Dear brothers and sisters, good morning!
The Gospel of today’s Liturgy ( Mk10: 35-45) tells that two disciples, James and John, ask the Lord to sit next to him one day in glory, as if they were “prime ministers”, something like that. But the other disciples hear them and are indignant. At this point Jesus, with patience, offers them a great teaching: true glory is not obtained by rising above others, but by living the same baptism that he will soon receive in Jerusalem, that is, the cross. What does this mean? The word “baptism” means “immersion”: with his Passion, Jesus immersed himself in death, offering his life to save us. His glory, the glory of God, is therefore love that becomes service, not power that aspires to domination. Not power that aspires to domination, no! It is love that becomes service. Therefore Jesus concludes by saying to his own and also to us:Mk 10.43). To become great, you will have to go on the path of service, to serve others.
We are faced with two different logics: the disciples want to emerge and Jesus wants to immerse themselves . Let’s stop on these two verbs. The first is to emerge . It expresses that worldly mentality by which we are always tempted: to live all things, even relationships, to fuel our ambition, to climb the steps of success, to reach important places. The search for personal prestige can become a disease of the spirit, even disguising itself behind good intentions; for example when, behind the good we do and preach, we are in reality looking only for ourselves and for our affirmation, that is, we go ahead, climb… And we see this in the Church too. How many times, we Christians, who should be the servants, try to climb, to move forward. Therefore, we always need to verify the true intentions of the heart, to ask ourselves: “Why am I carrying on this work, this responsibility? To offer a service or to be noticed, praised and complimented? ”. To this worldly logic, Jesus contrasts his own: instead of rising above the others, he descends from the pedestal to serve them; instead of emerging above others, immerse yourself in the lives of others. I was seeing in the program “In his image” that Caritas service so that no one lacks food: worrying about the hunger of others, worrying about the needs of others. There are many, many people in need today, and more after the pandemic. Look and stoop in service, and don’t try to climb for your own glory.
Here is the second verb: to immerse oneself . Jesus asks us to immerse ourselves. And how to dive? With compassion, in the life of those we meet. There [in that Caritas service] we were seeing hunger: and we, do we think with compassion of the hunger of so many people? When we are in front of the meal, which is a grace of God and that we can eat, there are many people who work and cannot have enough meal for the whole month. Do we think about this? Immerse yourself with compassion, have compassion. It is not an encyclopedia data: there are many hungry … No! They are people. And do I have compassion for people? Compassion for the life of those we meet, as Jesus did with me, with you, with all of us, he approached with compassion.
We look at the Crucified Lord, deeply immersed in our wounded history, and we discover God’s way of doing. We see that He did not stay up there in the heavens, looking down on us, but lowered himself to wash our feet. God is love and love is humble, it does not rise, but descends below, like the rain that falls on the earth and brings life. But how to go in the same direction as Jesus, to pass from emergence to immersion, from the mentality of prestige, the worldly one, to that of service, the Christian one? It takes commitment, but it is not enough. Alone it is difficult, if not impossible, but we have a strength within us that helps us. It is that of Baptism, of that immersion in Jesusthat we have all received by grace and that directs us, pushes us to follow him, not to seek our own interest but to put ourselves at the service. It is a grace, it is a fire that the Spirit has kindled in us and that must be fed. Today we ask the Holy Spirit to renew in us the grace of Baptism, immersion in Jesus, in his way of being, to be more servants, to be servants as he was with us.
And let us pray to Our Lady: although she is the greatest, she did not try to emerge, but she was the humble servant of the Lord, and she is completely immersed in our service, to help us meet Jesus.
After the Angelus
Dear brothers and sisters!
Today the “Aid to the Church in Need” Foundation gives parishes, schools and families an appointment with the initiative “For unity and peace, one million children say the Rosary”. I encourage this prayer campaign, which this year in a particular way entrusts itself to the intercession of Saint Joseph. Thanks to all the boys and girls who participate! Thank you very much.
Yesterday in Cordoba, Spain, the priest Juan Elías Medina and 126 fellow martyrs were beatified: priests, nuns, seminarians and laity, killed in hatred of the faith during the violent religious persecution of the thirties in Spain. May their fidelity give strength to all of us, especially Christians persecuted in different parts of the world, the strength to bear witness to the Gospel with courage. A round of applause to the new Blesseds!
Several attacks were carried out last week, for example in Norway, Afghanistan, England, which resulted in numerous deaths and injuries. I express my closeness to the families of the victims. Please, please abandon the path of violence, which is always a loser, which is a defeat for everyone. Let us remember that violence breeds violence.
I greet all of you, Romans and pilgrims from various countries. In particular, I greet the “Medee” Sisters who are celebrating their General Chapter, the Confederation of the Poor Knights of San Bernardo di Chiaravalle, the African entrepreneurs gathered for their international meeting, the faithful of Este, Cavallino and Ca ‘Vio (Venice) , and the boys of the Confirmation of Galzignano.
I greet and bless the “Ecumenical Pilgrimage for Ecological Justice”, made up of Christians of different confessions, who left Poland and headed to Scotland on the occasion of the COP26 climate summit.
And to all of you I wish you a happy Sunday. Please don’t forget to pray for me. Have a good lunch and goodbye!
Source: Vatican.va