Vatican City, 21 June 2015 (VIS) –
After his encounter with representatives from the world of work, the
Pope proceeded on foot to the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist,
which houses the Holy Shroud, traditionally considered to have been
wrapped around the body of Christ after his crucifixion. As Roberto
Gottardo, president of the diocesan Commission for the Shroud,
writes: “The Shroud is a cloth, but it is above all an image. …
This image tells us of Jesus, in an immediate way, before science can
offer its version and before faith reveals that it is Jesus. All this
does not mean that the Shroud is certainly the sheet brought by
Joseph of Arimathea below the cross, but certainly anyone who looks
at it will find that it immediately recalls this story”. During the
exposition of the Shroud in 1998, St. John Paul II affirmed: “The
Shroud is also an image of human suffering, that experience that is
to varying extents part of the existence of every person, and allows
us to recognise this man as one of us”.
Once inside the Cathedral, the Pope
knelt before the Holy Shroud, displayed at the major altar, in order
to meditate for a moment in the presence of the elder priests of the
Cathedral and cloistered nuns. He then proceeded to the chapel that
houses the relics of Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati (1901-1925), from
Turin. Shortly after 10 a.m. he left the Cathedral and travelled by
popemobile to Piazza Vittorio, one of the largest squares in Europe,
to celebrate Holy Mass before thousands of people and to pray the
Angelus.
“The readings we have heard should us
how God's love for us is a faithful love, a love that recreates
everything, a stable and secure love”, said Francis in his homily.
“It is a love that does not deceive us, that never ends. Jesus
incarnates that love: it is his Testament. He never ceases to love
us, to support us, to forgive us, and so it leads us down the path of
life, according to the promise He made to His disciples: 'I am with
you always, to the end of the age'. Jesus remains faithful, even when
we make mistakes, and he awaits us to forgive us: He is the face of
the merciful Father. He is faithful love”.
“The second aspect: the love of God
recreates everything, it makes all things new. … Acknowledging our
limits and weaknesses is the door that opens up to Jesus'
forgiveness, to His love that can renew us profoundly and can
recreate us. Salvation can enter into the heart when we open up to
the truth and acknowledge our errors, our sins; it is then that we
have that beautiful experience of Him, of He who came not for the
healthy, but for the sick; not for the righteous, but for sinners. …
The sign that we have become 'new' and have been transformed by God's
love is knowing how to cast aside the worn and old robes of rancour
and enmities, to re-clothe us in the clean tunic of meekness,
benevolence, service to others, and the peace of the heart proper to
the sons of God. … God's love is stable and secure … as Jesus
shows in the miracle narrated in the Gospel, when He calms the storm,
commanding the wind and the sea. The disciples are afraid as they
realise they are not able to cope, but He opens their heart to the
courage of faith. To the man who cries, 'I can't do it any more', the
Lord reaches out, offering him the rock of His love, to which anyone
can hold, sure of not falling”.
“We can ask ourselves if today we
rest firmly on the rock that is God's love; whether we live God's
faithful love for us. There is always the risk of forgetting that
great love the Lord has shown to us. We Christians too run the risk
of letting ourselves be paralysed by fears of the future and seeking
security in transient things, in a model of a closed society that
tends to exclude more than it includes”.
“May the Holy Spirit help us always
to be conscious of this love that, like a rock makes us stable and
strong in sufferings small and great; that makes us able not to close
ourselves up when faced with difficulties, to face life with courage
and to look to the future with hope. As then, on the lake of Galilee,
today too in the sea of our existence Jesus is He Who vanquishes the
forces of evil and the threats of despair. The peace He gives us is
for all; even for many brothers and sisters who flee from wars and
persecutions in search of peace and freedom”.
Following Mass, and before praying the
Angelus, the Pope recalled that the Shroud, which attracts millions
of pilgrims to Turin every year, was the icon of Jesus' love. “The
Shroud attracts us through the face and the broken body of Jesus and,
at the same time, drives us towards the face of every suffering and
unjustly persecuted person. It drives us in the same direction of the
gift of Jesus' love. 'The love of Christ impels us': these words of
St. Paul's were the motto of St. Joseph Benedict Cottolengo”.
“Recalling the apostolic zeal of many
priests, saints of this land, starting from Don Bosco, of whom we
recall the bicentenary of his birth, I greet you, priests and men and
women religious. You dedicate yourselves fully to pastoral work and
you are close to the people and their problems. I encourage you to
continue in your ministry with joy, always focusing on what is
essential in the announcement of the Gospel. And while I thank you,
brother bishops of Piedmont and Valle d'Aosta, for your presence, I
exhort you to stay near to your priests with paternal affection and
warm closeness”.
“To the Holy Virgin I commend this
city, her territory and all who live here, so that they may live in
justice, in peace and in fraternity. In particular, I entrust
families, the young, the elderly, the imprisoned and all those who
suffer, with a special thought for those who suffer from leukaemia
today, on National Day Against Leukaemia, Lymphoma, and Myeloma. May
Mary the Consoler, the Queen of Turin and Piedmont, keep firm your
faith, assure your hopes and make your charity fruitful, so as to be
'salt and light' of this blessed land, of which I am a grandson”.
Following the Marian prayer, the Pope
transferred to the archbishop's residence by car, greeting the
soldiers of the Training School, where he lunched with the detainees
of the “Ferrante-Aporti” prison for minors, some immigrants and
various people without fixed abode.
No comments:
Post a Comment