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Bruxelles (Agenzia Fides) - "We all received a mission in the Church through baptism. But this mission is a gift and not a reason to boast," said Pope Francis during the Holy Mass at the King Baudouin Stadium in Brussels, which concluded the Pope's 46th foreign trip.
In front of 35,000 people and the royal family, the Pope presided over the beatification of the Venerable Servant of God Anne de Jésus and announced the start of the beatification process for King Baudouin, the monarch who abdicated for a few days because he did not want to sign the abortion law. Before the start of the mass, Pope Francis greeted those present in the Pope mobile amid applause and cheers.
In his homily, which he delivered in Italian with some additions, he addressed three key concepts: openness, communion and testimony.
Regarding the Gospel episode that takes place in Capernaum, where the disciples try to prevent a man from casting out demons in the name of the Master because, they say, "he did not follow us", Francis says: "They think: Whoever does not follow us, whoever is not ‘one of us’ cannot work miracles, he has no right to do so". But Jesus surprises them – as always, Jesus always surprises us – and they surprise them and rebuke them, inviting them to go beyond their patterns, not to be “scandalized” by God’s freedom. He says to them: “Do not stop him […] whoever is not against us is for us”.
Hence the reflection on the mission of the baptized, which is "a gift", "not a title of boasting". The community of believers, as the Bishop of Rome stresses, is not a circle of privileged people, it is a family of the saved, and we are not sent to bring the Gospel to the world for our merits, but by the grace of God, by his mercy and by the trust that, beyond all our limitations and sins, He continues to place in us with the love of the Father, seeing in us what we ourselves cannot see. For this reason he calls us, sends us and accompanies us patiently day by day.”
“If we want to cooperate, with open and caring love, in the free action of the Spirit without being a scandal, an obstacle to anyone with our presumption and our rigidity, we need to carry out our mission with humility, gratitude and joy. We must not resent it, but rather rejoice in the fact that others can also do what we do, so that the Kingdom of God may grow and so that we can all find ourselves united, one day, in the arms of the Father,” added Pope Francis.
"The word of God is clear: it says that the "cry of the poor" cannot be ignored, cannot be erased, as if they were the wrong note in the perfect concert of the world of well-being, nor can they be muffled with some form of superficial welfare," said Pope Francis. "On the contrary, they are the living voice of the Spirit, they remind us who we are – we are all poor sinners, all of us, the first self and calls us to convert."
"And this brings us to the third word: testimony," concluded Pope Francis, "We can take inspiration, in this regard, from the life and work of Anna of Jesus, Anna de Lobera, on the day of her Beatification. This woman was among the protagonists, in the Church of her time, of a great reform movement, in the footsteps of a “giant of the spirit” – Teresa of Avila."
Finally, recalling the meeting he had the previous evening at the Apostolic Nunciature in Brussels with a group of victims of abuse by Belgian clergy, the Pope said: "I felt their suffering as abused people and I repeat it here: in the Church there is room for everyone, everyone, everyone but we will all be judged and there is no room for abuse, there is no room for covering up abuse. I ask everyone: do not cover up abuse! I ask the bishops: do not cover up abuse," added the Pope, whose words were greeted with prolonged applause by the faithful present. "Evil cannot be hidden: evil must be brought out into the open, so that it is known." Francis calls for the perpetrators of abuse to be "condemned," "whether lay, priest or bishop." The abused people are a lament that rises to heaven, that touches the soul, that makes us ashamed and calls us to convert."
During the Angelus prayer after his Mass, the Pope recalled the Middle East and Lebanon in particular: “I continue to follow with sorrow and much concern the widening and intensification of the conflict in Lebanon. Lebanon is a message, but right now it is a war-torn message, and this war is having devastating effects on the population: many, too many people continue to die day after day in the Middle East!”
“We pray for the victims, for their families and we pray for peace,” Pope Francis asked. “I call on all parties to stop immediately all hostilities in Lebanon, in Gaza, in the rest of Palestine, in Israel. Release the hostages and allow humanitarian aid," said the Pope, who also asked for prayers for Ukraine: "Let us not forget war-torn Ukraine." (F.B.) (Agenzia Fides, 29/9/2024)
