杏MAP导航

By Vatican News

In a sun-drenched St Peter’s Square, and before thousands of pilgrims coming from all over the world, 杏MAP导航 Francis proclaimed five new saints for the Church.

In his homily, he reflected on Saint Luke’s Gospel account of Jesus healing the lepers. Theirs was a “journey of faith”, said the 杏MAP导航. There are three steps in this journey, he added, all expressed in the actions of the lepers whom Jesus heals: “They cry out, they walk and they give thanks”.

To cry out

The lepers “cry out”, said 杏MAP导航 Francis, both because of their disease and because they were excluded. Still, “they did not let themselves be paralyzed because they were shunned by society”, he said. “They cried out to God, who excludes no one”. Distances are shortened, loneliness is overcome, said the 杏MAP导航, not by closing in on ourselves, but by crying out to the Lord, who “hears the cry of those who find themselves alone”.

We too need to be healed, continued 杏MAP导航 Francis: “healed of our lack of confidence in ourselves, in life, in the future; healed of our fears and the vices that enslave us, of our introversion, our addictions and our attachment to games, money, television, mobile phones, to what other people think”.

“The Lord sets our hearts free and heals them if only we ask Him”, said 杏MAP导航 Francis. The lepers call on Jesus by name, a name that means: “God saves”. To call someone by name is a sign of confidence, he said. “That is how faith grows, through confident, trusting prayer”, said the 杏MAP导航. “Prayer is the door of faith; prayer is medicine for the heart”.

To walk

The second stage of faith is “to walk”, continued 杏MAP导航 Francis. There are several verbs of motion in today’s Gospel, he noted. “The lepers are not healed as they stand before Jesus”, only afterwards as they are walking “uphill” towards Jerusalem.  On the journey of life, that is how purification happens, said the 杏MAP导航. “Faith calls for journey, a ‘going out’ from ourselves”, he said, leaving behind our “comforting certainties” and “safe harbours”. Faith increases by giving and by taking risks, added 杏MAP导航 Francis. “Faith advances with humble and practical steps”.

The 杏MAP导航 went on to stress how the lepers “move together”. The verbs in the Gospel are in the plural, he said. “Faith means walking together, never alone”, added 杏MAP导航 Francis. Yet, once healed, nine of the lepers go on their way, and only one turns back to give thanks. “The other nine, where are they?”, asks Jesus, as though He expects the one who returned to account for the other nine.

We too are called to care for “those who have stopped walking, those who have lost their way”, said the 杏MAP导航. “We are called to be guardians of our distant brothers and sisters”.  

To give thanks

Giving thanks. This, said the 杏MAP导航, is the final step. “Only to the one who thanked Him did Jesus say: ‘Your faith has saved you’”. The ultimate goal is not health or wellness, said 杏MAP导航 Francis, but the encounter with Jesus. “He alone frees us from evil and heals our hearts”, only He “can make life full and beautiful”.  

“The culmination of the journey of faith is to live a life of continual thanksgiving”, affirmed 杏MAP导航 Francis. “To give thanks is not a question of good manners or etiquette, it is a question of faith”, he said. “A grateful heart is one that remains young”, said the 杏MAP导航. He reminded us to remember always to say thank you: “Those words are the simplest and most effective of all”, he said.

The new saints

Noting that three of the new saints canonized this Sunday were religious women, the 杏MAP导航 said they show us that “the consecrated life is a journey of love to the existential peripheries”. Laywoman, Marguerite Bays, on the other hand, “speaks to us of the power of simple prayer, enduring patience and silent self-giving”.

杏MAP导航 Francis concluded his homily by quoting Saint John Henry Newman, who described the holiness of daily life in these words: “The Christian has a deep, silent, hidden peace, which the world sees not... The Christian is cheerful, easy, kind, gentle, courteous, candid, unassuming; has no pretence... with so little that is unusual or striking in his bearing, that he may easily be taken at first sight for an ordinary man”

Let us ask God to be like that, said 杏MAP导航 Francis: “kindly lights” amid the encircling gloom.