ANGELUS POPE
FRANCIS
Saint
Peter's Square
Sunday,
15 February 2015
Dear Brothers and Sisters, Good morning,
In these
Sundays, Mark the Evangelist speaks to us about Jesus’ actions against every
type of evil, for the benefit of those suffering in body and spirit: the
possessed, the sick, sinners.... Jesus presents Himself as the One who fights
and conquers evil wherever He encounters it. In today’s Gospel (cf. Mk 1:40-45)
this struggle of His confronts an emblematic case, because the sick man is a
leper. Leprosy is a contagious and pitiless disease, which disfigures the
person, and it was a symbol of impurity: a leper had to stay outside of
inhabited centres and make his presence known to passersby. He was marginalized
by the civil and religious community. He was like a deadman walking.
The
episode of the healing of the leper takes place in three brief phases: the sick
man’s supplication, Jesus’ response, the result of the miraculous healing. The
leper beseeches Jesus, “kneeling”, and says to Him: “If you will, you can make
me clean” (v. 40). Jesus responds to this humble and trusting prayer because
his soul is moved to deep pity: compassion. “Compassion” is a most profound
word: compassion means “to suffer-with-another”. Jesus’ heart manifests God’s
paternal compassion for that man, moving close to him and touching him. And
this detail is very important. Jesus “stretched out his hand and touched
him.... And immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean” (vv.
41-42). God’s mercy overcomes every barrier and Jesus’ hand touches the leper.
He does not stand at a safe distance and does not act by delegating, but places
Himself in direct contact with our contagion and in precisely this way our ills
become the motive for contact: He, Jesus, takes from us our diseased humanity
and we take from Him his sound and healing humanity. This happens each time we
receive a Sacrament with faith: the Lord Jesus “touches” us and grants us his
grace. In this case we think especially of the Sacrament of Reconciliation,
which heals us from the leprosy of sin.
Once
again the Gospel shows us what God does in the face of our ills: God does not
come to “give a lesson” on pain; neither does He come to eliminate suffering
and death from the world; but rather, He comes to take upon Himself the burden
of our human condition and carries it to the end, to free us in a radical and
definitive way. This is how Christ fights the world’s maladies and suffering:
by taking them upon Himself and conquering them with the power of God’s mercy.
The
Gospel of the healing of the leper tells us today that, if we want to be true
disciples of Jesus, we are called to become, united to Him, instruments of his
merciful love, overcoming every kind of marginalization. In order to be
“imitators of Christ” (cf. 1 Cor 11:1) in the face of a poor or sick person, we
must not be afraid to look him in the eye and to draw near with tenderness and
compassion, and to touch him and embrace him. I have often asked this of people
who help others, to do so looking them in the eye, not to be afraid to touch
them; that this gesture of help may also be a gesture of communication: we too
need to be welcomed by them. A gesture of tenderness, a gesture of
compassion.... Let us ask you: when you help others, do you look them in the
eye? Do you embrace them without being afraid to touch them? Do you embrace
them with tenderness? Think about this: how do you help? From a distance or
with tenderness, with closeness? If evil is contagious, so is goodness.
Therefore, there needs to be ever more abundant goodness in us. Let us be
infected by goodness and let us spread goodness!
After the Angelus:
Dear
brothers and sisters, I address a wish for serenity and peace to all the men
and women who, in the Far East and in various parts of the world, are preparing
to celebrate the Lunar New Year. This celebration offers them a propitious
occasion to rediscover and live fraternity in an intense way. It is a precious
bond of family life and the foundation of social life. May this annual return to
the roots of the person and of the family help those Peoples to build a society
characterized by interpersonal relationships, respect, justice and charity.
I greet
all of you, Romans and pilgrims; in particular, those who have come on the
occasion of the Consistory to accompany the new Cardinals; and I thank the
countries that wished to attend this event with Official Delegations. Let us
greet the new Cardinals with a round of applause!
Beloved,
I encourage you to be joyous and courageous witnesses of Jesus in everyday
life. I wish all of you a happy Sunday. Please, do not forget to pray for me.
Have a good lunch. Arrivederci!
©
Copyright - Libreria Editrice Vaticana
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