Pope Francis at Mass: fighting evil with meekness and humility
(Vatican Radio) “Let us always remain meek and humble, that we might defeat the empty
promises and the hatred of the world.” This was the message of Pope Francis on Saturday
morning during the homily at Mass in the chapel of the Domus Sanctae Marthae. Humility
and meekness are the weapons we have to defend ourselves from the hatred of the world.
This was the focus of Pope Francis during his homily, which centered on the struggle
between the love of Christ and the hatred of the prince of this world. The Lord, he
said, tells us to be not afraid when the world hates us as it hated Him:
“The
way of the Christians is the way of Jesus,” he said. “If we want to be followers of
Jesus, there is no other way: none other than that, which He indicated to us - and
one of the consequences of this is hatred – it is the hatred of the world, and also
the prince of this world. The world would love that which belongs to it. [But Jesus
tells us], ‘I have chosen you, from the world’: it was precisely He, who rescued us
from the world, who chose us - pure grace! With His death, His resurrection, He redeemed
us from the power of the world, from the power of the devil, from the power of the
prince of this world. The origin of the hate [we experience], then is this: that we
are saved. It is that prince who does not want that we should have been saved, who
hates.”
Here then is the reason that the hatred and persecution continue from
the early days of the Church even unto the present day. There are, “Many persecuted
Christian communities in the world,” said Pope Francis, noting with bitterness, “indeed
there are more persecuted communities in this time than in the early days: today,
right now, in this day and in this hour.” Asking himself why this is the case, the
Pope said, “Because the spirit of the world hates.” From this comes a perennially
valid admonishment:
"There can be no dialogue with the prince of this world:
let this be clear! Today, dialogue is necessary among us humans, it is necessary for
peace. Dialogue is a habit, it is an attitude that we must have among us to feel and
understand each other…and that [dialogue] must be maintained forever. Dialogue comes
from charity, from love. But with that prince, it is impossible to dialogue: one can
only respond with the Word of God who defends us, for the world hates us – and just
as he did with Jesus, so will he do with us. ‘Only look,’ he will say, ‘just do this
one small little scam…it is a small matter, nothing really – and so he begins to lead
us on a road that is slightly off. This is a pious lie: ‘Do it, do it, do it: there
is no problem,' and it begins little by little, always, no? Then [he says]: ‘But ...
you're good, you're a good person: You [get away with] it.’ It is flattering – and
he softens us by flattery: and then, we fall into the trap.”
Pope Francis went
on to say that the Lord asks us to remain sheep, because if one decides to quit the
fold, then he does not have, “a shepherd to defend him and he falls into the clutches
of these wolves.”
“You may ask the question,” continued Pope Francis, ‘Father,
what is the weapon to defend against these seductions, from these blandishments, these
enticements that the prince of this world offers?’. The weapon is the same weapon
of Jesus, the Word of God - not dialogue - but always the Word of God, and then humility
and meekness. We think of Jesus, when they give that slap: what humility! What meekness!
He could have insulted him, no? One question, meek and humble. We think of Jesus in
His Passion. His Prophet says: ‘As a sheep going to the slaughter.’ He does not cry
out, not at all: humility. Humility and meekness. These are the weapons that the prince
and spirit of this world does not tolerate, for his proposals are proposals for worldly
power, proposals of vanity, proposals for ill-gotten riches.”
“Today,” continued
Pope Francis, “Jesus reminds us of this hatred that the world has against us, against
the followers of Jesus.” The world hates us, he repeated, “because He has saved us,
redeemed us.” Recalling the “weapons to defend ourselves” he added that we must remain
sheep, “because sheep are meek and humble, [and when we are sheep] we have a shepherd.”
The Pope concluded with an invocation to the Virgin Mary, asking her, “to help us
become meek and humble in the way of Jesus.”
The Mass on Saturday morning was
concelebrated by the Secretary of the Congregation for Bishops, Archbishop Lorenzo
Baldisseri, with a contingent of the Pontifical Swiss Guard in attendance.
Pope
Francis offered the soldiers a greeting of affection and gratitude. "The Church,”
he said, “loves you so much,” and, “so do I.”