Vatican City,26 September 2015 (VIS) –
The Pope concluded his day in New York with a Holy Mass for peace and
justice in Madison Square Garden, a place synonymous with the city,
as Francis recalled: “The site of important athletic, artistic and
musical events” representing “both the variety and the common
interests of so many different people”. It isa place where “The
people who walked in darkness have seen a great light”, as
yesterday's reading from the prophet Isaiah tells. The Holy Father
dedicated his homily to this light.
“The people who walked – caught up
in their activities and routines, amid their successes and failures,
their worries and expectations – have seen a great light”,
affirmed the Pontiff, remarking that the People of God is invited in
every historical age to contemplate this light, since one of the
special qualities of the faithful is the capacity to see, amid the
shadows, the light that Christ comes to bring. “With the prophet
today we can say: the people that walks, breathes, lives amid the
smog, has seen a great light, has experienced the air of life”.
“Living in a big city is not always
easy”, commented the Pope. “A multicultural context presents many
complex challenges. Yet big cities are a reminder of the hidden
riches present in our world: in the diversity of its cultures,
traditions and historical experiences. … Big cities bring together
all the different ways which we human beings have discovered to
express the meaning of life, wherever we may be. But big cities also
conceal the faces of all those people who don’t appear to belong,
or are second-class citizens. In big cities, beneath the roar of
traffic, beneath 'the rapid pace of change', so many faces pass by
unnoticed because they have no 'right' to be there, no right to be
part of the city. They are the foreigners, the children who go
without schooling, those deprived of medical insurance, the homeless,
the forgotten elderly. These people stand at the edges of our great
avenues, in our streets, in deafening anonymity. They become part of
an urban landscape which is more and more taken for granted, in our
eyes, and especially in our hearts”.
However, “knowing that Jesus still
walks our streets, that he is part of the lives of his people, that
he is involved with us in one vast history of salvation, fills us
with … hope which liberates us from the forces pushing us to
isolation and lack of concern for the lives of others, for the life
of our city. … A hope which makes us see, even in the midst of
smog, the presence of God as he continues to walk the streets of our
city”.
“The prophet Isaiah can guide us in
this process of 'learning to see'”, continued Francis. “He
presents Jesus to us as 'Wonderful Counsellor, the Mighty God, the
Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace'”. The Pope went on to
explain each of these appellations.
“Wonderful Counsellor. The Gospels
tell us how many people came up to Jesus to ask: 'Master, what must
we do?' The first thing that Jesus does in response is to propose, to
encourage, to motivate. He keeps telling his disciples to go, to go
out. He urges them to go out and meet others where they really are,
not where we think they should be. … The Mighty God: In Jesus, God
himself became Emmanuel, God-with-us, the God who walks alongside us.
... The Everlasting Father: Go out and proclaim, go out and show that
God is in your midst as a merciful Father who himself goes out,
morning and evening, to see if his son has returned home and, as soon
as he sees him coming, runs out to embrace him. … Prince of Peace:
Go out to others and share the good news that God, our Father, walks
at our side. He frees us from anonymity, from a life of emptiness and
selfishness, and brings us to the school of encounter. He removes us
from the fray of competition and self-absorption, and he opens before
us the path of peace. That peace which is born of accepting others,
that peace which fills our hearts whenever we look upon those in need
as our brothers and sisters”.
“God is living in our cities. The
Church is living in our cities, and she wants to be like leaven in
the dough”, concluded Pope Francis. “She wants to relate to
everyone, to stand at everyone’s side, as she proclaims the marvels
of the Wonderful Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Eternal Father, the
Prince of Peace. 'The people who walked in darkness have seen a great
light'. And we ourselves are witnesses of that light”.
Today, 26 September, the Holy Father
travels to Philadelphia where he will celebrate Mass with the clergy
and religious of Pennsylvania in the Basilica of St. Peter and St.
Paul, attend a meeting with the Hispanic community and other
immigrants in Independence National Historical Park, and will
pronounce a discourse in Benjamin Franklin Parkway on the eve of the
World Meeting of Families.
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