Here is the homily given by Pope Francis during
the Mass celebrated this morning at the Basilica of the National Shrine
of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception in Aparecida.
* * *
My Brother Bishops and Priests,
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
What joy I feel as I come to the house of the Mother of every
Brazilian, the Shrine of our Lady of Aparecida! The day after my
election as Bishop of Rome, I visited the Basilica of Saint Mary Major
in Rome, in order to entrust my ministry as the Successor of Peter to
Our Lady. Today I have come here to ask Mary our Mother for the success
of World Youth Day and to place at her feet the life of the people of
Latin America.
There is something that I would like to say first of all. Six years
ago the Fifth General Conference of the Bishops of Latin America and the
Caribbean was held in this Shrine. Something beautiful took place here,
which I witnessed at first hand. I saw how the Bishops – who were
discussing the theme of encountering Christ, discipleship and mission –
felt encouraged, supported and in some way inspired by the thousands of
pilgrims who came here day after day to entrust their lives to Our Lady.
That Conference was a great moment of Church. It can truly be said that
the Aparecida Document was born of this interplay between the labours
of the Bishops and the simple faith of the pilgrims, under Mary’s
maternal protection. When the Church looks for Jesus, she always knocks
at his Mother’s door and asks: "Show us Jesus". It is from Mary that the
Church learns true discipleship. That is why the Church always goes out
on mission in the footsteps of Mary.
Today, looking forward to the World Youth Day which has brought me to
Brazil, I too come to knock on the door of the house of Mary – who
loved and raised Jesus – that she may help all of us, pastors of God’s
people, parents and educators, to pass on to our young people the values
that can help them build a nation and a world which are more just,
united and fraternal. For this reason I would like to speak of three
simple attitudes: hopefulness, openness to being surprised by God, and
living in joy.
1. Hopefulness. The second reading of the Mass presents a dramatic
scene: a woman – an image of Mary and the Church – is being pursued by a
Dragon – the devil – who wants to devour her child. But the scene is
not one of death but of life, because God intervenes and saves the child
(cf. Rev 12:13a, 15-16a). How many difficulties are present in the life
of every individual, among our people, in our communities; yet as great
as these may seem, God never allows us to be overwhelmed by them. In
the face of those moments of discouragement we experience in life, in
our efforts to evangelize or to embody our faith as parents within the
family, I would like to say forcefully: Always know in your heart that
God is by your side; he never abandons you! Let us never lose hope! Let
us never allow it to die in our hearts! The "dragon", evil, is present
in our history, but it does not have the upper hand. The one with the
upper hand is God, and God is our hope! It is true that nowadays, to
some extent, everyone, including our young people, feels attracted by
the many idols which take the place of God and appear to offer hope:
money, success, power, pleasure. Often a growing sense of loneliness and
emptiness in the hearts of many people leads them to seek satisfaction
in these ephemeral idols. Dear brothers and sisters, let us be lights of
hope! Let us maintain a positive outlook on reality. Let us encourage
the generosity which is typical of the young and help them to work
actively in building a better world. Young people are a powerful engine
for the Church and for society. They do not need material things alone;
also and above all, they need to have held up to them those non-material
values which are the spiritual heart of a people, the memory of a
people. In this Shrine, which is part of the memory of Brazil, we can
almost read those values: spirituality, generosity, solidarity,
perseverance, fraternity, joy; they are values whose deepest root is in
the Christian faith.
2. The second attitude: openness to being surprised by God. Anyone
who is a man or a woman of hope – the great hope which faith gives us –
knows that even in the midst of difficulties God acts and he surprises
us. The history of this Shrine is a good example: three fishermen, after
a day of catching no fish, found something unexpected in the waters of
the Parnaíba River: an image of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception.
Whoever would have thought that the site of a fruitless fishing
expedition would become the place where all Brazilians can feel that
they are children of one Mother? God always surprises us, like the new
wine in the Gospel we have just heard. God always saves the best for us.
But he asks us to let ourselves be surprised by his love, to accept his
surprises. Let us trust God! Cut off from him, the wine of joy, the
wine of hope, runs out. If we draw near to him, if we stay with him,
what seems to be cold water, difficulty, sin, is changed into the new
wine of friendship with him.
3. The third attitude: living in joy. Dear friends, if we walk in
hope, allowing ourselves to be surprised by the new wine which Jesus
offers us, we have joy in our hearts and we cannot fail to be witnesses
of this joy. Christians are joyful, they are never gloomy. God is at our
side. We have a Mother who always intercedes for the life of her
children, for us, as Queen Esther did in the first reading (cf Est 5:3).
Jesus has shown us that the face of God is that of a loving Father. Sin
and death have been defeated. Christians cannot be pessimists! They do
not look like someone in constant mourning. If we are truly in love with
Christ and if we sense how much he loves us, our heart will "light up"
with a joy that spreads to everyone around us. As Benedict XVI said:
"the disciple knows that without Christ, there is no light, no hope, no
love, no future" (Inaugural Address, Fifth General Conference of the
Bishops of Latin America and the Caribbean, Aparecida, 13 May 2007, 3).
Dear friends, we have come to knock at the door of Mary’s house. She
has opened it for us, she has let us in and she shows us her Son. Now
she asks us to "do whatever he tells you" (Jn 2:5). Yes, dear Mother, we
are committed to doing whatever Jesus tells us! And we will do it with
hope, trusting in God’s surprises and full of joy. Amen.
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