VATICAN INFORMATION SERVICE
YEAR XXVI - # 33
DATE 17-02-2016
Summary:
- To the clergy in Morelia: do not give in to the temptation of resignation
- Young Mexicans, the greatest treasure of this land
- Pope's telegram for the death of the UN ex-Secretary General Boutros
Boutros-Ghali
- Other Pontifical Acts
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To the clergy in Morelia: do not give in to the temptation of resignation
Vatican City, 17 February 2016 (VIS) - Yesterday, Tuesday 16 February, the
Pope
arrived at 8.45 a.m. (local time, 3.45 p.m. in Rome) in Morelia, capital of the
state of Michoacan, the geographical centre of Mexico and since 1991 a UNESCO
World Heritage site on account of its Hispanic historic centre and baroque
architecture, notably the Cathedral of the Transfiguration and the Palace of
Justice. It is also the seat of an important university, the Universidad
Michoacana de San Nicolas de Hidalgo, founded in 1551 as the Colegio de San
Nicolas, and currently attended by 45,000 students.
The Pope travelled by popemobile the nine kilometres separating the airport
from the Venustiano Carranza stadium, which is able to hold 20,000 people. He
was awaited by the priests, men and women religious, consecrated persons and
seminarians of the archdiocese. During the Mass, celebrated by the Holy Father,
the purhepecha language was used for the prayer of the faithful.
The Pope began his homily in a colloquial fashion: "There is a saying among us
which goes 'tell me how you pray, and I will tell you how you live; tell me how
you live and I will tell you how you pray. Because showing me how you pray, I
will learn to find the God for Whom you live, and showing me how you live, I
will learn to believe in the God to Whom you pray'. For our life speaks of
prayer and prayer speaks of our life; praying is something learned, just as we
learn to walk, to speak, to listen. The school of prayer is the school of life
and in the school of life we progress in the school of prayer".
He commented that Paul said to his favourite disciple Timothy, while teaching
or encouraging him to live the faith: "Remember your mother and your
grandmother". "And seminarians, when entering seminary often used to tell me:
'Father, I would like to have deeper mental prayer'. 'Look, you carry on
praying
as they taught you to at home and then later, little by little, your prayer
will
mature, just as you grew up'. Praying is something learned, just like life".
"Jesus wished to introduce His companions into the mystery of Life, into the
mystery of His life. He showed them by eating, sleeping, healing, preaching and
praying, what it means to be Son of God. He invited them to share His life, His
interiority, and in His presence among them He allowed them to touch, in His
flesh, the life of the Father. He helped them to experience, in His gaze, in
His
going out in power, the newness of saying 'Our Father'. In Jesus this
expression
'Our Father' has no trace of routine or mere repetition. On the contrary, it
contains a sense of life, of experience, of authenticity. With these two words,
'Our Father', He knew how to live praying and to pray living. Jesus invites us
to do the same. Our first call is to experience this merciful love of the
Father
in our lives, in our experiences. His first call is to introduce us into the
new
dynamic of love, of sonship. Our first calling is to learn to say, 'Our
Father',
as Paul insists: Abba. 'Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel!', says St.
Paul, 'Woe to me!'. For to evangelise, he continues, is not a cause for glory
but rather a need".
"He has invited us to share in His life, His divine life, and woe to us
consecrated men and women, seminarians, priests, bishops, woe to us if we do
not
share it, woe to us if we are not witnesses to what we have seen and heard, woe
to us. We do not want to be 'administrators of the divine', we are not and do
not want to be employees in God's firm, for we are invited to share in His
life,
we are invited to enter into His heart, a heart that prays and lives, saying,
'Our Father'. What is our mission if not to say with our lives ... 'Our
Father'?"
He Who is Our Father, it is He to Whom we pray every day with insistence. And
what do we tell Him in one of the petitions of that prayer? Lead us not into
temptation. Jesus Himself did the same thing. He prayed that His disciples -
yesterday's and today's - would not fall into temptation. What could be one of
the sins which besets us? What could be one of the temptations which springs up
not only in contemplating reality but also in living it? What temptation can
come to us from places often dominated by violence, corruption, drug
trafficking, disregard for human dignity, and indifference in the face of
suffering and vulnerability? What temptation might we suffer over and over
again
- we who are called to the consecrated life, to the presbyterate, to the
episcopate - what temptation could might we endure in the face of all this, in
the face of this reality which seems to have become a permanent system?"
"I think that we could sum it up in a single word: 'resignation'. And faced
with this reality, the devil can overcome us with one of his favourite weapons:
resignation. 'And what are you going to do about it? Life is like that'. A
resignation which paralyses us and prevents us not only from walking, but also
from making the journey; a resignation which not only terrifies us, but which
also entrenches us in our 'sacristies' and false securities; a resignation
which
not only prevents us from proclaiming, but also inhibits our giving praise and
takes away the joy, the joy of giving praise. A resignation which not only
hinders our looking to the future, but also stifles our desire to take risks
and
to change. And so, 'Our Father, lead us not into temptation'".
"How good it is for us to tap into our memories when we are tempted",
exclaimed
the Pope. "How much it helps us to look at the 'stuff' of which we are made. It
did not all begin with us, nor will it all end with us, and so it does us good
to look back at our past experiences which have brought us to the present. And
in this remembering, we cannot overlook someone who loved this place so much,
who made himself a son of this land", he continued, referring to the Spanish
Vasco Vazquez de Quiroga, first bishop of Michoacan. "We cannot overlook that
person who could say of himself: 'They took me from the tribunal and put me in
charge of the priesthood for my sins. Me, useless and quite unable to carry out
such a great undertaking; me, who didn't know how to use an oar, they chose me
to be the first Bishop of Michoacan'".
"With you, I would like to recall this evangeliser, first known as 'the
Spaniard who became an Indian'. The situation of the Purhepechas Indians, whom
he described as being 'sold, humiliated, and homeless in marketplaces, picking
up scraps of bread from the ground', far from tempting him to listless
resignation, succeeded in kindling his faith, strengthening his compassion and
inspiring him to carry out plans that were a 'breath of fresh air' in the midst
of so much paralysing injustice. The pain and suffering of his brothers and
sisters became his prayer, and his prayer led to his response. And among the
Indians, he was known as 'Tata Vasco', which in the Purhepechan language means,
Father".
Father, dad, daddy", invoked the Holy Father at the end of his homily, "Lead
us
not into the temptation of resignation, lead us not into the temptation of
falling into sloth, lead us not into the temptation of losing our memory, lead
us not into the temptation of forgetting our elders who taught us by their
lives
to say, 'Our Father'".
After the celebration, the Pope transferred to the archiepiscopal residence of
Morelia where he lunched, and from there proceeded to the Cathedral of the
Transfiguration (1644-1744), baroque in style with neo-Classical elements and
tiled domes, which dominates the Plaza de las Armas. In the sacristy, where
alongside sixteenth-century paintings, there is a figure of Christ made using a
mix of corn and honey using pre-Hispanic techniques, Francis met and conversed
with fourteen rectors of Mexican universities and six leaders of other
Christian
confessions.
The Holy Father was also greeted by around one hundred children, catechumens,
whom he thanked for their visit. "I will ask Jesus to let you grow surrounded
by
love, like He did", he said. "With much love so as to be true Christians, to
fulfil the commandment that Jesus gave us: to love God above all else, and our
neighbour as Jesus did, as we love ourselves or better, as He loved us. And we
will also ask Our Lady to look after us and to bless us. Above all, let all of
us think in our hearts of our families and our friends, and even if you are at
odds with any of them, ask the Virgin to care for them all the same; in this
way
we make friends rather than enemies, because life is not good with enemies, and
He Whom makes us true friends is God, in our heart".
Likewise he congratulated the choir which had dedicated a song to him,
commenting that "art and sport enlarge our hearts and make us grow well, with
fresh air and without crushing life. Continue to be creative", he added, "in
search of beauty, of good things, of that which lasts for ever, and never let
anyone trample on this".
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Young Mexicans, the greatest treasure of this land
Vatican City, 17 February 2016 (VIS) - At 4 p.m. local time (11 p.m. in Rome),
Francis arrived at the Jose Maria Morelos y Pavon stadium in the city of
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* Origin: Sursum Corda! BBS=Huntsville AL=bbs.sursum-corda.com (1:396/45)
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