"Contemplation,
proximity and abundance are the three words upon which Pope Francis
centred his homily on Tuesday at Mass at the Casa Santa Marta.
Speaking
to those present for the morning celebration, the Pope reiterated that
one cannot understand God solely with the mind and pointed out that God
challenges us by "meddling" in our lives to heal our wounds, just as
Jesus did.
Intelligence – the Pope said – is not sufficient to
enter into the mystery of God. You need contemplation, proximity and
abundance.
Listen to Linda Bordoni's report... 
Drawing
his inspiration from the Letter of St. Paul to the Romans, in today's scriptures, Pope Francis
said there is only one way we can understand they the mystery of our
salvation, and that is: on our knees, in contemplation.
Intelligence
is not enough – he added: “ You need contemplation, intelligence,
heart, knees praying… all together: this is how we enter into the
mystery”.
And the Pope went on to speak about closeness – or
proximity. “One man created sin, Francis explained, and one man saved
us”. God is close, he is close to our history.
From the very first
moment when he chose our father, Abraham, he walked with His people. And
Jesus himself – he said - had a craftsman’s job: a worker who uses his
hands. The image that comes to mind – the Pope continued – is that of a
nurse in a hospital who heals our wounds, one at a time.
Just like God –
he explained – who gets involved, who meddles in our miseries, He gets
close to our wounds and heals them with his hands. And to actually have
hands – he continued – He became man. So God saves us not only by
decree: “He saves us with tenderness and with caresses. He saves us with
His life for us.”
And then Pope Francis spoke of “abundance”.
Where sins abound – he said – grace abounds. Each of us knows his
miseries and knows how they abound.
But God’s challenge is to defeat
them and heal the wounds as Jesus did with His superabundance of grace
and love.
And Francis pointed out that although some do not like to
admit it: those who are closest to the heart of Jesus are sinners,
because He goes to look for them, calls them and heals them, while those
who are in good health do not need a doctor: “ I have come to heal, to
save."
The Pope concluded his homily reflecting on how some
saints say that one of the ugliest sins is distrust: distrust in God.
“But how can we be wary of a God who is so close, so good, who prefers
the sinful heart ?" .
This mystery – he said - is not easy to understand
with intelligence, but with the help of these three words:
"contemplation, proximity and abundance” because God "always wins with
the superabundance of his grace, with His tenderness ", with His wealth
of mercy."
Related to this homily
and worth revisiting !
This quotation above is taken from the original dialogue between Francis and La Repubblica's founder, Eugenio Scalfari, on 1st October, also available on my sidebar under the title "How The Church Will Change."
Edited extract is below. Scalfari's comments are in bold large font.
Can I ask you, Your Holiness, which saints you feel closest to in your soul, those who have shaped your religious experience?
"St.
Paul is the one who laid down the cornerstones of our religion and our
creed. You cannot be a conscious Christian without St. Paul. He
translated the teachings of Christ into a doctrinal structure that, even
with the additions of a vast number of thinkers, theologians and
pastors, has resisted and still exists after two thousand years. Then
there are Augustine, Benedict and Thomas and Ignatius. Naturally,
Francis. Do I need to explain why?"
.......... You explained the importance of Paul and
the role he played, but I want to know which of those you named feels
closer to your soul?
"You're asking me for a ranking, but
classifications are for sports or things like that. I could tell you the
name of the best footballers in Argentina. But the saints..."
They say joke with knaves, you know the proverb?"Exactly.
But I'm not trying to avoid your question, because you didn't ask me
for ranking of their cultural and religious importance but who is
closest to my soul. So I'd say: Augustine and Francis."
Not Ignatius, from whose order you come?"Ignatius,
for understandable reasons, is the saint I know better than any other.
He founded our Order. I'd like to remind you that Carlo Maria Martini
also came from that order, someone who is very dear to me and also to
you.
Jesuits were and still are the leavening - not the only one but
perhaps the most effective - of Catholicism: culture, teaching,
missionary work, loyalty to the Pope. But Ignatius who founded the
Society, was also a reformer and a mystic. Especially a mystic."
And you think that mystics have been important for the Church?"They have been fundamental. A religion without mystics is a philosophy."
Do you have a mystical vocation?"What do you think?"
I wouldn't think so.
"You're
probably right. I love the mystics; Francis also was in many aspects of
his life, but I do not think I have the vocation and then we must
understand the deep meaning of that word. The mystic manages to strip
himself of action, of facts, objectives and even the pastoral mission
and rises until he reaches communion with the Beatitudes. Brief moments
but which fill an entire life."
Has that ever happened to you?
"Rarely.
For example, when the conclave elected me Pope. Before I accepted I
asked if I could spend a few minutes in the room next to the one with
the balcony overlooking the square. My head was completely empty and I
was seized by a great anxiety. To make it go way and relax I closed my
eyes and made every thought disappear, even the thought of refusing to
accept the position, as the liturgical procedure allows. I closed my
eyes and I no longer had any anxiety or emotion. At a certain point I
was filled with a great light. It lasted a moment, but to me it seemed
very long. Then the light faded, I got up suddenly and walked into the
room where the cardinals were waiting and the table on which was the act
of acceptance. I signed it, the Cardinal Camerlengo countersigned it
and then on the balcony there was the '"Habemus Papam"........
We
were talking about the saints that you feel closest to your soul and we
were left with Augustine. Will you tell me why you feel very close to
him?
"Even for my predecessor Augustine is a reference
point. That saint went through many vicissitudes in his life and changed
his doctrinal position several times. He also had harsh words for the
Jews, which I never shared. He wrote many books and what I think is most
revealing of his intellectual and spiritual intimacy are the
"Confessions", which also contain some manifestations of mysticism, but
he is not, as many would argue, a continuation of Paul. Indeed, he sees
the Church and the faith in very different ways than Paul, perhaps four
centuries passed between one and the other. "
What is the difference, Your Holiness?
"For
me it lies in two substantial aspects. Augustine feels powerless in the
face of the immensity of God and the tasks that a Christian and a
bishop has to fulfill. In fact he was by no means powerless, but he felt
that his soul was always less than he wanted and needed it to be. And
then the grace dispensed by the Lord as a basic element of faith. Of
life. Of the meaning of life. Someone who is not touched by grace may be
a person without blemish and without fear, as they say, but he will
never be like a person who has touched grace. This is Augustine's
insight."
Do you feel touched by grace?
"No
one can know that. Grace is not part of consciousness, it is the amount
of light in our souls, not knowledge nor reason. Even you, without
knowing it, could be touched by grace."
Without faith? A non-believer?"Grace regards the soul."
I do not believe in the soul."You do not believe in it but you have one."
Your Holiness, you said that you have no intention of trying to convert me and I do not think you would succeed."We cannot know that, but I don't have any such intention."
And St. Francis?
"He's
great because he is everything. He is a man who wants to do things,
wants to build, he founded an order and its rules, he is an itinerant
and a missionary, a poet and a prophet, he is mystical. He found evil in
himself and rooted it out. He loved nature, animals, the blade of grass
on the lawn and the birds flying in the sky. But above all he loved
people, children, old people, women. He is the most shining example of
that agape we talked about earlier."
Your Holiness is
right, the description is perfect. But why did none of your predecessors
ever choose that name? And I believe that after you no one else will
choose it.
 |
| Francis visits the Muslim Sultan |
"We do not know that, let's not speculate about
the future. True, no one chose it before me. Here we face the problem of
problems.............
"Francis wanted a
mendicant order and an itinerant one. Missionaries who wanted to meet,
listen, talk, help, to spread faith and love. Especially love.
And he
dreamed of a poor Church that would take care of others, receive
material aid and use it to support others, with no concern for itself.
" 800 years have passed since then and times have changed, but the ideal
of a missionary, poor Church is still more than valid. This is still the
Church that Jesus and his disciples preached about."
It's interesting that Pope Francis mentioned mendicant orders.
There's a nice short summary of what "mendicant" meant in the 12th century here
and fascinating to wonder how Pope Francis might continue to expand on that vision in the 21st Century.
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