Homily of Pope Francis - St Peter's Square - 03/27/2020

On Friday, March 27, Pope Francis presided over a prayer for the world burdened by the pandemic: an unprecedented, impressive image, which arouses a very strong emotion, that of the Holy Father, alone, in front of St. Peter's Square, completely empty... Here are some excerpts from his speech in which he meditated on the text of the calmed storm:

" Like the disciples in the Gospel we were caught off guard by an unexpected, turbulent storm.... storm exposes our vulnerability and uncovers those false and superfluous certainties around which we have constructed our daily schedules, our projects, our habits and priorities. It shows us how we have allowed to become dull and feeble the very things that nourish, sustain and strengthen our lives and our communities. The tempest lays bare all our prepackaged ideas and forgetfulness of what nourishes our people’s souls; all those attempts that anesthetize us with ways of thinking and acting that supposedly “save” us, but instead prove incapable of putting us in touch with our roots and keeping alive the memory of those who have gone before us. We deprive ourselves of the antibodies we need to confront adversity... In this world, that you love more than we do, we have gone ahead at breakneck speed, feeling powerful and able to do anything... ».

Denouncing choices that have led us to give priority to money, that make us indifferent to wars and injustices of all kinds, he continues ". We carried on regardless, thinking we would stay healthy in a world that was sick." Francis appeals to our responsibility, to our judgment to "seize this time of trial as a time of choosing... time to choose what matters and what passes away, a time to separate what is necessary from what is not " Francis reminds us that the Lord is there to enlighten and support us: " We are not self-sufficient. Let us invite Jesus into the boats of our lives. Let us hand over our fears to him so that he can conquer them...  Because this is God’s strength: turning to the good everything that happens to us, even the bad things. He brings serenity into our storms, because with God life never dies."

We are therefore called to a conversion, contemplating the cross on which Jesus was nailed: "Embracing his cross means finding the courage to embrace all the hardships of the present time, abandoning for a moment our eagerness for power and possessions in order to make room for the creativity that only the Spirit is capable of inspiring. It means finding the courage to create spaces where everyone can recognize that they are called, and to allow new forms of hospitality, fraternity and solidarity… Embracing the Lord in order to embrace hope: that is the strength of faith, which frees us from fear and gives us hope."

To download the official text of the Homily, click on the icon