Vatican City, 4 May 2015 (VIS) –
Yesterday afternoon Pope Francis visited another parish in his
diocese – Santa Maria Regina Pacis at the Ostia Lido. Before
celebrating Mass, the bishop of Rome visited the community of the
Little Sisters of Jesus, of Charles de Foucauld, also known as the
“Luna Park Fraternity” since they live in caravans, and met with
the elderly, the sick, and young scouts from the parish, as well as
parents who have baptised their children this year.
The Pope greeted the elderly,
emphasising that they possess the wisdom of life, experience, pain
and patience, as well as the memory of the people and the family. He
remarked that the sick “resemble Jesus: they suffer like Jesus and
bear the cross like Jesus”, and praised the parish community for
lovingly caring for the sick and the elderly, since “when they are
not cared for by the community, that community does not function; it
lacks something”.
To the scouts, he commented that “in
the art of climbing, the important thing is not that you do not fall,
but rather that you do not stay on the ground”. He continued, “We
all fall, we all make mistakes, even sins, all of us. But what is
witness? It is getting up again with God's grace. … This is what
the world needs from you, the witness of going ever onwards; although
weak, we must go ahead”. He also encouraged the young to transmit
their faith with joy and, in difficult moments when joy is obscured,
to “overcome those moments with dignity, in the hope that the Holy
Spirit gives us strength … and consolation … until our joy
returns”.
Finally, he reminded the parents of
recently baptised children that baptism is not an isolated event, and
invited them to walk with their children along the new path of faith,
staying close to the parish community.
In the Pope's homily, in which he
commented on the Gospel reading of the vine and the branches, he
insisted on the importance of remaining united with Christ, which
also means “wanting to be forgiven by Him, but also to be 'pruned',
so as to bear more fruit”. He added, “abiding with Jesus means
doing the same as He did: doing good, helping others, praying to the
Father, healing the sick, helping the poor, having the joy of the
Holy Spirit”.
“There are also other branches, to
which Jesus does not refer here, but He does so elsewhere; those that
present themselves as Jesus' disciples, but do the opposite of what a
disciple does, and these branches are hypocrites. Perhaps they go to
Mass every Sunday, perhaps they show themselves to be saintly and
pious, but then they live as if they were pagans. And Jesus, in the
Gospel, calls them hypocrites. Jesus is good, he invites us to abide
in Him. He gives us strength, and so if we slide into sinfulness –
and we are all sinners – He forgives us, because He is merciful.
But He wants two things – that we abide in Him and that we are not
hypocrites. And this is how Christian lives go onwards”.
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