Vatican City, Apr 2, 2020 / 03:45 am (CNA).- Mother Teresa’s example should inspire us to seek out those whose suffering is hidden during the coronavirus crisis, Pope Francis said at his daily Mass on Thursday.
At the start of the Mass April 2, Pope Francis said he had seen a photograph in the newspaper of homeless people sleeping in a parking lot. He may have been referring to a widely circulated image of the homeless lying six feet apart at Cashman Center in Las Vegas March 29.
“These days of pain and sadness underline many hidden problems,” he said. “In the newspaper today there is a photo which moves the heart: many homeless people from a city lying in a parking lot, under observation… There are many homeless people today.”
“We ask St. Teresa of Calcutta to reawaken in us the sense of closeness to so many people who, in society, in normal life, are hidden but, like the homeless, in a moment of crisis, are pointed out in this way.”
In his homily via livestream from Casa Santa Marta, the chapel in his Vatican City residence, Pope Francis reflected on God’s covenant with Abraham in the Book of Genesis.
“The Lord has always remembered his covenant,” he said. “The Lord never forgets. Yes, he forgets only in one case, when he forgives sins. After he has forgiven he loses the memory, he does not remember the sins. In other cases, God does not forget.”
The pope highlighted three aspects of God’s relationship with Abraham. First, God had chosen Abraham. Second, he had promised him an inheritance. Third, he had established a covenant with him.
“The election, the promise and the covenant are the three dimensions of the life of faith, the three dimensions of the Christian life,” the pope said. “Each of us is an elect. No one chooses to be a Christian among all the possibilities that the religious ‘market’ offers him, he is an elect.”
“We are Christians because we have been elected. In this election there is a promise, there is a promise of hope, the sign is fruitfulness: ‘Abraham will be father of a multitude of nations and … you will be fruitful in faith. Your faith will flourish in works, in good works, in works of fruitfulness too, a fruitful faith. But you must – the third step – observe the covenant with me.’ And the covenant is faithfulness, to be faithful. We have been elected. The Lord has given us a promise. Now he is asking us for a covenant, a covenant of faithfulness.”
The pope then turned to the Gospel reading, John 8:51-59, in which Jesus says that Abraham rejoiced to think that he would see Jesus’ day.
“The Christian is a Christian not because he can show the faith of baptism: the baptismal faith is a certificate,” the pope said. “You are a Christian if you say yes to the election that God has made of you, if you follow the promises that the Lord has made to you and if you live a covenant with the Lord: this is Christian life.”
“The sins of the journey are always against these three dimensions: to not accept the election – and we ‘elect’ so many idols, so many things that are not of God; to not accept hope in the promise, to go, to look at the promises from afar, even many times, as the Letter to the Hebrews says, greeting them from afar and making the promises today with the little idols that we make; and forgetting the covenant, living without the covenant, as if we were without the covenant.”
He concluded: “Fruitfulness is joy, that joy of Abraham who saw the day of Jesus and was full of joy. This is the revelation that the word of God gives us today about our Christian existence. That it is like that of our father: conscious of being elected, joyful of going towards a promise and faithful in fulfilling the covenant.”
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I will consider nothing that Leo writes until he apologizes to the entire Catholic Church for backing Cupich’s move to bestow honors on a politician who did everything in his power to advance the cause of abortion in the USA.
I feel your hate.
Unlike that duplicitous footnote to chapter 8 to Amoris Laetitia, might we hope that the possible papal ghostwriter notes a real compass point? Not morally subversive (nor an alleged evasion from temporal desperation), but recalling theological and personal hope in the whole Christ, such as:
“Evangelization will also contain—as the foundation, center and at the same time summit of its dynamism—a clear proclamation that, in Jesus Christ, the Son of God made man, who died and rose from the dead, salvation is offered to all men, as a gift of God’s grace and mercy [fn—Cf. Eph 2:8, Rom 1:16]. And not an immanent salvation, meeting material or even spiritual needs, restricted to the framework of temporal existence and completely identified with temporal desires, hopes, affairs and struggles, but a salvation which exceeds all these limits in order to reach fulfillment in a communion with the one and only divine Absolute: a transcendent and eschatological salvation, which indeed has its beginning in this life but is fulfilled in eternity” (Paul VI, the apostolic exhortation “Evangelii Nuntiandi,” on the 1975 Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, n. 27).
I will consider everything Leo writes because he is my Pope, the Vicar of Christ.
“Vicar of Christ” Wasn’t that the papal appellation that Bergoglio rejected for himself?
That would be a good first start, followed by a second apology for meeting, encouraging, and supporting James Martin, SCH. We probably shouldn’t hold our breath waiting.
Dilexi te. If indeed you love me, keep my commandments (Jesus in Jn 14:15).
As reported by Pew Research only 9% of Roman Catholics believe in the Most Blessed Trinity. On the face of it that means 91% of those describing themselves as Roman Catholics aren’t.
Emergency for Pope Leo. There are many many who can deal with the poverty issue besides the Pope. The Pope, on the other hand, is perhaps the only voice who can call attention to the tragedy that 91% of self-identified Roman Catholics are deprived of the truths of the Faith.
What will the Pope do? If the current pontificate — which resembles more the Cupich-by-proxy pontificate — it would appear this disaster will be overlooked. Not quite relevant?
Are you referring to this March 2025 Barna Research poll? It’s apparently a “research report from the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University [that] shows that only 11% of American adults, and only 16% of self-proclaimed Christians, believe in the trinity.” I’ve looked at it, and have questions. The methodology is not clear at all. The language is a bit strange; for example: “How Demographic Segments Perceive the Trinity (Percentage who believe in the existence and human influence of each Person of the Trinity)”. What does “human influence” refer to here? The Second Person of the Trinity, who is fully human and fully divine by virtue of the Incarnation, has “human influence”, but how does this apply to the Father and the Holy Spirit. In addition, we read: “Less than half as many Catholics (9%) are trinitarians.” Well, most Catholics don’t use the term “trinitarian” to describe themselves, even though it’s accurate. My guess is that some respondents were confused by the questions, which don’t appear to be available. Bottom line: as poor as catechesis often is, I have a really hard time believing that only 9% of Catholics say they believe in the Trinity.
And reportedly, some seventy-five percent of Catholics deny the Real Presence.
Dilexi te.
Tough love or empathy?
The Way of the Cross or cheap grace?
Is there anything new to say about the poor? – if that is what the
exhortation is about. Perhaps we should get back to the basics of
the faith, to the commandments, to basic morality. Many people are
searching for meaning and purpose in life. Another sermon about
the poor doesn’t address the deepest questions humans have.