping him!”
“I
would like all of us to ask ourselves this question: [ask yourself,
ask myself] Do we worship the Lord? Do we turn to God only to ask him
for things, to thank him, or do we also turn to him to worship him?
What does it mean, then, to worship God? … All of us, in our own
lives, consciously and perhaps sometimes unconsciously, have a very
clear order of priority concerning the things we consider important.
Worshipping the Lord means giving him the place that He must have;
worshipping the Lord means stating, believing—not only by our
words—that He alone truly guides our lives; worshipping the Lord
means that we are convinced before him that He is the only God, the
God of our lives, the God of our history.”
“This
has a consequence in our lives,” the pontiff noted. “We have to
empty ourselves of the many small or great idols that we have and in
which we take refuge and upon which we often seek to base our
security. They are idols that we sometimes keep well hidden; they can
be ambition, careerism, a taste for success, placing ourselves at the
centre, the tendency to dominate others, the claim to be the sole
masters of our lives, some sins to which we are bound, and many
others. This evening I would like a question to resound in each of
your hearts, and I would like you to answer it honestly: Have I
considered which idol lies hidden in my life that prevents me from
worshipping the Lord? Worshipping is stripping ourselves of our
idols, even the most hidden ones, and choosing the Lord as the
centre, as the privileged path of our lives.”
“The
Lord,” concluded the Bishop of Rome, “calls us each day to follow
him with courage and fidelity. He has made us the great gift of
choosing us as his disciples. He invites us to proclaim him with joy
as the Risen one, but He asks us to do so by word and by the witness
of our lives, in daily life. The Lord is the only God of our lives,
and He invites us to strip ourselves of our many idols and to worship
him alone. To proclaim, to witness, to worship.”
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