FR
EN
MASS AND CANONIZATION OF THE BLESSED
Solomon Leclerq, Joseph Sanchez del Rio, Emmanuel Gonzalez Garcia, Ludovico Pavoni, Alfonso Maria Fusco, Jose Gabriel del Rosario Brochero, Elizabeth of the Trinity Catez
HOMILY OF POPE FRANCIS
Saint Peter's Square
Sunday, October 16, 2016
At the beginning of today's celebration, we addressed this prayer to the Lord: « Create in us a generous and faithful heart, so that we may always serve you with loyalty and purity of heart » (Collect Prayer)
We alone are not capable of forming such a heart for ourselves; God alone can do it, and that is why we ask him for it in prayer, we implore it of Him as a gift, as his “creation”. In this way we are introduced to the theme of prayer, which is at the center of this Sunday's biblical readings and which challenges us too, we who are gathered for the canonization of new Saints. They reached the goal; they had a generous and faithful heart, through prayer: they prayed with all their strength, they struggled, and they were victorious.
To pray, then. Like Moses, who was above all a man of God, a man of prayer. We see him today in the episode of the battle against Amalek, standing on the hill with his hands raised; but each time, because of the weight, his hands would drop, and in those moments the people had the worst of it; then Aaron and Hur made Moses sit on a stone and held up his raised hands, until the final victory.
This is the style of spiritual life that the Church asks of us: not to win the war, but to win peace!
In the episode of Moses, there is an important message: the commitment to prayer requires that we support one another. Weariness is inevitable; sometimes we can go no further, but with the support of our brothers, our prayer can move forward, until the Lord brings his work to completion.
Saint Paul, writing to his disciple and collaborator Timothy, urges him to remain firm in what he has learned and firmly believed (cf. 2 Tim 3:14). Yet Timothy too could not manage it on his own: the “battle” of perseverance is not won without prayer. But not a sporadic, up-and-down prayer, rather one made as Jesus teaches in today's Gospel: « to pray always and not lose heart » (Lk 18:1). This is the Christian way of acting: to be firm in prayer in order to remain firm in faith and in witness. And here again a voice within us: “But Lord, how is it possible not to lose heart? We are human beings… Moses too lost heart! …”. It is true, each of us loses heart. But we are not alone, we are part of a Body! We are members of the Body of Christ, the Church, whose hands are raised day and night toward heaven thanks to the presence of the risen Christ and of his Holy Spirit. And only in the Church and through the prayer of the Church can we remain firm in faith and in witness.
We have heard the promise of Jesus in the Gospel: « God will grant justice to his chosen ones who cry out to him day and night » (Lk 18:7). This is the mystery of prayer: to cry out, not to lose heart, and if you lose heart, to ask for help to keep your hands raised.This is the prayer that Jesus revealed to us and gave us in the Holy Spirit. To pray is not to take refuge in an ideal world, it is not to escape into a false, selfish quietude. On the contrary, to pray is to struggle, it is also to let the Holy Spirit pray in us. It is the Holy Spirit who teaches us to pray, who guides us in prayer, who makes us pray as children.
The saints are men and women who enter to the very depths into the mystery of prayer. Men and women who struggle with prayer, letting the Holy Spirit pray and struggle in them; they struggleto the very end, with all their strength, and they are victorious, but not on their own: the Lord is victorious in them and with them. Thus these seven witnesses who were canonized today fought the good fight of faith and love with prayer. That is why they remained firm in the faith, with a generous and faithful heart. Through their example and intercession, may God grant us too to be men and women of prayer; to cry out to God day and night without losing heart; to let the Holy Spirit pray in us, and to pray while supporting one another so as to keep our hands raised, until Divine Mercy is victorious.
