CAGLIARI, Sunday, September 22, 2013
7:30 Departure by plane from Ciampino/Rome
airport
8:15 Arrival at "Mario Mameli" airport of
Cagliari Elmas. 8:45 Meeting with workers in Largo Carlo Felice
Address of the Holy Father 9:45 Greeting to
public authorities in the square in front of the Shrine of Our Lady
of Bonaria of Cagliari Greeting to sick people gathered in the
Basilica of Our Lady of Bonaria 10:30 Holy Mass in the square in
front of the Shrine of Our Lady of Bonaria
15:00 Meeting with poor and prison inmates
gathered in the Cathedral of Cagliari.
CAGLIARI, September 22, 2013 - Here is the translation of the Holy Father's address prior to the recitation of the Angelus after Mass at the Shrine of Our Lady of Bonaria in Cagliari today.
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Dear brothers and sisters,
Before concluding this celebration, I greet in particular my brother bishops of Sardinia, whom I thank. Here, at the feet of Our Lady, I would like to thank each and every one of you, dear faithful, priests, religious, public officials and in a special way those who worked together to organize this visit. Above all I would like to entrust you to Mary, Our Lady of Bonaria. But at this moment I think of all the Marian shrines of Sardinia: your land has a strong connection with Mary, a connection that you express in your devotion and in your culture. Always be true sons of Mary and the Church, and show it with you life, following the example of the saints!
In this regard, we recall that yesterday, in Bergamo, Tommaso Acerbis da Olera, a Capuchin friar, who lived between the 16th and 17th centuries, was beatified. We give thanks for this witness of humility and charity of Christ!
Now let us recite the prayer of the Angelus together.
[The Holy Father then recited the Angelus together with those present. Following this, in conclusion he said:]
I wish you a good Sunday and a good lunch!
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The Holy Father's homily at the Shrine of Our Lady of Bonaria in Cagliari.
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[In Sardinian the Holy Father said:]
May the peace of the Lord be with you always.
[In Italian he said:]
Today the wish that I had mentioned in St. Peter’s Square before the start of summer, to be able to visit the Shrine of Our Lady of Bonaria, is realized.
1. I have come to share with you the joys and hopes, toil and effort, ideals and aspirations of your island, and to confirm you in the faith. Here too in Cagliari, as in the rest of Sardinia, difficulties are not lacking – there are many – problems and worries: I think especially of the lack of work and of the precariousness and so of the uncertainty of the future. Sardinia, this beautiful region of yours, has for a long time suffered from many situations of poverty, which is also accentuated by its geographical isolation. The loyal cooperation of everyone is necessary, with the commitment of the heads of institutions – including the Church – to secure fundamental rights to persons and families and make a more fraternal and solidary society grow; to secure the right to work, the right to provide bread for your family, bread earned by work! I am close to you! I am close to you, I remember you in prayer, and I encourage you to persevere in witness to the human and Christian values so deeply rooted in the faith and history of this land and its people. Always keep the light of hope burning!
2. I have come among you to place myself with you at the feet of Our Lady, who gives us her Son. I know well that Mary, our Mother, is in your heart, as this shrine testifies, a sanctuary where many generations of Sardinians have come – and will continue to come! – to invoke the protection of Our Lady of Bonaria, great patroness of this island. Here you bring the joys and sufferings of this island, of its families, and of those children who live far from here, who often left with great sorrow and nostalgia to find work and a future for themselves and their loved ones. Today, all of us who gathered here would like to thank Mary for always being near us; we wish to renew our trust in her and love for her.
The first reading that we heard shows us Mary in prayer, in the upper room together with the apostles. Mary prays, she prays together with the disciples, and she teaches us to have complete trust in God, in his mercy. This is the power of prayer! We do not tire of knocking at God’s door. Every day, through Mary, we bring to God’s heart our whole life! Knock at the door of God’s heart!
In the Gospel we see Jesus’ last glance at his Mother (cf. John 19:25-27). From the cross Jesus looks upon his Mother and entrusts the apostle John to her, saying: This is your son. All of us too are in John and Jesus’ look of love entrusts us to the Mother’s maternal protection. Mary would have recalled another look of love from when she was a young woman: the look of God the Father, who looked upon her humility, her littleness. Mary teaches us that God does not abandon us, he can do great things even with our weakness. We trust in Him! Let us knock at the door of his heart!
3. And the third thought: today I have come among you, or rather, we have all come together to encounter the gaze of Mary, because in it is reflected the gaze of the Father, who made her Mother of God, and the gaze of the Son on the cross, who made her our mother. And with that gaze Mary looks upon us today. We need her gaze of tenderness, her maternal gaze that knows us better than any other, her gaze that is full of compassion and care. Mary, today we would like to say to you: Mary, give us the gift of your gaze! Your gaze leads us to God, your gaze is a gift of the good Father that attends to us at every turn of our journey, it is a gift of Jesus Christ on the cross, who takes our sufferings, our toil, our sin upon himself. And to encounter this Father full of love we say today: Mary, give us the gift of your gaze! Let us say it all together: “Mary, give us the gift of your gaze! Mary, give us the gift of your gaze!”
We are not alone on the often difficult journey, we are many, we are a people, and the gaze of Our Lady helps us to look with a brotherly gaze upon each other. Let us look upon each other in a more brotherly way! Mary teaches us to have that gaze that that seeks to welcome, to accompany, to protect. Let us learn to look upon each other under the maternal gaze of Mary! There are people whom we instinctively give less consideration but who have greater need of our consideration: the abandoned, the sick, those who lack what they need to live, those who do not know Jesus, young people who are in difficulty, young people who do not find work. Let us not be afraid to go out and look upon our brothers and sisters with the gaze of Our Lady. She invites us to be true brothers. And let us not allow anything or anyone to come between us and the gaze of Our Lady. Mother, give us the gift of your gaze! Let no one hide it! May our filial heart know how to defend it from the many words that cause illusions; from those who have a covetous gaze wanting an easy life, of promises that they cannot keep. Let them not rob us of Mary’s gaze, which is full of tenderness, that gives us strength, that makes us solidary with each other. Let us all say together: Mother, give us the gift of your gaze! Mother, give us the gift of your gaze! Mother, give us the gift of your gaze!
[Concluding in Sardinian, he said:]
May Our Lady of Bonaria always be with you in life!
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Pope Francis' Address to Poor and Detainees
CAGLIARI, September 22, 2013 - Here is Pope Francis’ address to several poor
people at the Cathedral of Cagliari who are helped by Caritas and several
prisoners from the Casa Circondariale of Cagliari.
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Dear
Brothers and Sisters,
Thank
you all for being here today. In your faces I see exhaustion, but I also see
hope. Feel yourselves loved by the Lord and also by so many good persons, who
with their prayer and their work help to alleviate the sufferings of their
neighbor. I feel at home here. And I also hope that you feel at home in this
Cathedral: as we say in Latin America, “this house is your house,” it is your
house.
Here we
feel strongly and concretely that we are all brothers. Here the only Father is
our heavenly Father; the only Teacher is Jesus Christ. So the first thing I want
to share with you is in fact this joy of having Jesus as Teacher, as model of
life. We look at him! This gives us strength, so much consolation in our
fragilities, in our miseries and in our difficulties. All of us have
difficulties, all of us. All of us who are here have difficulties. All of us who
are here –all – have miseries and all of us who are here have fragilities. No
one here is better than another. We are all equal before the Father, all of us!
And
looking at Jesus we see that He chose the way of humility and service. More than
that, He himself in person is this way. Jesus was not undecided, he was not
“non-committal “: he made a choice and he fulfilled it to the end. He chose to
become man, and as man to be servant, to death on the cross. This is the way of
love: there is no other. Because of this we see that charity is not simply
welfarism, and less so welfarism to tranquilize consciences. No, that’s not
love, that is business, that is business. Love is free. Charity, love is a
choice of life, it is a way of being, of living, it is the way of humility and
of solidarity. There is no other way for this love: to be humble and
solidaristic. This word, solidarity, in this throw away culture – what is not
useful is thrown out – so that only those who feel righteous, who feel pure, who
feel clean remain. Poor things! This word, solidarity, risks being cancelled
from the dictionary, because it is a word that is bothersome, bothersome, why?
Because it obliges you to look at the other and to give yourself to the other
with love. It’s better to take it out of the dictionary because it’s bothersome.
And we don’t, we say: this is the way, humility and solidarity. Why? Did we
priests invent it? No! It is Jesus’: He said it! And we want to walk on this
way. Christ’s humility isn’t a moralism, a sentiment. Christ’s humility is real,
it is the choice of being little, of being with the little ones, with the
excluded, to be among us, sinners all. Be careful, it isn’t an ideology. It’s a
way of being and of living that springs from love, from the heart of God.
This is
the first thing, and I so like to talk about it with you. We look at Jesus: He
is our joy, but also our strength, our certitude, because He is the sure way:
humility, solidarity, service. There is no other way. In the statue of Our Lady
of Bonaria, Christ appears in Mary’s arms. She, as a good Mother, points to him,
she tells us to trust in Him.
But it’s
not enough to look, we must follow! And this is the second aspect. Jesus did not
come into the world to parade himself, to make himself seen. He did not come for
this. Jesus is the way, and a way serves to walk on, to walk on it. So I wish
first of all to thank the Lord for your commitment in following Him, also in
exhaustion, in suffering between the walls of a prison. We continue to trust
Him; He will give your heart hope and joy! I would like to thank Him for all of
you who dedicate yourselves generously, here
at Cagliari and in the whole of Sardinia, to the works of mercy. I want
to encourage you to continue on this way, to go forward together, seeking to
preserve first of all charity among you. This is very important. We cannot
follow Jesus on the way of charity if we don’t first of all love one another, if
we don’t make an effort to collaborate, to understand and at times to forgive
one another, each one recognizing his/her
own limitations and mistakes. We must do the works of mercy, but with
mercy! with our hearts there. We must do the works of charity with charity, with
tenderness, and always with humility! Do you know? Sometimes one finds arrogance
in the service to the poor! I’m sure you’ve seen it. Arrogance in the service of
those who are in need of our service. Some make themselves beautiful, filled
their mouth with the poor, some instrumentalize the poor for personal interests
or those of the group. I know it, it’s human, but it’s not right! This is not of
Jesus. And I say more: this is sin! It is serious sin, because it is to use the
needy, those who are in need, who are the flesh of Jesus, for one’s vanity! I
use Jesus for my vanity, and this is a serious sin! It would be better if these
persons stayed at home!
So: to
follow Jesus on the way of charity, to go with Him to the existential fringes.
“Jesus’ charity is an urgency!” said Paul (cf. 2 Corinthians 5:14). For the good
Pastor what is far away, peripheral, what is scattered and scorned is object of
greater care, and the Church cannot but make hers this predilection and this
attention. In the Church, the first are those who have greater need, human,
spiritual, material, more need.
3. And
following Christ on the way of charity, we sow hope. To sow hope: this is the
third conviction that I like to share with you. Italian society today is in
great need of hope, and Sardinia in a particular way. Those who have the
political and civil responsibility have their task, which, as citizens, we must
support actively. Some members of the Christian community are called to be
committed in this field of politics, which is a high form of charity, as Paul VI
said. But as Church we all have a strong responsibility which is to sow hope
with works of solidarity always seeking to collaborate in a better way with the
public institutions, in respect of the respective competencies.
Caritas
is the expression of the community, and the strength of the Christian community
is to make society grow from within, as leaven. I am thinking of your
initiatives with prisoners in jails; I am thinking of the voluntary work of so
many associations, of solidarity with families that suffer more because of the
lack of work. In this I say to you: courage! Don’t let yourselves be robbed of
hope and go forward! Don’t let them rob you of it! On the contrary: sow hope!
Thank you, dear friends! I bless you all, together with your families. And
thanks to you all!
At the
end of his address, the Pope recited the Our Father together with the poor and
the prisoners present in the Cathedral, then he said the following words:
May the
Lord bless you all: your families, your problems, your joys, your hopes. In the
name of the Father, of the Don and of the Holy Spirit. And, please, I ask you to
pray for me: I need it!
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Pope's
Address to Laborers in Cagliari
CAGLIARI, September 22, 2013 - Here is the translation of the Holy Father’s
address upon his arrival to Cagliari, in the Italian island of Sardinia.
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Dear
Brothers and Sisters, good morning!
I greet
you cordially: workers, entrepreneurs, authorities, families present, in
particular the Archbishop, Monsignor Arrigo Miglio, and the three of you who
have expressed your problems, your expectations and also your hopes. This visit
– as you said – begins in fact with you, who make up the world of work. With
this meeting I wish above all to express to you my closeness, especially to the
situations of suffering: to so many unemployed young people, to persons on
unemployment benefits or precarious <circumstances>, to the entrepreneurs and
business who exert themselves to go forward. It’s a reality that I know well
because of the experience in Argentina. I didn’t experience it but my family
did: my father, as a youth, went to Argentina full of hopes to “make it in
America.” And he suffered the terrible crisis of the 30s. They lost everything!
There was no work! And I heard talk about this in my home in my childhood. I
didn’t see it, I wasn’t born yet, but I felt this suffering in my home, I heard
talk of this suffering. I know this well! But I must say to you: “Courage!” But
I’m also conscious that I must do everything on my part, so that the word
“courage” is not just a beautiful passing word! That it not be
just a cordial smile of an employee, an employee of the Church who comes
and says to you: “Courage!” No! I don’t want this! I want this courage to come
from within and that it drive me to do all I can as Pastor, as man. You must
face it with solidarity, among yourselves – also among us --, all of us must
face this historic challenger with solidarity and intelligence.
This is
the second city I visit in Italy. It’s curious: both – the first and this one –
are islands. In the first I saw the suffering of so many people who , risking
their life, seek dignity, bread, health: the world of refugees. And I saw the
answer of that city, which – being an island – did not want to isolate itself
and received them, made them its own; it gives us an example of welcome:
suffering and positive answer. Here, in this second city, island that I visit, I
also find suffering here. A suffering that one of you said “weakens you and ends
by robbing you of hope.” A suffering – the lack of work – that leads you –
forgive me if I’m a bit strong, but I say the truth – to feel without dignity!
Where there is no work, dignity is lacking! And this isn’t only a problem of
Sardinia – but it’s strong here! – it’s not only a problem of Italy and of some
countries of Europe, it’s the consequence of a worldwide choice, of an economic
system that leads to this tragedy; an economic system that has an idol at the
center, which is called money.
God did
not want the center of the world to be an idol, but man, man and woman, who lead
the world forward with their work. However now, in this system without ethics,
there is an idol at the center and the world has become idolatrous of this
god-money.” Pennies command! Money commands! All these things command that serve
it, this idol. And what happens? To defend this idol they all crowd at the
center and the last fall, the elderly fall because in this world there isn’t a
place for them! Some speak about this habit of “hidden euthanasia,” of not
taking care of them, of not taking them into account … “Yes, we let them lose …”
And young people fall who don’t find work and their dignity. But think of it, a
world where young people – two generations of young people – don’t have work.
Such as world has no future. Why? Because they don’t have dignity! It’s
difficult to have dignity without working. This is your suffering here. This is
the prayer you cried out from over there: “Work,” “Work,” “Work.” It’s a
necessary prayer. Work means dignity; work means bringing the bread home; work
means to love! To defend this idolatrous economic system, the “throw away
culture” is installed: grandparents are discarded and young people are
discarded. And we must say “no” to this “throw away culture.” We must say: “We
want a just system! A system that makes everyone go forward.” We must say: We
don’t want this globalized economic system, which does us so much harm!” Man and
woman should be at the center, as God wishes, not money!
I wrote
some things for you, but, looking at you, these words came to me. I will give
these written words to the Bishop as if they had been said. But I preferred to
say to you what comes to me from my heart as I look at you at this moment! Look,
it’s easy to say don’t lose hope. But to all, to all of you, those who have work
and those who don’t have work, I say: “Don’t let yourselves be robbed of hope!
Don’t let yourselves be robbed of hope!” Perhaps hope is as the embers under the
ashes; let us help one another with solidarity, blowing on the ashes, so that
the fire will come back once again. But hope carries us forward. It isn’t
optimism; it’s something else. But hope is not just of one person, all of us
make hope! We must uphold hope among all, all of you and all of us who are far
away. Hope is a thing of yours and of ours. It is something of all! Because of
this, I say to you: “Don’t let yourselves be robbed of hope!” But let us be
cunning, because the Lord tells us that the idols are more cunning than we are.
The Lord invites us to have the cunning of the serpent, with the gentleness of
the dove. We have this cunning and we call things by their name. At this moment,
in our economic system, in our proposed globalized system of life, there is an
idol at the center and this can’t be done! Let us struggle all together so that
at the center, at least in our life, are man and woman, the family, all of us,
so that hope can go forward. “Don’t let yourselves be robbed of hope!”
Now I
would like to end by praying with all of you, in silence, praying with all of
you. I will say what comes to me from my heart and you, in silence, pray with
me.
“Lord
God look at us! Look at this city, this island. Look at our families.
Lord,
you were not lacking work; you were a carpenter, you were happy.
Lord, we
lack work.
The
idols want to rob us of our dignity. The unjust systems want to rob us of hope.
Lord,
don’t leave us alone. Help us to help one another; to forget our egoism a bit
and to feel in our heart the “we,” we a people that wants to go forward.
Lord
Jesus, you were not lacking work, give us work and teach us to struggle for work
and bless us all. In the name of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”
Thank
you so much and pray for me!
Following are the other words that Pope Francis had prepared and that he gave to
the Archbishop of Cagliari, giving them as read:
I would
like to share with you three simple but decisive points.
The
first: To put back the person and work at the center. The economic crisis has a
European and global dimension; but the crisis is not only economic, it is also
ethical, spiritual and human. At the root is a betrayal of the common good, be
it on the part of individuals or of power groups. Hence, it is necessary to take
away the centrality of the law of profit and private income and replace at the
center the person and the common good. In fact work is a very important factor
for the dignity of the person; work must be guaranteed if there is to be a
genuine promotion of the person. This is a task that belongs to the whole of
society, because of this, great merit is recognized to those entrepreneurs that,
despite everything, have not stopped committing themselves, investing and
risking themselves to guarantee employment. The culture of work, as opposed to
that of welfare, implies education to work from one’s youth, accompanying work
must be the dignity of every work activity, the sharing of work, elimination of
every black work. In this phase, the whole of society, in all its components,
must make every possible effort so that work, which is the source of dignity, is
the central concern. Your insular condition renders this commitment on the part
of all that much more urgent, above all that of the political and economic
entities.
Second
element: the Gospel of hope. Sardinia is a land blessed by God with so many
human and environmental resources, but as the rest of Italy it needs a new élan
to get started again. And Christians can and must do their part, making their
specific contribution: the evangelical vision of life. I recall the words of
Pope Benedict XVI in his visit to Cagliari in 2008: when he said “to evangelize
the world of work, of the economy, of politics, which needs a new generation of
committed lay Christians able to seek with competence and moral rigor solutions
of sustainable development” (Homily, September 7, 2008). The Bishops of Sardinia
are particularly sensitive to this reality, especially that of work. You, dear
Bishops, indicate the need of a serious and realistic discernment, but
orientated also to a path of hope, as you wrote in the Message in preparation
for this visit. This is important, this is the right answer! To look at reality
in the face, to know it well, to understand it, and to seek together ways, with
the method of collaboration and dialogue, of living closeness to bring hope.
Never obfuscate hope! Don’t confuse it with optimism – which is simply a
psychological attitude – or with other things. Hope is creative; it is capable
of creating a future.
Third: a
fitting work for all. A society open to hope does not shut itself in on itself,
in defense of the interests of a few, but looks ahead in the perspective of the
common good. And this requires on the part of all a strong sense of
responsibility. There is not social hope without fitting work for all. Because
of this, one must “pursue as a priority the objective of access to work and of
its maintenance for all” (Benedict XVI, encyclical Caritas in veritate, 32).
I have
said “fitting” work, and I underline it, because unfortunately, especially when
there is a crisis and the need is strong, inhuman work increases, slave-labor,
work without the just security, or without respect for creation, or without
respect of rest, of celebration and of the family, working on Sunday when it’s
not necessary. Work must be combined with the protection of creation, so that it
is preserved with responsibility for future generations. Creation is not
merchandise to exploit but a gift to protect. The ecological commitment itself
is an occasion of new employment in sectors connected with it, such as energy,
the prevention and destruction of different forms of pollution, vigilance over
the fires of the woodland patrimony, and so on. May the protection of creation,
the protection man with fitting work be the commitment of all! Ecology … and
also, “human ecology”!
Dear
friends, I am particularly close to you, placing in the hands of the Lord and of
Our lady of Bonaria all your anxieties and worries. Blessed John Paul II
stressed that Jesus “worked with his own hands. In fact, his work, which was
real physical work, occupied the greater part of his life on this earth, and he
entered thus in the work of the redemption of man and of the world” (Address to
Workers, Terni, March 19, 1981). It is important to dedicate oneself to one’s
work with assiduousness, dedication and competence, it is important to have the
habit of work.
I hope
that, in the logic of gratuitousness and of solidarity, we will be able to come
out together from this negative phase, so that secure, fitting and stable work
is ensured.
Take my
greeting to your families, to children, to young people and to the elderly. I
also take you with me, especially in my prayer. And I impart my heartfelt
Blessings upon you, your work and your social commitment.
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Dear Young People of Sardinia,
It seems as if there are a few young
people, doesn’t it? A few or many? [Crowd cheers.] There are lots of you!
Thank you for coming to this meeting in
such large numbers! And thank you to the “spokespeople”. Seeing you reminds me
of the World Youth Day in Rio de Janeiro. Perhaps several of you were there, but
many must certainly have followed it on television and on the internet. It was a
very beautiful experience, a celebration of faith and brotherhood that filled
one with joy. The same joy that we feel today. Let us thank the Lord and the
Virgin Mary, Our Lady of Bonaria: it is she who has enabled us to meet here.
Pray to her often, she is a good mother, I assure you! Some of your “queries”,
your questions [were hard to understand]... but I also speak in dialect, here
too! Some of your questions are similar. I am thinking of the Gospel by the
shores of the Sea of Galilee, where Simon, who Jesus was later to call Peter,
and his brother Andrew, together with James and John, also brothers, all lived
and worked as fishermen. Jesus was surrounded by the crowd who wanted to listen
to his word. He saw those fishermen mending their nets beside the boats. He
climbed on to Simon’s boat and asked him to put out a little from the shore. So
it was that he spoke to the people sitting in the boat; Jesus addressed the
people from the boat. When he had finished, he told Simon to put out into the
deep and let down his nets. This request was a “trial” for Simon — listen
carefully to the word: a “trial” — for he and the others had just come back from
fishing all night with nothing to show for it. Simon was a sincere and practical
man, and he immediately said to Jesus: “Master, we toiled all night and took
nothing”.
This is the first point:
the experience of failure. In your questions there was this experience: the
sacrament of Confirmation, — what is this sacrament called? Confirmation... No!
Its name has changed: the “sacrament of farewell”. hey do this and then they
leave the Church. Is this true or not? This is an experience of failure. The
other experience of failure: young people aren’t in the parishes: you yourselves
have talked about this. This experience of a failure, something that goes wrong,
a disappointment. Youth looks ahead, but at times it happens to experience
failure, some frustration. This is a trial and it is important! And now I want
to pose a question to you; however, do not reply out loud but in silence. May
each one one of you think in his or her heart, think of your own experiences of
failure, think about them. It is certain: we all have these experiences, we all
have them.
We very frequently have this experience
in the Church: priests, catechists, and animators tire themselves out, they
spend so much energy, they put everything into it, and in the end they do not
always see results that correspond to their efforts. Your “spokespeople” also
said this in their first two questions. They referred to the communities where
faith seems somewhat faded, where few of the faithful take an active part in the
life of the Church, Christians are seen who are sometimes weary and sad and many
young people move off after receiving Confirmation. The sacrament of farewell,
of goodbye, as I said. It is an experience of failure, an experience that leaves
emptiness and discourages us. Is this true or not? [Crowd responds "Yes"] Is it
true or not? [Crowd "Yes"].
In the face of this situation you are
right to wonder: what can we do? Of course one thing is to let oneself be
overcome by pessimism and distrust. Pessimistic Christians: how awful! You young
people can’t and mustn’t be lacking in hope, hope is part of your being. A young
person without hope is not young but has aged prematurely! Hope is part of your
youth! if you don’t have any hope, think seriously, think seriously.... A young
person without joy and without hope is upsetting: he is not young. And when a
young person has no joy, when he lacks confidence in life or loses hope, where
can he go to find a bit of tranquillity, a bit of peace? Without trust, without
hope and without joy? You know, the merchants of death, these merchants that
sell death, offer you a way out when you are sad, when you are without hope,
without trust and disheartened! Please don’t sell your youth to these people who
sell death! All of you know what I’m talking about! You have all got it: don’t
sell!
Let’s return to the scene of the Gospel:
Peter, in that critical moment, takes a risk. What could he have done? He could
have given in to weariness and to discouragement, thinking that it is pointless
and that it is better to withdraw and go home. Instead, what does he do? With
courage, he steps out of himself and decides to trust Jesus. He says: “Well,
alright! At your word I will let down the nets”. Be careful! He does not say: at
my strength, my calculations, my experience as an expert fisherman, but rather
“at your word”, at the word of Jesus! And the result is an incredible catch, the
nets are filled to the point that they almost tear.
This is the second point:
trusting Jesus, trusting Jesus. And when I say this I want to be sincere and to
tell you that I do not come here to sell you an illusion. I come here to say:
there is a Person who can keep you going, trust in him! It is Jesus! Trust in
Jesus! And Jesus is not an illusion! Trust in Jesus. The Lord is always with us.
He comes to the shores of the sea of our life, he makes himself close to our
failures, our frailty, and our sins in order to transform them. Never stop
staking yourselves on him, over and over again, as good sportsmen — some of you
know this well from experience — who can face the strain of training in order to
achieve results! Difficulties must not frighten you but on the contrary spur you
to go beyond them. Hear Jesus’ words as though they were addressed to you: put
out into the deep and let down your nets, young people of Sardinia! Put out into
the deep! Be ever more docile to the Lord’s word; it is he, it is his word, it
is following him that brings to fruition your commitment to witnessing. When
your efforts to reawaken faith in your friends seem to be in vain, like the
nocturnal efforts of the fishermen, remember that with Jesus everything changes.
The word of the Lord has filled the nets and the word of the Lord makes the
missionary work of his disciples effective. Following Jesus is demanding, it
means not being satisfied with small goals of little account but aiming on high
with courage!
It is not good — it is not good — to
stop at “we took nothing”; rather, go further, to “put out into the deep and let
down your nets”, once again, and without tiring! Jesus repeats this to each one
of you. And it is he who will give you the strength! There is the threat of
complaining or of resignation. Let’s leave these epithets to the followers of
the “goddess of lamentation”. And you, are you following the “goddess of
lamentation”? Are you continuously wailing as in a funeral wake? No, young
people can’t do that! The “goddess of lamentation” is a deception: she makes you
take the wrong road. When everything seems to be standing still and stagnant,
when personal problems disturb us and social hardships do not meet with the
right responses, it is not good to consider oneself vanquished. Jesus is the
way: get him to embark on our “boat” and put out into the deep with him! He is
the Lord! He changes the prospect of life. Faith in Jesus leads to a hope that
goes further, to a certainty based not on our qualities and skills alone, but on
the word of God, on the invitation that comes from him. Without making too many
human calculations and without worrying about checking whether the situation
that surrounds you coincides with your points of security. Put out into the
deep, go out of yourselves: go out of our small world and open ourselves to God,
to open ourselves increasingly also to our brethren. Opening ourselves to God is
opening ourselves to others. Take a few steps outside ourselves, little steps,
but take them. Little steps, going out of yourselves toward God and toward
others, opening your heart to brotherhood, to friendship and to solidarity.
Third — and I conclude;
[this] is somewhat lengthy! “Let down your nets for catch” (v. 4). Dear young
Sardinians, the third thing I want to tell you, and in this way I am answering
the other two questions, is that you too are called to become “fishers of men”.
Don’t hesitate to spend your life witnessing joyfully to the Gospel, especially
among your peers. I want to tell you of a personal experience. Yesterday I
celebrated the 60th anniversary of the day when I heard Jesus’ voice in my
heart. I am not telling you this so that you will make me a cake here, no, that
is not why I’m saying it. However, it is a commemoration: 60 years since that
day. I will never forget it. The Lord made me strongly aware that I should take
that path. I was 17 years old. Several years passed before this decision, this
invitation became concrete and definitive. So many years have gone by, with some
successes and joys but so many years with failures, frailties, sin... 60 years
on the Lord’s road, behind him, beside him, always with him. I only tell you
this: I have no regrets! I have no regrets! Why? Because I feel like Tarzan and
I feel strong enough to go ahead? No, I have not regretted it because always,
even at the darkest moments, the moments of sin and moments of frailty, moments
of failure, I have looked at Jesus and trusted in him and he has not deserted
me. Trust in Jesus: he always keeps on going, he goes with us! However, listen,
he never let us down. He is faithful, he is a faithful companion. Think, this is
my witness: I am glad about these 60 years with the Lord. However, something
more about moving ahead.
Have I gone on for too long? [Crowd:
"No!"]. Let’s stay united in prayer. And journey on in this life with Jesus: the
saints did it.
Saints are like this: they are not born
perfect, already holy! They become so because, like Simon Peter they trust in
the word of the Lord and “put out into the deep”. Your land has contributed so
many witnesses and recently too: the Blesseds: Antonia Mesina, Gabriella
Sagheddu, Giuseppina Nicoli; the Servants of God: Edvige Carboni, Simonetta
Tronci and Fr Antonio Loi. They are ordinary people who instead of complaining
“let down their nets for a catch”. Imitate their example, entrust yourselves to
their intercession and always be men and women of hope! No complaining! No
discouragement! Never be depressed, never go to purchase comfort from death:
none of it! Go forward with Jesus! He never fails, he never disappoints, he is
loyal!
Pray for me. And may Our Lady go with
you.
...and
just to work in one last line, the beginning of Francis' address in the
cathedral of the Sardinian capital, Calgiari, to an audience of prisoners, the
poor and those who minister to them:
Thank you all for being here today. I
see exhaustion in your faces but I also see hope. Feel loved by the Lord and
also by many good people who aid and alleviate their neighbour’s suffering with
their prayers and action.
I feel at home here. And I also hope
that you feel at home in this Cathedral, as we say in Latin America: “this home
is your home”. It is your home.
Indeed,
it's a new opening for the church... as for seeing it borne out at "ground
level," well, we can only hope.
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