– José Maria C.S. André
At many points during his pastoral visit to Ireland to attend the World Meeting of Families, instead of reading a speech, Francis answered questions from families. In this way, the message focused on specific themes.
They spoke very much about love, with the realism and freshness of life. There was poetry, as there was humor and sublime ideals, but no romantic undertones. Sometimes the Pope told small experiences of his family in Argentina. It is difficult to summarize these two intense days.
In the Dublin’s pro-cathedral, the question of the grooms Denis and Sinead was the occasion for the Pope to tell them that “they were about to embark on a journey of love that, in God’s plan, entails a life-long commitment…. Marriage is not simply an institution but a vocation, a life that moves forward, a conscious and life-long decision to cherish, assist and protect one another.”
“We are living in a ‘culture of the provisional’ …. If I feel hungry or thirsty, I can eat; but my feeling of being full does not last even a day. If I have a job, I know that I might lose it …. It is even hard to keep track of the world as it changes all around us …. Isn’t there anything precious that lasts?”
“There is a temptation that the phrase ‘all the days of my life’ that you will say to one another may change and, in time, die. If love doesn’t grow by more love, it doesn’t last long. Those words ‘all the days of my life’ are a commitment to make love grow, because love has nothing of the provisional. Call it excitement, call it, I don’t know, enchantment, but real love is definitive, a ‘you and I’.”
“It is easy to find ourselves caught up in the culture of the provisional, the ephemeral, and that culture strikes at the very roots of our processes of maturation, our growth in hope and love.”
“Of all the kinds of human fruitfulness, marriage is unique. It is about a love that gives rise to new life. It involves mutual responsibility for the transmission of God’s gift of life, and it provides a stable environment in which that new life can grow and flourish. Marriage in the Church, that is, the sacrament of matrimony, shares in a special way in the mystery of God’s eternal love. When a Christian man and woman enter the bond of marriage, God’s grace enables them freely to promise one another an exclusive and enduring love. Their union thus becomes a sacramental sign – this is important – the sacrament of marriage becomes a sacramental sign of the new and eternal covenant between the Lord and his bride, the Church. Jesus is ever present in their midst. He sustains them throughout life in their mutual gift of self, in fidelity and in indissoluble unity. Jesus’ love is, for couples, a rock and refuge in times of trial, but more importantly, a source of constant growth in pure and enduring love. Gamble big, for your entire life! Take a risk! Because marriage is also a risk, but it is a risk worth taking. For your whole life, because that is how love is.”
“We know that love is God’s dream for us and for the whole human family. Please, never forget this! God has a dream for us and he asks us to make it our own. So do not be afraid of that dream! Dream big! Cherish that dream and dream it together each day anew.”
“What does God say in the Bible to his people? Listen carefully: ‘I will never fail you nor forsake you!’ And you, as husbands and wives, anoint one another with those words of promise, every day for the rest of your lives. And never stop dreaming! Keep repeating in your heart: ‘I will never fail you or forsake you!’”
The Irish welcomed the Pope with immense enthusiasm and got endless hours of conversation to meditate – their whole lives.
The guilt of the Pope
One understands what a Pope is when one discovers the infinite guilt that falls on his shoulders. The topic surprised the Media during the Jubilee of the year 2000 and again called their attention in this visit to Ireland.
In commemorating the second millennium of the birth of Christ, instead of celebrating the triumph of the Christian presence in the world, John Paul II organized penitential celebrations to ask for forgiveness for the sins committed throughout the centuries. On Sunday, 26 August, at the Eucharist in Dublin, Francis, summoned the whole assembly for a penitential act: “I want to place before the mercy of the Lord these crimes and ask forgiveness for them.” The enumeration was long: “We ask forgiveness for…”, “we ask forgiveness for…”. After having asking 10 times for forgiveness for concrete sorts of crimes, he concluded: “Lord, sustain and increase this state of shame and repentance and give us the strength to commit ourselves so that these things never happen again and justice may be done. Amen.” On several other occasions, during his visit to Ireland, Francis insisted on this subject.
I remember some non-Catholic historians stating to the press, in the year 2000, that John Paul II was wrong. He had not committed such crimes – his grandparents were not even born – and in most cases the perpetrators were not Catholics and had persecuted the Church for denouncing them.
Now, Pope Francis insists on asking God’s forgiveness, with shame and regret, for crimes he has not even heard of until recently. Shortly before leaving for Ireland, he wrote to all Catholics around the world inviting them to acknowledge guilt, to repent and fast, asking forgiveness from God and humanity. How can anyone be guilty of crimes he/she did not commit? Of crimes that one knows neither the aggressors nor the victims? In places where one has never been, in dates and circumstances that one ignores?
Perplexity leads us to understand that it falls upon the Pope and the whole Church something extraordinary that –as far as I know– happened only to Christ himself. St Paul even says of Christ that “God had made him to be sin for us” (II Cor 5:21). He is not speaking about the calumny of the enemies, St. Paul says that it was God himself who made him sin.
The mystery of evil is inseparable from the mystery of redemption. And redemption is not that the wicked pay for their sins and the good are rewarded. In his letter to the Galatians, St. Paul explains that “Christ has redeemed us from the curse …, having become a curse for us, for it is written…” (Gal 3:3).
He is mistaken whoever imagines that Popes make exacerbated statements to influence the courts, or confuse justice with revenge, or are misinformed about the historical responsibilities that affect each one. One may not understand the heart of Christ, but this mystery deserves a profound respect.
Follow
