(Vatican Radio ) Veronica Scarisbrick reports on the words of Pope Francis during
his homily at Holy Mass at the Marian Shrine of Aparecida on Wednesday 24th of July:
While Pope Francis inherited from Benedict XVI, now Pope Emeritus, most
of the planned World Youth Day events, he also chose to add to the schedule a visit
to the Marian Shrine of Aparecida which lies two hundred kilometres from Rio de Janeiro
and is visited each year by over seven million pilgrims.
The event began
at the Basilica of the Shrine with a brief moment of prayer in the Chapel by the
Hall of the 12 Apostles where an image of Our Lady is housed and it ended with an
Act of Consecration to Our Lady of Aparecida. A consecration which took place at
the end of the Holy Mass celebrated in Portuguese with the local Bishops. During
his homily on this occasion, Pope Francis highlighted in a special way his Marian
devotion.
As we know right from the very start of his pontificate Pope Francis
entrusted his ministry as Successor of Peter to Our Lady making a surprise visit to
Rome’s Basilica of Saint Mary Major on the day after his election. In Brazil Pope
Francis chose to repeat this gesture of Marian devotion. He did so at the Marian
Shrine of Aparecida. In the course of his homily during Holy Mass, at what he described
as the house of the Mother of every Brazilian. It was here that he chose to place
at her feet the future not just of the young pilgrims currently in Brazil for the
XXVIII World Youth Day but also that of the people of the entire Latin American continent. “When
the Church looks for Jesus”, he said on this occasion, “she always knocks at his Mother’s
door”. I too, he remarked , have come here to knock on the door of the house of
Mary, so she may help us pass on to future generations those values necessary to
build both a more just and fraternal nation and world. In order to do this Pope
Francis indicated three simple attitudes to be adopted: to be hopeful, to allow ourselves
to be surprised by God and to live joyfully. To be hopeful, Pope Francis insisted
forcefully, because despite the presence of evil in society with its attraction
to idols that take the place of God such as money , success, power and pleasure ,
God always has the upper hand. To allow ourselves to be surprised by God because,
even in the midst of difficulties, God can surprise us if we place our trust in him.
And to live joyfully because Christians should never be gloomy as they always
have at their side, the face of God as a loving Father. Attitudes these the Pope
encouraged the faithful to adopt here in Aparecida, where six years ago the Fifth
General Conference of the Bishops of Latin America and the Caribbean was held. A Conference
Pope Francis described on Wednesday as a great moment for the Church, one which gave
birth to a Document which he himself wrote up. And one which six years later he
described as the result of interplay between the work of the Bishops and that of
the simple faith of the pilgrims under Mary’s maternal protection. I'm Veronica
Scarisbrick