Pope Francis says "Only in adoration, only before the Lord can the taste and passion for evangelization be recovered....Mother Teresa...never gave up adoration..." to Religious in Portugal - FULL TEXT + Video
.png)
In Portugal, after leaving the Apostolic Nunciature, the Holy Father Francis went to the Mosteiro dos Jerónimos in Lisbon for the recitation of Vespers with the Bishops, Priests, Deacons, consecrated men and women, seminarians and pastoral workers.
Upon his arrival, at 18.30, the Pope was welcomed at the main entrance by the Patriarch of Lisbon, Em.mo Card. Manuel Clemente, by the President of the Portuguese Episcopal Conference and Bishop of Leiria-Fatima, H.E. Msgr. José Ornelas Carvalho, and by the parish priest. Then the Holy Father crossed the central nave and reached the altar.
After a brief welcome from the President of the Episcopal Conference of Portugal, the Pope presided over the celebration of Vespers during which he delivered the homily.
At the end, the Holy Father left the Mosteiro dos Jerónimos and returned by car to the Apostolic Nunciature in Lisbon, where he met a group of 13 people, victims of abuse by members of the clergy, accompanied by some representatives of Church institutions Portuguese in charge of the protection of minors. The meeting took place in an atmosphere of intense listening and lasted more than an hour, concluding shortly after 20.15. FULL TEXT homily that the Pope pronounced during the recitation of Vespers:
Dear brother bishops, dear priests, deacons, consecrated men and women, seminarians, dear pastoral agents, brothers and sisters: Good afternoon!
I am happy to be among you to experience World Youth Day together with so many young people, but also to share your ecclesial journey, your weariness and your hopes. I thank Bishop José Ornelas Carvalho for the words he addressed to me; I wish to pray with you that, as he said, we can be, together with the young, bold in embracing "God's dream and finding ways for joyful, generous and transforming participation, for the Church and for humanity." And this is not a joke, it is a program.
The beauty of this country surrounds me, a land of passage between the past and the future, a place of ancient traditions and great changes, adorned by exuberant valleys, golden beaches that overlook the limitless beauty of the ocean, which borders Portugal. This reminds me of the environment of the call of Jesus to his first disciples, on the shores of the Sea of Galilee. I would like to focus on this call, which highlights what we have just heard in the short reading for Vespers: the Lord has saved us, he has called us not because of our works, but because of his grace (cf. 2 Tm 1,9 ). This happened in the life of the first disciples when Jesus, passing by, “saw two boats by the shore of the lake; the fishermen had gone down and were washing the nets" (Lk 5,2). Then Jesus got into Simon's boat and, after speaking to the crowd, he changed the lives of those fishermen by inviting them to row out into the deep and cast their nets. We immediately see a contrast: on the one hand, the fishermen get out of the boat to wash the nets, that is, to clean them, keep them well and return home; on the other hand, Jesus gets into the boat and invites to cast the nets again for fishing. They highlight the differences: the disciples go down, Jesus goes up; they want to keep the nets, He wants them to be thrown back into the sea for fishing.
First of all, there are the fishermen who get out of the boat to wash the nets. This is the scene that appears before the eyes of Jesus and He stops precisely there. He had recently begun his preaching in the synagogue of Nazareth, but his compatriots had pushed him out of the city and had even tried to kill him (cf. Lk 4,28-30). Then He left the sacred place and began to preach the Word among the people, in the streets where the women and men of his time toiled every day. What interests Christ is to bring the closeness of God, precisely to the places and situations where people live, struggle, hope, sometimes holding failures and frustrations on their hands, just like those fishermen who had not caught fish during the night. nothing. Jesus tenderly looks at Simon and his companions who, tired and embittered, wash their nets, performing a repetitive, automatic gesture, but also full of fatigue and resignation: there was nothing left but to return home empty-handed.
Sometimes, in our ecclesial journey, we can experience a similar weariness. Fatigue. Someone said: "I fear the tiredness of the good." A weariness when it seems to us that we only have empty nets in our hands. It is a quite widespread feeling in countries with an ancient Christian tradition, affected by many social and cultural changes, and increasingly marked by secularism, by indifference to God and by a growing distancing from the practice of the faith. And here is the danger that worldliness enters. And this is often accentuated by the disappointment or anger that some feel in relation to the Church, in some cases because of our bad testimony and the scandals that have disfigured her face, and that call for a humble, constant purification, starting from the cry of pain of the victims, who must always be welcomed and listened to. But when one feels discouraged - and each one of you thinks about when they felt discouraged - the risk is getting off the boat and getting caught in the nets of resignation and pessimism. Instead, let us trust that Jesus continues to reach out, holding his beloved Bride. Let us take our efforts and our tears to the Lord, to be able to face pastoral and spiritual situations, dialoguing with each other with an open heart to experience new paths to follow. When we are discouraged, conscious or not entirely conscious, we "retire", we "retire" from apostolic zeal, we gradually lose it, and we become "functionaries of the sacred". It is very sad when a person who has consecrated his life to God becomes an "official", a mere administrator of things. It is very sad.
Indeed, as soon as the apostles go down to wash the instruments used, Jesus gets into the boat and then invites them to cast the nets again. At the moment of discouragement, the moment of "retirement", let us let Jesus get on the boat again, with the illusion of the first time, that illusion that must be revived, reconquered, re-edited. He comes looking for us in our solitudes, in our crises, to help us start over. The spirituality of the new beginning. Don't be afraid of him. Such is life: fall and start over, get bored and receive joy again. Receive that hand of Jesus. He, too, today he passes through the shores of existence to rekindle hope and to say to us too, like Simon and the others: "Put out into the deep and let down the nets" (Lk 5,4). And when the illusion is lost, we get a thousand justifications for not casting the nets, but above all that bitter resignation, which is like a worm that eats away at the soul. Brothers and sisters, what we are living through is certainly a difficult time, we know it, but today the Lord asks this Church: “Do you want to get off the boat and sink into disappointment, or let me come up and allow it to be the novelty once again? of my Word the one that takes the helm? To you, priest, consecrated man, consecrated woman, bishop: are you satisfied only with the past behind you or do you dare to cast your fishing nets again with enthusiasm? This is what the Lord asks of us: that we revive our concern for the Gospel.
When one gets used to it and gets bored and the mission becomes a kind of "job", it is time to give way to that second call of Jesus, that he calls us again, always. He calls us to make us walk, he calls us to rebuild ourselves. Do not be afraid of that second call from Jesus. It is not an illusion, it is He who knocks on the door again. And we can say that this is the "good" restlessness, when we allow ourselves to be seduced by the second call of Jesus, that is the good restlessness, that the immensity of the ocean gives you Portuguese: to go beyond the shore, not to conquer the world -not even to fish for cod-, but to encourage it with the consolation and joy of the Gospel. In this perspective, one can read the words of one of its great missionaries, Father António Vieira, called “Paiaçu”, great father. He said that God has given them a small land to be born; but, making them lean out to the ocean, he has given them the whole world to die: «To be born, little land; to die, all the earth; to be born, Portugal; to die, the world» (A. Vieira, Homilies, Vol. III, Volume VII, Porto 1959, p. 69). Casting the nets again and embracing the world with the hope of the Gospel: this is what we are called to do! It is not a time to stop, it is not a time to give up, it is not a time to moor the boat on land or to look back; we do not have to avoid this time because it scares us and take refuge in forms and styles of the past. No, this is the time of grace that the Lord gives us to venture into the sea of evangelization and mission.
But, in order to do so, we also need to make decisions. I would like to indicate three decisions, inspired by the Gospel.
First, to sail out to sea. That magnanimity. Don't be faint hearted! Sailing out to sea, to throw the nets back into the sea, it is necessary to leave the shore of disappointments and immobility, to distance ourselves from that sweet sadness and that ironic cynicism that so often assail us in the face of difficulties. Sweet sadness, ironic cynicism. Let's examine the conscience about this. To recover the illusion, but in a second edition of the illusion, the illusion already mature, the illusion that comes from failure or boredom. It is not easy to recover the adult illusion. It is necessary to do so in order to move from defeatism to faith, like Simon who, even having worked in vain all night, affirmed: "If you say so, I will cast the nets" (Lk 5,5). But, to trust every day in the Lord and in his Word, words are not enough, a lot of prayer is needed. I would like to ask a question here, but each one answers it inside: how do I pray? Like a parrot, blah, blah, blah, or napping in front of the Tabernacle because I don't know how to talk to the Lord? I pray? how do i pray Only in adoration, only before the Lord can the taste and passion for evangelization be recovered. And curiously, we have lost the prayer of adoration; and everyone, priests, bishops, consecrated women, have to recover it, that being in silence before the Lord. Mother Teresa, involved in so many things in life, never gave up adoration, even in moments when her faith wavered and she wondered if it was all true or not. Moment of darkness, which Teresita de Jesús also had. So, in prayer the temptation to carry out a "pastoral of nostalgia and regrets" is overcome. In a convent there was a nun -this is historical- who lamented everything, and I don't know what name she had, but the nuns changed her name and called her “Sister Lamentela”. How many times do we transform our impotence, our disappointments into mind! And leaving those regrets, the strength is taken again to sail into the sea, without ideologies, without worldliness. The spiritual worldliness that creeps into us and from which clericalism is engendered. Clericalism not only of priests: clericalized laymen are worse than priests. That clericalism that ruins us. And as a great spiritual teacher said, this spiritual worldliness -provoked by clericalism- is one of the most serious evils that can happen to the Church. Overcoming these difficulties without ideologies, without worldliness, animated by a single desire: that the Gospel reach everyone. You have many examples on this path and, seeing that we are surrounded by young people, I would like to recall a young man from Lisbon, Saint John of Brito, he was a boy from here, who centuries ago, in the midst of many difficulties, left for India. and he began to speak and dress in the same way as those he met in order to announce Jesus. We too are called to immerse our nets in the time in which we live, to dialogue with everyone, to make the Gospel understandable, even when to do so we may run the risk of a storm. Like the young people who come here from all over the world to brave the giant waves, let us also go deep into the sea without fear; let us not be afraid to face the open sea, because in the midst of the storm and contrary winds, Jesus comes and comes to meet us and tells us: «Calm down, it's me; do not be afraid" (Mt 14:27). How many times have we had that experience? Everyone is answered inside. And if we haven't had it, it's because something went wrong during the storm.
A second decision: carry out the pastoral ministry together, all together. In the text, Jesus entrusts Peter with the task of sailing into the deep, but then he speaks in the plural, saying "cast the nets" (Lk 5,4). Pedro guides the boat, but everyone is in the boat and everyone is called to cast the nets. All. And when they catch a large quantity of fish, they do not believe that they could do it alone, they do not administer the gift as private possession and property, but rather —says the Gospel— “they signaled to their companions in the other boat to come and help them” ( Lk 5,7). And so they filled two boats with fish. One means loneliness, closure, pretense of self-sufficiency, two means relationship. The Church is synodal, it is communion, mutual help, a common path. This is what the current Synod is aiming at, which will have its first assembly moment next October. There must be room for everyone in the boat of the Church: all the baptized are called to climb into it and cast the nets, committing themselves personally to the proclamation of the Gospel. And don't forget this word: everyone, everyone, everyone. It touches my heart a lot when I have to say how to open apostolic perspectives, that passage of the Gospel in which they do not go to the son's wedding party and everything is prepared. And what does the man say, the man of the party, what does he say? “Go to the confines and bring everyone, everyone, everyone, everyone: healthy, sick, young and old, good and sinful. All". That the Church is not a custom to select those who enter and not. Everyone, each one with his life on his back, with his sins, but as he is, before God, as he is, before life... Everyone. All. Let's not put customs in the Church. All. And it is a great challenge, especially in contexts in which priests and consecrated persons are tired because, while pastoral demands increase, they are fewer and fewer. However, in this situation we can see an opportunity to involve the laity with fraternal impulse and healthy pastoral creativity. The networks of the first disciples, then, become an image of the Church, which is a human, spiritual and pastoral “network of relationships”. If there is no dialogue, if there is no co-responsibility, if there is no participation, the Church ages. I would like to say it like this: never a bishop without the presbytery of him and the People of God; never a priest without his companions; and all united as Church —priests, men and women religious, and lay faithful—, never without others, never without the world. Without worldliness, yes, but not without the world. In the Church we help each other, we support each other and we are called to spread a constructive climate of fraternity outside as well. On the other hand, Saint Peter writes that we are the living stones used for the construction of a spiritual building (cf. 1 P 2,5). I would like to add: you, the Portuguese faithful, are also a "calçada", you are the valuable stones of that welcoming and resplendent ground on which the Gospel needs to walk; not a stone can be missing, otherwise it is immediately noticeable. This is the Church that, with God's help, we are called to build!
Finally, the third decision: to be fishers of men. Do not be afraid. That is not proselytizing, it is announcing the Gospel that provokes. In this beautiful image of Jesus, being fishers of men, Jesus entrusts the disciples with the mission of navigating the sea of the world. Frequently the sea, in Scripture, is associated with the place of evil and unfavorable forces that men cannot control. For this reason, fishing people and pulling them out of the water means helping them to get out of the abyss where they had sunk, saving them from the evil that threatens to drown them, resurrecting them from all forms of death. But this without proselytism, but with love. And one of the signs of some ecclesial movements that are going wrong is proselytizing. When an ecclesial movement or a diocese, or a bishop, or a priest, or a nun, or a layman proselytizes, that is not Christian. Christian is inviting, welcoming, helping, but without proselytizing. The Gospel, in fact, is a proclamation of life in the sea of death, of freedom in the whirlwinds of slavery, of light in the abyss of darkness. As Saint Ambrose affirms, “the instruments of apostolic fishing are like nets; in effect, the nets do not cause the death of the one who is trapped, but they keep him alive, they take him out of the abysses into the light» (Exp. Luc. IV, 68-79). There are many chasms in today's society, also here in Portugal, everywhere. We have the feeling that enthusiasm is lacking, the courage to dream, the strength to face challenges, the confidence in the future; and, meanwhile, we navigate in uncertainty, in precariousness, especially economic, in the poverty of social friendship, in the lack of hope. We, as the Church, have been entrusted with the task of immersing ourselves in the waters of this sea, casting the net of the Gospel, without pointing fingers, without accusing, but bringing to the people of our time a proposal for life, that of Jesus: bring the acceptance of the Gospel, invite them to the party, to a multicultural society; bring the closeness of the Father to situations of precariousness, of increasing poverty, especially among the young; bring the love of Christ where the family is fragile and relationships are wounded; transmit the joy of the Spirit where demoralization and fatalism reign. One of your poets wrote: «To reach infinity, and I believe we can reach there, we must have a port, only one, firm, and depart from it towards the Indefinite» (F. Pessoa, Livro do Desassossego, Lisbon 1998, 247). We dream of the Portuguese Church as a "safe harbor" for those who face the voyages, shipwrecks and storms of life!
Dear brothers and sisters: to all, lay people, men and women religious, priests, bishops, to all, to all: do not be afraid, cast the nets. Do not live accusing "this is a sin" until it is not a sin. Everyone come, then we'll talk, but first feel the invitation of Jesus and then comes repentance, then comes that closeness of Jesus. Please, do not turn the Church into a customs house: here you enter, the just, those who are well, those who are well married and all the rest out there. No. The Church is not that. Righteous and sinners, good and bad, all, all, all. And then, may the Lord help us to settle that matter. But all. I thank you from the bottom of my heart, brothers and sisters, for this listening -which was boring around there-; I thank you for everything you do, the example, especially the hidden example, and the perseverance, getting up every day to start over or to continue what you started. As you say: Muito obrigado! For what they do… And I entrust them to the Virgin of Fatima, to the custody of the Angel of Portugal and to the protection of her great saints; especially, here in Lisbon, Saint Anthony, a tireless apostle - who is stolen from him by those of Padua! -, inspired preacher, disciple of the Gospel attentive to the ills of society and full of compassion for the poor; may San Antonio intercede for you and reach you the joy of a new miraculous fishing. Then they tell me. And please don't forget to pray for me. Thank you.
I am happy to be among you to experience World Youth Day together with so many young people, but also to share your ecclesial journey, your weariness and your hopes. I thank Bishop José Ornelas Carvalho for the words he addressed to me; I wish to pray with you that, as he said, we can be, together with the young, bold in embracing "God's dream and finding ways for joyful, generous and transforming participation, for the Church and for humanity." And this is not a joke, it is a program.
The beauty of this country surrounds me, a land of passage between the past and the future, a place of ancient traditions and great changes, adorned by exuberant valleys, golden beaches that overlook the limitless beauty of the ocean, which borders Portugal. This reminds me of the environment of the call of Jesus to his first disciples, on the shores of the Sea of Galilee. I would like to focus on this call, which highlights what we have just heard in the short reading for Vespers: the Lord has saved us, he has called us not because of our works, but because of his grace (cf. 2 Tm 1,9 ). This happened in the life of the first disciples when Jesus, passing by, “saw two boats by the shore of the lake; the fishermen had gone down and were washing the nets" (Lk 5,2). Then Jesus got into Simon's boat and, after speaking to the crowd, he changed the lives of those fishermen by inviting them to row out into the deep and cast their nets. We immediately see a contrast: on the one hand, the fishermen get out of the boat to wash the nets, that is, to clean them, keep them well and return home; on the other hand, Jesus gets into the boat and invites to cast the nets again for fishing. They highlight the differences: the disciples go down, Jesus goes up; they want to keep the nets, He wants them to be thrown back into the sea for fishing.
First of all, there are the fishermen who get out of the boat to wash the nets. This is the scene that appears before the eyes of Jesus and He stops precisely there. He had recently begun his preaching in the synagogue of Nazareth, but his compatriots had pushed him out of the city and had even tried to kill him (cf. Lk 4,28-30). Then He left the sacred place and began to preach the Word among the people, in the streets where the women and men of his time toiled every day. What interests Christ is to bring the closeness of God, precisely to the places and situations where people live, struggle, hope, sometimes holding failures and frustrations on their hands, just like those fishermen who had not caught fish during the night. nothing. Jesus tenderly looks at Simon and his companions who, tired and embittered, wash their nets, performing a repetitive, automatic gesture, but also full of fatigue and resignation: there was nothing left but to return home empty-handed.
Sometimes, in our ecclesial journey, we can experience a similar weariness. Fatigue. Someone said: "I fear the tiredness of the good." A weariness when it seems to us that we only have empty nets in our hands. It is a quite widespread feeling in countries with an ancient Christian tradition, affected by many social and cultural changes, and increasingly marked by secularism, by indifference to God and by a growing distancing from the practice of the faith. And here is the danger that worldliness enters. And this is often accentuated by the disappointment or anger that some feel in relation to the Church, in some cases because of our bad testimony and the scandals that have disfigured her face, and that call for a humble, constant purification, starting from the cry of pain of the victims, who must always be welcomed and listened to. But when one feels discouraged - and each one of you thinks about when they felt discouraged - the risk is getting off the boat and getting caught in the nets of resignation and pessimism. Instead, let us trust that Jesus continues to reach out, holding his beloved Bride. Let us take our efforts and our tears to the Lord, to be able to face pastoral and spiritual situations, dialoguing with each other with an open heart to experience new paths to follow. When we are discouraged, conscious or not entirely conscious, we "retire", we "retire" from apostolic zeal, we gradually lose it, and we become "functionaries of the sacred". It is very sad when a person who has consecrated his life to God becomes an "official", a mere administrator of things. It is very sad.
Indeed, as soon as the apostles go down to wash the instruments used, Jesus gets into the boat and then invites them to cast the nets again. At the moment of discouragement, the moment of "retirement", let us let Jesus get on the boat again, with the illusion of the first time, that illusion that must be revived, reconquered, re-edited. He comes looking for us in our solitudes, in our crises, to help us start over. The spirituality of the new beginning. Don't be afraid of him. Such is life: fall and start over, get bored and receive joy again. Receive that hand of Jesus. He, too, today he passes through the shores of existence to rekindle hope and to say to us too, like Simon and the others: "Put out into the deep and let down the nets" (Lk 5,4). And when the illusion is lost, we get a thousand justifications for not casting the nets, but above all that bitter resignation, which is like a worm that eats away at the soul. Brothers and sisters, what we are living through is certainly a difficult time, we know it, but today the Lord asks this Church: “Do you want to get off the boat and sink into disappointment, or let me come up and allow it to be the novelty once again? of my Word the one that takes the helm? To you, priest, consecrated man, consecrated woman, bishop: are you satisfied only with the past behind you or do you dare to cast your fishing nets again with enthusiasm? This is what the Lord asks of us: that we revive our concern for the Gospel.
When one gets used to it and gets bored and the mission becomes a kind of "job", it is time to give way to that second call of Jesus, that he calls us again, always. He calls us to make us walk, he calls us to rebuild ourselves. Do not be afraid of that second call from Jesus. It is not an illusion, it is He who knocks on the door again. And we can say that this is the "good" restlessness, when we allow ourselves to be seduced by the second call of Jesus, that is the good restlessness, that the immensity of the ocean gives you Portuguese: to go beyond the shore, not to conquer the world -not even to fish for cod-, but to encourage it with the consolation and joy of the Gospel. In this perspective, one can read the words of one of its great missionaries, Father António Vieira, called “Paiaçu”, great father. He said that God has given them a small land to be born; but, making them lean out to the ocean, he has given them the whole world to die: «To be born, little land; to die, all the earth; to be born, Portugal; to die, the world» (A. Vieira, Homilies, Vol. III, Volume VII, Porto 1959, p. 69). Casting the nets again and embracing the world with the hope of the Gospel: this is what we are called to do! It is not a time to stop, it is not a time to give up, it is not a time to moor the boat on land or to look back; we do not have to avoid this time because it scares us and take refuge in forms and styles of the past. No, this is the time of grace that the Lord gives us to venture into the sea of evangelization and mission.
But, in order to do so, we also need to make decisions. I would like to indicate three decisions, inspired by the Gospel.
First, to sail out to sea. That magnanimity. Don't be faint hearted! Sailing out to sea, to throw the nets back into the sea, it is necessary to leave the shore of disappointments and immobility, to distance ourselves from that sweet sadness and that ironic cynicism that so often assail us in the face of difficulties. Sweet sadness, ironic cynicism. Let's examine the conscience about this. To recover the illusion, but in a second edition of the illusion, the illusion already mature, the illusion that comes from failure or boredom. It is not easy to recover the adult illusion. It is necessary to do so in order to move from defeatism to faith, like Simon who, even having worked in vain all night, affirmed: "If you say so, I will cast the nets" (Lk 5,5). But, to trust every day in the Lord and in his Word, words are not enough, a lot of prayer is needed. I would like to ask a question here, but each one answers it inside: how do I pray? Like a parrot, blah, blah, blah, or napping in front of the Tabernacle because I don't know how to talk to the Lord? I pray? how do i pray Only in adoration, only before the Lord can the taste and passion for evangelization be recovered. And curiously, we have lost the prayer of adoration; and everyone, priests, bishops, consecrated women, have to recover it, that being in silence before the Lord. Mother Teresa, involved in so many things in life, never gave up adoration, even in moments when her faith wavered and she wondered if it was all true or not. Moment of darkness, which Teresita de Jesús also had. So, in prayer the temptation to carry out a "pastoral of nostalgia and regrets" is overcome. In a convent there was a nun -this is historical- who lamented everything, and I don't know what name she had, but the nuns changed her name and called her “Sister Lamentela”. How many times do we transform our impotence, our disappointments into mind! And leaving those regrets, the strength is taken again to sail into the sea, without ideologies, without worldliness. The spiritual worldliness that creeps into us and from which clericalism is engendered. Clericalism not only of priests: clericalized laymen are worse than priests. That clericalism that ruins us. And as a great spiritual teacher said, this spiritual worldliness -provoked by clericalism- is one of the most serious evils that can happen to the Church. Overcoming these difficulties without ideologies, without worldliness, animated by a single desire: that the Gospel reach everyone. You have many examples on this path and, seeing that we are surrounded by young people, I would like to recall a young man from Lisbon, Saint John of Brito, he was a boy from here, who centuries ago, in the midst of many difficulties, left for India. and he began to speak and dress in the same way as those he met in order to announce Jesus. We too are called to immerse our nets in the time in which we live, to dialogue with everyone, to make the Gospel understandable, even when to do so we may run the risk of a storm. Like the young people who come here from all over the world to brave the giant waves, let us also go deep into the sea without fear; let us not be afraid to face the open sea, because in the midst of the storm and contrary winds, Jesus comes and comes to meet us and tells us: «Calm down, it's me; do not be afraid" (Mt 14:27). How many times have we had that experience? Everyone is answered inside. And if we haven't had it, it's because something went wrong during the storm.
A second decision: carry out the pastoral ministry together, all together. In the text, Jesus entrusts Peter with the task of sailing into the deep, but then he speaks in the plural, saying "cast the nets" (Lk 5,4). Pedro guides the boat, but everyone is in the boat and everyone is called to cast the nets. All. And when they catch a large quantity of fish, they do not believe that they could do it alone, they do not administer the gift as private possession and property, but rather —says the Gospel— “they signaled to their companions in the other boat to come and help them” ( Lk 5,7). And so they filled two boats with fish. One means loneliness, closure, pretense of self-sufficiency, two means relationship. The Church is synodal, it is communion, mutual help, a common path. This is what the current Synod is aiming at, which will have its first assembly moment next October. There must be room for everyone in the boat of the Church: all the baptized are called to climb into it and cast the nets, committing themselves personally to the proclamation of the Gospel. And don't forget this word: everyone, everyone, everyone. It touches my heart a lot when I have to say how to open apostolic perspectives, that passage of the Gospel in which they do not go to the son's wedding party and everything is prepared. And what does the man say, the man of the party, what does he say? “Go to the confines and bring everyone, everyone, everyone, everyone: healthy, sick, young and old, good and sinful. All". That the Church is not a custom to select those who enter and not. Everyone, each one with his life on his back, with his sins, but as he is, before God, as he is, before life... Everyone. All. Let's not put customs in the Church. All. And it is a great challenge, especially in contexts in which priests and consecrated persons are tired because, while pastoral demands increase, they are fewer and fewer. However, in this situation we can see an opportunity to involve the laity with fraternal impulse and healthy pastoral creativity. The networks of the first disciples, then, become an image of the Church, which is a human, spiritual and pastoral “network of relationships”. If there is no dialogue, if there is no co-responsibility, if there is no participation, the Church ages. I would like to say it like this: never a bishop without the presbytery of him and the People of God; never a priest without his companions; and all united as Church —priests, men and women religious, and lay faithful—, never without others, never without the world. Without worldliness, yes, but not without the world. In the Church we help each other, we support each other and we are called to spread a constructive climate of fraternity outside as well. On the other hand, Saint Peter writes that we are the living stones used for the construction of a spiritual building (cf. 1 P 2,5). I would like to add: you, the Portuguese faithful, are also a "calçada", you are the valuable stones of that welcoming and resplendent ground on which the Gospel needs to walk; not a stone can be missing, otherwise it is immediately noticeable. This is the Church that, with God's help, we are called to build!
Finally, the third decision: to be fishers of men. Do not be afraid. That is not proselytizing, it is announcing the Gospel that provokes. In this beautiful image of Jesus, being fishers of men, Jesus entrusts the disciples with the mission of navigating the sea of the world. Frequently the sea, in Scripture, is associated with the place of evil and unfavorable forces that men cannot control. For this reason, fishing people and pulling them out of the water means helping them to get out of the abyss where they had sunk, saving them from the evil that threatens to drown them, resurrecting them from all forms of death. But this without proselytism, but with love. And one of the signs of some ecclesial movements that are going wrong is proselytizing. When an ecclesial movement or a diocese, or a bishop, or a priest, or a nun, or a layman proselytizes, that is not Christian. Christian is inviting, welcoming, helping, but without proselytizing. The Gospel, in fact, is a proclamation of life in the sea of death, of freedom in the whirlwinds of slavery, of light in the abyss of darkness. As Saint Ambrose affirms, “the instruments of apostolic fishing are like nets; in effect, the nets do not cause the death of the one who is trapped, but they keep him alive, they take him out of the abysses into the light» (Exp. Luc. IV, 68-79). There are many chasms in today's society, also here in Portugal, everywhere. We have the feeling that enthusiasm is lacking, the courage to dream, the strength to face challenges, the confidence in the future; and, meanwhile, we navigate in uncertainty, in precariousness, especially economic, in the poverty of social friendship, in the lack of hope. We, as the Church, have been entrusted with the task of immersing ourselves in the waters of this sea, casting the net of the Gospel, without pointing fingers, without accusing, but bringing to the people of our time a proposal for life, that of Jesus: bring the acceptance of the Gospel, invite them to the party, to a multicultural society; bring the closeness of the Father to situations of precariousness, of increasing poverty, especially among the young; bring the love of Christ where the family is fragile and relationships are wounded; transmit the joy of the Spirit where demoralization and fatalism reign. One of your poets wrote: «To reach infinity, and I believe we can reach there, we must have a port, only one, firm, and depart from it towards the Indefinite» (F. Pessoa, Livro do Desassossego, Lisbon 1998, 247). We dream of the Portuguese Church as a "safe harbor" for those who face the voyages, shipwrecks and storms of life!
Dear brothers and sisters: to all, lay people, men and women religious, priests, bishops, to all, to all: do not be afraid, cast the nets. Do not live accusing "this is a sin" until it is not a sin. Everyone come, then we'll talk, but first feel the invitation of Jesus and then comes repentance, then comes that closeness of Jesus. Please, do not turn the Church into a customs house: here you enter, the just, those who are well, those who are well married and all the rest out there. No. The Church is not that. Righteous and sinners, good and bad, all, all, all. And then, may the Lord help us to settle that matter. But all. I thank you from the bottom of my heart, brothers and sisters, for this listening -which was boring around there-; I thank you for everything you do, the example, especially the hidden example, and the perseverance, getting up every day to start over or to continue what you started. As you say: Muito obrigado! For what they do… And I entrust them to the Virgin of Fatima, to the custody of the Angel of Portugal and to the protection of her great saints; especially, here in Lisbon, Saint Anthony, a tireless apostle - who is stolen from him by those of Padua! -, inspired preacher, disciple of the Gospel attentive to the ills of society and full of compassion for the poor; may San Antonio intercede for you and reach you the joy of a new miraculous fishing. Then they tell me. And please don't forget to pray for me. Thank you.
Comments