Pope Francis says Mass for the feast of the Presentation of the Lord in St. Peter’s Basilica, Feb. 2, 2022. / Vatican Media
Vatican City, Feb 2, 2022 / 16:41 pm (CNA).
The amazed joy of Simeon and Anna at encountering and embracing Christ at the Temple is a virtue that consecrated religious should remember and imitate, the pope said in a homily addressed to religious brothers and sisters.
He encouraged consecrated religious to renew their consecration with enthusiasm and to scrutinize themselves for worldliness, bitterness, and empty rigidity.
“Even if we experience fatigue and weariness—this happens: even disappointments, it happens—we do as Simeon and Anna, who patiently await the Lord’s fidelity and do not allow themselves to be robbed of the joy of the encounter,” Pope Francis said in his homily during a Feb. 2 Mass for the feast of the Presentation of the Lord.
The occasion marked the 26th Day of Consecrated Life.
“Let us go towards the joy of the encounter: this is very beautiful! Let us put (the Lord) back at the center and go forward with joy,” the pope said. His homily drew on the reading from the Gospel of Luke recounting the Presentation of Christ in the Temple.
Simeon welcomed Christ in his arms, the pope noted.
“God placed his Son in our arms because welcoming Jesus is the essential, the central point of faith,” he continued. “Sometimes we risk getting lost and dispersed in a thousand things, fixing ourselves on secondary aspects or immersing ourselves in things to do, but the center of everything is Christ, to be welcomed as the Lord of our life.”
Those in consecrated life must not lose their ability to be amazed, the pope said. Simeon had this ability: he uttered words of blessing, praise, and amazement when he took Christ into his arms.
“Ask for the grace of amazement, the amazement at the wonders that God is doing in us, hidden like that of the temple, when Simeon and Anna met Jesus,” the pope told the congregation of consecrated religious brothers and sisters.
“If the consecrated lack words with which they bless God and others, if there is no joy, if the momentum is lacking, if fraternal life is only fatigue, if there is no amazement, it is not because we are victims of someone or something,” he said. “The real reason is that our arms do not hold Jesus more tightly. And when the arms of a consecrated person do not hold Jesus, they hold emptiness. They try to fill their arms with other things, but there is emptiness. Clasp Jesus with our arms: this is the sign, this is the path, this is the ‘recipe’ for renewal.”
The failure to embrace Christ means “the heart closes in bitterness,” the pope warned. Consecrated persons who are bitter “always complain about something,” like the community superior, its religious brothers, the community in general, or its kitchen.
“If they have no complaints, they do not live,” the pope lamented. “But we must embrace Jesus in adoration and ask for eyes that know how to see good and see God’s ways. If we welcome Christ with open arms, we will also welcome others with trust and humility. Then conflicts do not escalate, distances do not divide and the temptation to abuse and hurt the dignity of some sister or brother is extinguished. Let us open our arms, to Christ and to the brothers and sisters!”
Simeon and Anna waited in an active way, not a passive one, according to Pope Francis. He stressed the action of the Holy Spirit in the gospel reading: “it is He who makes God’s desire burn in Simeon’s heart… it is He who pushes his steps towards the temple and makes his eyes capable of recognizing the Messiah, even if he presents himself as a small and poor child.”
The Holy Spirit, the pope continued, “makes one capable of perceiving the presence of God and his work not in the great things, in the showy exterior, in the displays of strength, but in littleness and fragility.”
The pope encouraged consecrated religious to scrutinize their motivations and to ask themselves whether they let themselves be moved by the Holy Spirit or by “the spirit of the world.”
“While the Spirit leads us to recognize God in the smallness and fragility of a child, we sometimes risk thinking about our consecration in terms of results, goals, success: we move in search of spaces, visibility, numbers: it is a temptation. The Spirit, on the other hand, does not ask for this. He wants us to cultivate daily fidelity, docile to the little things that have been entrusted to us,” Pope Francis said.
He also praised the beautiful fidelity of Simeon and Anna, as shown in their daily visits to the temple to wait and pray even if nothing seems to happen. They waited their whole life without discouragement or complaint.
The pontiff offered more questions for reflection: “What love drives us to move forward? The Holy Spirit or the passion of the moment, which is anything? How do we move in the Church and in society?”
“Sometimes, even behind the appearance of good works, the worm of narcissism or the craving to be the leading character can be hidden,” he warned. Other religious communities, even while doing good things, seem motivated by “mechanical repetition” rather than “the enthusiasm to adhere to the Holy Spirit.”
He encouraged the congregation to reflect on what their eyes see.
“Simeon, moved by the Spirit, sees and recognizes Christ. And he prays, saying: ‘My eyes have seen your salvation’,” the pope continued. “Here is the great miracle of faith: he opens his eyes, transforms the gaze, changes the view.”
“As we know from many encounters of Jesus in the Gospels, faith is born from the compassionate gaze with which God looks at us, melting the hardness of our heart, healing his wounds, giving us new eyes to see ourselves and the world.”
This new vision is not naïve, but wise. It sees even the “most painful” things. It does not ignore reality or pretend that problems are invisible. Rather, one’s eyes must know how to “see within” and to see beyond appearances.
“The elderly eyes of Simeon, although tired from the years, see the Lord, they see salvation,” the pope said.
He lamented some worldly attitudes that see religious life as a “waste” for men or women, or see it as outdated or something useless. He also warned religious communities against “looking backwards” or nostalgia “for what no longer exists.” Rather, they should be capable of “a far-sighted gaze of faith,” capable of hopeful vision that is open to the future.
God gives signs inviting us “to cultivate a renewed vision of consecrated life.”
He warned about a rigid approach to tradition that pretends not to see these signs and continues“as if nothing had happened, “repeating the same things as always, dragging ourselves by inertia into the forms of the past, paralyzed by the fear of change.”
He also warned against “the temptation to go backwards, out of security, out of fear, to keep the faith, to keep the founding charism.”
“Let’s get it right: rigidity is a perversion, and under every rigidity there are serious problems,” he said.
Even in their old age, Simeon and Anna did not show regret for the past but “they open their arms to the future that comes to meet them.”
“Neither Simeon nor Anna were rigid, no, they were free and had the joy of celebrating: him, praising the Lord and prophesying with courage to his mother; and she, like a good old lady, going from side to side saying: ‘Look at these, look at this!’ They gave the proclamation with joy, their eyes full of hope. No past inertia, no stiffness.”
Even behind genuine crises, including a lack of vocations, the Holy Spirit “invites us to renew our life and our communities,” and God will show the way to do this for those who open their hearts with courage and without fear.
“Let us place ourselves before the Lord, in adoration, and ask for eyes that know how to see the good and see the ways of God. The Lord will give them to us, if we ask for it,” said the pope.
[…]
Ugh.
“Condemned to the death penalty.”
Sounds like a pretty good description of abortion to me.
We read from the EU Charter: “Everyone has the right to life” and “No one shall be condemned to the death penalty, or executed.” But now, “the right to abortion.”
It’s not only about natural rights (as still affirmed by religion), but rather it’s also about abrogation of the non-demonstrable first principle of non-contradiction. In the lost ability to consistently carry two realities or ideas at once between one’s closed ears, we might be reminded how Pope John Paul II dealt simultaneously with the prudential judgment pertaining to capital punishment and with the most elementary human right to life…
In his “Gospel of Life,” of capital punishment John Paul II first found “such cases are very rare” (n. 56), and then, with this affirmation as a segue (!), he then affirmed that “‘You shall not kill’ has absolute value [!] when it refers to the innocent person [italics]. And all the more so in the case of weak and defenseless human beings, who find their ultimate defence against the arrogance and caprice of others only in the absolute binding force of God’s commandment” (n. 57).
As for the euphemism of “health care,” and as it has been said elsewhere, “Indeed, there is no ‘compelling argument’ not to slit anybody’s throat except for the Commandments given on Mount Sinai.”
Ironic and now tragic name from the Hebrew, this: “Emmanuel” [God is with us] Macron.
It boggles my mind why these people are so intent on making abortion a “right”. Do they not have a soul? How can snuffing out the life of a human being be called a “right”? It’s all so evil.
I have little doubt that Macron and The Pontiff Francis agree on the Macron agenda, whatever the topic.
Perhaps The Pontiff will award Macron with another papal medal like the one he gave to his esteemed abortion-promoter-friend Frau Ploumen of Belgium, right after Macron completes the Disney-fication of Notre Dame, which I’m sure The Pontiff eagerly awaits.
Liliane Ploumen was a Dutch politician. Emma Bonino an Italian politician and abortion promotor was also lauded by the Pope.
Renate Brauner an Austrian politician and abortion promotor was
lauded by Cardinal Schönborn in agreement with the Vatican.
In view of everything Mini-Macron believes in, that photo is particularly repugnant.
Were it an historically lesser Catholic nation than Catholicism’s eldest daughter, that a ‘right’ to abortion is promoted to the EU by French President Emmanuel Macron, Catholic by baptism regardless of agnosticism spells the secularization of Catholicism, not doctrinally rather practically. America’s Catholic pres, the greatest abortion implementer in our history.
His Holiness’ interface smile with Macron November at the Vatican increases angst, whether it’s approval of the issue or simply protocol friendliness. As referenced in weigel’s Marching Toward a Different Future Francis has given us a mixed message on abortion with effect leaning toward approval, largely based on sidelining the USCCB on Eucharistic cohesion as well as his friendly rapport with notorious abortion advocates.
This world is rapidly changing culturally based on a revision of Man and justice. An ideological anthropology that confers all the rights, and liberty possible, all the justice protection to the individual, to the exclusion of the birth of human life itself. A self adulation devouring itself.
Who will speak, will this staggering bloodied Church produce the likes of the great Alexandrian Fathers Athanasius and Cyril? Has the flame of faith flickered to ash? Will the great synodal journey, now expanded by Vatican request to all quarters of belief, faith, atheism and error thrust the estocada? God can do all things.
European Values: massacre 200.000 nationals every year… and import as many islamists. Vive La Republique…
Wasn’t it JP II who stated that when society fails to protect its most vulnerable it won’t survive?
Macron lauds the Charter of Fundamental Rights, “which enshrined, among other things, the abolition of the death penalty throughout the Union,” and hopes twenty years later to enshrine “the recognition of the right to abortion,” which is a death penalty for those who have never been able to commit any infraction that would warrant the death penalty. Wait, What?
very sad these politicians hopping over one another to be cool and kill kids…
Making murder legit so people can indulge in sexual license. More than a little disgusting. More disgusting that so many of those pushing such “rights” are supposed Catholics. An issue the current Pope prefers not to address, as he clearing give warm welcomes to the likes of Pelosi, Biden, Macron, and their ilk. “Who am I to judge” doesnt wash when you are the POPE and its ABSOLUTELY your job to judge and set standards for church members. If such people with a big public profile insist ion giving scandal, they should be excommunicated and shown the door. One is not OBLIGATED to be a member of the church, nor is it a civil right. Stop talking out of both sides of your mouth by pretending to be a practicing Catholic and then advocating for abortion. The Pope needs to start taking a genuine stand on church standards in ALL areas. Or maybe he should retire in favor of someone who CAN.
Macron stands there with his smiling face hanging out saying,
“Twenty years after the proclamation of our Charter of Fundamental Rights, … I hope that we will be able to update it, in particular to be more explicit about environmental protection or the recognition of the right to abortion,” he said.
Ya, sure, protect the environment, skid the babies———
Ya, well, he’s alive, got that? French President Emmanuel Macron is alive! Yup, he was allowed to live. He’s lucky the “update” didn’t occur sooner.
Now let’s hold hand with the Pope. Them’s is scarry eyes, I tell ye!
The extreme moral hypocrisy of Macron when condemning capital punishment and – in the same breath – lauding abortion.