Pope Francis says "Brothers, sisters, let us ask God for a compassionate gaze and a humble heart." at Mass for Pope Benedict XVI
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HOLY MASS IN SUFFRAGE OF THE DECEASED SUPREME PONTIFF BENEDICT XVI
AND OF THE CARDINALS AND BISHOPS WHO DECEASED DURING THE YEAR
PAPAL CHAPEL
HOMILY OF THE HOLY FATHER FRANCIS
St. Peter's Basilica - Altar of the Chair
Friday, November 3, 2023
________________________________________
Jesus is about to enter Nain, the disciples and "a large crowd" are walking with Him (see Luke 7:11). While he is near the city gate, another procession is marching, but in the opposite direction: it is going out to bury the only son of a widowed mother. And, the Gospel says: "Seeing her, the Lord was filled with great compassion" (Lk 7:13). Jesus sees and is filled with compassion. Benedict XVI, whom we remember today together with the Cardinals and Bishops who died during the year, wrote in his first Encyclical that Jesus' program is "a heart that he sees" (Deus caritas est, 31). How many times has he reminded us that faith is not first and foremost an idea to understand or a morality to adopt, but a Person to meet, Jesus Christ: his heart beats strongly for us, his gaze takes pity on our sufferings .
The Lord stops in front of the pain of that death. It is interesting that precisely on this occasion, for the first time, the Gospel of Luke attributes the title of "Lord" to Jesus: "the Lord was filled with great compassion". He is called Lord - that is, God, who has lordship over everything - precisely in the act of his compassion for a widowed mother who has lost, with her only son, the reason to live. Here is our God, whose divinity shines in contact with our miseries, because his heart is compassionate. The resurrection of that son, the gift of life that conquers death, arises precisely from here: from the compassion of the Lord, who is moved by our extreme evil, death. How important it is to communicate this look of compassion to those who experience the pain of the death of their loved ones!
Jesus' compassion has one characteristic: it is concrete. He, says the Gospel, "approaches and touches the coffin" (see Luke 7:14). Touching a dead man's coffin was useless; at that time, moreover, it was considered an impure gesture, which contaminated those who performed it. But Jesus doesn't pay attention to this, his compassion eliminates distances and brings him closer. This is God's style, made of closeness, compassion and tenderness. And of few words. Christ doesn't preach about death, but he says only one thing to that mother: "Don't cry!" (Luke 7:13). Why? Is it wrong to cry? No. Jesus himself cries in the Gospels. But to that mother he says: Don't cry, because with the Lord tears don't last forever, they have an end. He is the God who, as Scripture prophesies, "will eliminate death" and "wipe away the tears from every face" (Is 25:8; cf. Rev 21:4). He made our tears his own to take them away from us.
Here is the compassion of the Lord, which comes to revive that young son. Jesus does it, unlike other miracles, without even asking his mother to have faith. Why such an extraordinary and rare prodigy? Because here the orphan and the widow are involved, who the Bible indicates, together with the stranger, as the most alone and abandoned, who cannot put their trust in anyone other than God. The widow, the orphan, the stranger. They are therefore the most intimate and dearest people to the Lord. We cannot be intimate and dear to God while ignoring them, who enjoy his protection and predilection, and who will welcome us into heaven. The widow, the orphan and the stranger.
Looking at them, we gain an important teaching, which I condense in the second word of today: humility. The orphan and the widow are in fact the humble par excellence, those who, placing all their hope in the Lord and not in themselves, have moved the center of their life to God: they do not rely on their own strength, but on Him, who takes care of them. These people, who reject any presumption of self-sufficiency, recognize themselves in need of God and trust in Him, they are the humble. And it is these poor in spirit who reveal to us the littleness so pleasing to the Lord, the way that leads to Heaven. God seeks humble people, who hope in Him, not in themselves and their own plans. Brothers and sisters, this is Christian humility: it is not a virtue among others, but the basic disposition of life: believing oneself in need of God and making room for Him, placing all trust in Him. This is Christian humility.
God loves humility because it allows him to interact with us. Furthermore, God loves humility because He Himself is humble. He descends towards us, he lowers himself; he doesn't impose himself, he leaves space. God is not only humble, he is humility. “You are humility, Lord”, thus prayed Saint Francis of Assisi (see Lodi: FF 261). Let us think of the Father, whose name is entirely a reference to the Son rather than to himself; and to the Son, whose name is entirely relative to the Father. God loves those who decentralize themselves, who are not the center of everything, he loves the humble indeed: they resemble him more than anyone else. This is why, as Jesus says, "he who humbles himself will be exalted" (Lk 14:11). And I like to remember those initial words of Pope Benedict: "humble worker in the vineyard of the Lord". Yes, the Christian, especially the Pope, the Cardinals, the Bishops, are called to be humble workers: to serve, not to be served; to think, before one's own fruits, of those of the Lord's vineyard. And how beautiful it is to renounce oneself for the Church of Jesus!
Brothers, sisters, let us ask God for a compassionate gaze and a humble heart. Let us not tire of asking it, because it is on the path of compassion and humility that the Lord gives us his life, which conquers death. And we pray for our dear departed brothers. Their heart was pastoral, compassionate; and humble, because the meaning of their life was the Lord. In Him they find eternal peace. May they rejoice with Mary, whom the Lord raised by looking at her humility (see Luke 1:48).
AND OF THE CARDINALS AND BISHOPS WHO DECEASED DURING THE YEAR
PAPAL CHAPEL
HOMILY OF THE HOLY FATHER FRANCIS
St. Peter's Basilica - Altar of the Chair
Friday, November 3, 2023
________________________________________
Jesus is about to enter Nain, the disciples and "a large crowd" are walking with Him (see Luke 7:11). While he is near the city gate, another procession is marching, but in the opposite direction: it is going out to bury the only son of a widowed mother. And, the Gospel says: "Seeing her, the Lord was filled with great compassion" (Lk 7:13). Jesus sees and is filled with compassion. Benedict XVI, whom we remember today together with the Cardinals and Bishops who died during the year, wrote in his first Encyclical that Jesus' program is "a heart that he sees" (Deus caritas est, 31). How many times has he reminded us that faith is not first and foremost an idea to understand or a morality to adopt, but a Person to meet, Jesus Christ: his heart beats strongly for us, his gaze takes pity on our sufferings .
The Lord stops in front of the pain of that death. It is interesting that precisely on this occasion, for the first time, the Gospel of Luke attributes the title of "Lord" to Jesus: "the Lord was filled with great compassion". He is called Lord - that is, God, who has lordship over everything - precisely in the act of his compassion for a widowed mother who has lost, with her only son, the reason to live. Here is our God, whose divinity shines in contact with our miseries, because his heart is compassionate. The resurrection of that son, the gift of life that conquers death, arises precisely from here: from the compassion of the Lord, who is moved by our extreme evil, death. How important it is to communicate this look of compassion to those who experience the pain of the death of their loved ones!
Jesus' compassion has one characteristic: it is concrete. He, says the Gospel, "approaches and touches the coffin" (see Luke 7:14). Touching a dead man's coffin was useless; at that time, moreover, it was considered an impure gesture, which contaminated those who performed it. But Jesus doesn't pay attention to this, his compassion eliminates distances and brings him closer. This is God's style, made of closeness, compassion and tenderness. And of few words. Christ doesn't preach about death, but he says only one thing to that mother: "Don't cry!" (Luke 7:13). Why? Is it wrong to cry? No. Jesus himself cries in the Gospels. But to that mother he says: Don't cry, because with the Lord tears don't last forever, they have an end. He is the God who, as Scripture prophesies, "will eliminate death" and "wipe away the tears from every face" (Is 25:8; cf. Rev 21:4). He made our tears his own to take them away from us.
Here is the compassion of the Lord, which comes to revive that young son. Jesus does it, unlike other miracles, without even asking his mother to have faith. Why such an extraordinary and rare prodigy? Because here the orphan and the widow are involved, who the Bible indicates, together with the stranger, as the most alone and abandoned, who cannot put their trust in anyone other than God. The widow, the orphan, the stranger. They are therefore the most intimate and dearest people to the Lord. We cannot be intimate and dear to God while ignoring them, who enjoy his protection and predilection, and who will welcome us into heaven. The widow, the orphan and the stranger.
Looking at them, we gain an important teaching, which I condense in the second word of today: humility. The orphan and the widow are in fact the humble par excellence, those who, placing all their hope in the Lord and not in themselves, have moved the center of their life to God: they do not rely on their own strength, but on Him, who takes care of them. These people, who reject any presumption of self-sufficiency, recognize themselves in need of God and trust in Him, they are the humble. And it is these poor in spirit who reveal to us the littleness so pleasing to the Lord, the way that leads to Heaven. God seeks humble people, who hope in Him, not in themselves and their own plans. Brothers and sisters, this is Christian humility: it is not a virtue among others, but the basic disposition of life: believing oneself in need of God and making room for Him, placing all trust in Him. This is Christian humility.
God loves humility because it allows him to interact with us. Furthermore, God loves humility because He Himself is humble. He descends towards us, he lowers himself; he doesn't impose himself, he leaves space. God is not only humble, he is humility. “You are humility, Lord”, thus prayed Saint Francis of Assisi (see Lodi: FF 261). Let us think of the Father, whose name is entirely a reference to the Son rather than to himself; and to the Son, whose name is entirely relative to the Father. God loves those who decentralize themselves, who are not the center of everything, he loves the humble indeed: they resemble him more than anyone else. This is why, as Jesus says, "he who humbles himself will be exalted" (Lk 14:11). And I like to remember those initial words of Pope Benedict: "humble worker in the vineyard of the Lord". Yes, the Christian, especially the Pope, the Cardinals, the Bishops, are called to be humble workers: to serve, not to be served; to think, before one's own fruits, of those of the Lord's vineyard. And how beautiful it is to renounce oneself for the Church of Jesus!
Brothers, sisters, let us ask God for a compassionate gaze and a humble heart. Let us not tire of asking it, because it is on the path of compassion and humility that the Lord gives us his life, which conquers death. And we pray for our dear departed brothers. Their heart was pastoral, compassionate; and humble, because the meaning of their life was the Lord. In Him they find eternal peace. May they rejoice with Mary, whom the Lord raised by looking at her humility (see Luke 1:48).
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