Vatican City, 8 March 2015 (VIS) -
“Liturgy is not something exterior or distant, so that while it is
celebrated I can think of other things or pray the rosary. No, there
is a link between the liturgical celebration and what I carry with me
in my life”, said the Pope in his homily during his pastoral visit
to the Roman parish of Ognissanti (All Saints) on the 50th
anniversary of the first Mass in Italian celebrated in the same
parish by Blessed Paul VI, following the liturgical reforms
established by Vatican Council II.
Francis commented on the Gospel reading
of St. John in which Jesus drives out the money changers from the
Temple, with the exclamation, “Do not make my Father's house a
house of trade.” This expression refers not only to the commerce in
the temple courtyards, but rather “regards a type of religiosity”.
He continued, “Jesus' gesture is one of cleansing, purification,
and the attitude He condemns can be identified in the prophetic
texts, according to which God is displeased by external worship made
up of material sacrifices and based on personal interest. His gesture
is a call to authentic worship, to correspondence between liturgy and
life. … Therefore, the Church calls us to have and to promote an
authentic liturgical life, so that there may be harmony between what
the liturgy celebrates and what we live in our existence”.
Jesus' disciple “does not go to
Church solely to observe a precept, to make sure he is not at odds
with a God he must not 'disturb' too much. … Jesus' disciple goes
to Church to encounter the Lord and to find in His grace, working in
the Sacraments, the strength to think and act according to the
Gospel. Therefore, we cannot delude ourselves that we can enter into
the Lord's house to cover up, with prayers and acts of devotion,
behaviour contrary to the demands of justice, honesty or charity
towards our neighbour. We cannot substitute with religious homage
what is due to others, deferring true conversion. Worship and
liturgical celebrations are the privileged space for hearing the
voice of the Lord, Who guides us on the road to rectitude and
Christian perfection”.
This involves “fulfilling an
itinerary of conversion and penance, to remove the dregs of sin from
our life, as Jesus did, cleansing the temple of petty interests. And
Lent is an auspicious time for this, as it is the time of inner
renewal, of forgiveness of sins, the time in which we are called upon
to rediscover the Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation, that
enables us to pass from the shadows of sin into the light of grace
and friendship with Jesus”.
“Right here, fifty years ago, Blessed
Paul VI inaugurated, in a certain sense, liturgical reform with the
celebration of the vernacular Mass in the language of the people. I
hope that this circumstance may revive love for God's house in all of
you”.
Following Mass, as he left the church,
the Pope greeted the many faithful who awaited him. “Thank you,
thank you for your welcome”, he said. “That you for this prayer
with me during Mass; and let us thank the Lord for what He has done
in His Church in these fifty years of liturgical reform. It was a
courageous gesture of the Church, to draw closer to the people of God
so they could better understand what she does, and this is important
for us, to follow Mass in this way. And it is not possible to step
backwards, we must always move ahead, always ahead; those who go
back, err. Let us go ahead on this road”.
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