REGINA CÆLI POPE FRANCIS 8 MAY 2016
REGINA CÆLI POPE FRANCIS
Saint Peter's Square
Sunday, 8 May 2016
Sunday, 8 May 2016
Dear Brothers and Sisters, Good morning!
Today, in Italy and in other countries, we are
celebrating the Ascension of Jesus into Heaven, which occurred 40 days after
Easter. Let us contemplate the mystery of Jesus who leaves our earthly space to
enter the fullness of the glory of God, taking our humanity with him. In other
words, our humanity enters heaven for the first time. The Gospel of Luke
describes the reaction of the disciples before the Lord who “parted from them and
was carried up into heaven” (24:51). They had no sorrow nor dismay, but “they
worshiped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy” (v. 52). It was the
return of those who no longer feared the city that had rejected the Master, who
had seen Judas’ betrayal and Peter’s denial; who had seen the dispersion of the
disciples and the brutality of a power that felt threatened. Since that day,
the Apostles and every disciple of Christ have been able to live in Jerusalem
and in all cities of the world, even in those most afflicted by injustice and
violence, because above every city there is the same heaven and every
inhabitant can lift his or her gaze with hope. Jesus, God, is true man, with
his human body, he is in heaven! This is our hope, it is still ours, and we are
firm in this hope if we look to heaven.
In this heaven lives that God who revealed himself so
closely as to take on the face of a man, Jesus of Nazareth. He remains for us
always the God-with-us — let us remember this: Emmanuel, God with us — and he
never leaves us alone! We can look to heaven in order to recognize our future
before us. In the Ascension of Jesus, Crucified and Risen, there is the promise
of our participation in the fullness of life with God.
Before departing from his friends, Jesus, referring to
the event of his death and Resurrection, said to them: “You are witnesses of
these things” (v. 48). In other words the disciples, the Apostles, were
witnesses of the death and Resurrection of Christ, on that day, also of the
Ascension of Christ. In fact, after seeing their Lord ascend into heaven, the
disciples returned to the city as witnesses joyfully proclaiming to all the new
life which comes from the Crucified and Risen One, in whose name “repentance
and forgiveness of sins should be preached to all nations” (cf. v. 47). This is
the witness — born not only with words but with everyday life — the witness
that every Sunday should flow from our churches so as to enter during the week
into homes, offices, schools, meeting and recreational places, hospitals,
prisons, homes for the elderly, in places crowded with immigrants, in the
peripheries of the city.... We must bear this witness every week: Christ is
with us: Jesus rose to heaven, he is with us: Christ lives!
Jesus assured us that in this proclamation and in this
witness we shall be “clothed with power from on high” (v. 49), that is, with
the power of the Holy Spirit. Here is the secret to this mission: the presence
among us of the Risen Lord, who with the gift of the Holy Spirit, continues to
open our minds and our hearts, to proclaim his love and his mercy even in the
most resistant areas of our cities. The Holy Spirit is the true artisan of the
multiform witness that the Church and every baptized person renders in the
world. Therefore, we must never neglect to meditate in prayer in order to
praise God and invoke the gift of the Holy Spirit. This week, which leads us to
the Feast of Pentecost, let us remain spiritually in the Upper Room, together
with the Virgin Mary, to receive the Holy Spirit. Let us do so now too, in
communion with the faithful gathered in the Shrine of Pompeii for the
traditional Supplication.
After the Regina Caeli:
Dear brothers and sisters, today is the 50th World
Communications Day, called for by the Second Vatican Council. The Council
Fathers, reflecting on the Church of the contemporary world, understood the
crucial importance of communications, which “build bridges between individuals
and within families, social groups and peoples. This is possible both in the
material world and the digital world” (Message 2016). I address a
cordial greeting to all those employed in communications, and I hope that our
way of communicating in the Church may always have a clear Gospel style, an
approach which unites truth and mercy.
Today Mother’s Day is being celebrated in many
countries; let us recall with gratitude and affection all mothers — those who
are here today in the Square, our mothers, those who are still among us and
those who have gone to heaven — entrusting them to Mary, Mother of Jesus.
Together, for all mothers, let us pray the Hail Mary....
I wish everyone a happy Sunday. Please, do not forget
to pray for me. Enjoy your lunch. Arrivederci!
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