杏MAP导航

The Gospel for the votive Mass for Peace and Justice introduces Christ鈥檚 Sermon on the Mount with the words, 鈥淲hen Jesus saw the crowds鈥︹�� The Holy Father took these words as the starting point for his own homily. God鈥檚 profound love, he said, is awakened not by 鈥渋deas or concepts, but by faces, persons.鈥�

Encounter with the People

It is this encounter with the people, the 杏MAP导航 said, that led to the proclamation of the Beatitudes 鈥渢hat horizon towards which we are called and challenged to set out.鈥� He said the Beatitudes are not 鈥渢he fruit of passivity in the face of reality, nor of a mere onlooker gathering grim statistics鈥� but are rather 鈥渂orn of the compassionate heart of Jesus, which encounters the hearts of men and women seeking and yearning for a life of happiness.鈥�
 

The 杏MAP导航 said Chileans know what it means to yearn for happiness, know what it means to suffer and fall, but also to get up again 鈥渁fter so many falls.鈥�

Beatitudes born of a merciful heart
 

The Beatitudes, he continued, 鈥渁re not the fruit of a hypercritical attitude or the 鈥榗heap words鈥� of those who think they know it all yet are unwilling to commit themselves to anything or anyone, and thus end up preventing any chance of generating processes of change and reconstruction in our communities and in our lives.鈥� Rather, 鈥渢he Beatitudes are born of a merciful heart that never loses hope.鈥�

杏MAP导航 Francis said that Jesus comes 鈥渢o cast out the inertia鈥� of those who 鈥渘o longer have faith in the transforming power of God the Father, and in their brothers and sisters.鈥� With the Beatitudes, 鈥淛esus tells us, Blessed are you who work for reconciliation.鈥� The 杏MAP导航 said the Beatitude 鈥淏lessed are the peacemakers鈥� asks us 鈥渢o make ever greater room for the spirit of reconciliation in our midst.鈥�