(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Sunday baptized 26 baby girls and boys during Mass in the Sistine Chapel marking the feast day of Jesus’ baptism in the River Jordan.
In a short and off-the-cuff homily the Pope said through baptism, our faith is handed on from one generation to the next, throughout the course of history. To the parents of the 13 girls and 13 boys, he said they must never forget that faith is the greatest heritage they can give to their children. Amid the sounds of some of the babies crying, Pope Francis told the mothers to feel free to feed their children whenever they are hungry.
Listen to our report:
In his Angelus address, following the Mass, the Pope recalled the Gospel accounts of the Baptism of Jesus, during which the Holy Spirit is seen descending like a dove and a voice is heard from heaven saying “You are my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased”. In this way, the Pope said, Jesus is revealed by God as our saving Messiah.
Through this event, which is found in all four Gospel accounts, he said, the Holy Spirit frees us from the darkness of original sin and restores to the baptized person the beauty of divine grace. This extraordinary dignity of Baptism, through which we are called to be children of God, the Pope said, also brings with it the responsibility of following Jesus and imitating his obedience, humility and tenderness. Not an easy thing to do, Pope Francis noted, especially when we are surrounded by intolerance, pride and hardness of heart, but through the Holy Spirit all things are possible.
On this feast of Jesus’ Baptism, the Pope said, let us remember our own baptism and reaffirm our commitment to live as Christians and members of the Church in which all our brothers and sisters. We are only baptized once, he said, but we are called to witness to that new life every day of our lives, sharing the light of Christ, especially with those living in darkness or inhuman conditions.
Finally Pope Francis had a special blessing for all those children who have been recently baptized, as well as adults and young people who are preparing or have recently received the Sacraments of Christian Initiation.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) In many societies today, the utterance of a simple phrase, “I am a Christian”, is a crime punishable by death. So widespread is this persecution that Pope Francis called it a “third world war, waged piecemeal … a form of genocide”.
The Holy Father spoke primarily of those many who are dying for the Faith today. Yet many more Christians live in constant danger. According to reliable estimates, more than 200 million Christians in 60 countries around the world face some form of restriction on their faith.
Persecution is happening today on a massive scale, and the perpetrators are from everywhere on the globe. They draw their motivation from a wide range of ideologies, from materialistic, from a wide range of ideologies, from materialistic communism to radical Islam. They charge Christians with crimes such as sedition and blasphemy. Persecution is taking place in Iraq, Syria, Pakistan, India, China, Nigeria, Sudan, North Korea, and many other lands. It is happening in plain sight. Sometimes the persecutors brazenly post video footage of the execution of Christians on social media.
Yet it is hardly remarked upon in major media outlets. It is barely noticed by diplomats and heads of state. It is, in fact, treated as a political liability. Christian martyrs, it has been said, are too religious to excite the interest of the American left and too foreign to rouse the interest of the right. And so martyrs are abandoned to their fight, left to suffer alone. We see the truth in the observation of the poet W.H. Auden: “even the dreadful martyrdom must run its course / Anyhow in a corner, some untidy spot.”
The above text is from the preface of Cardinal Wuerl’s recent book, To the Martyrs: A Christian Reflection on the Supreme Witness (Steubenville, Ohio, Emmaus Road, 2015, 135 pages, US $22.95) with introduction by Carl A. Anderson, Supreme Knight of the Knights of Columbus.
Cardinal Donald Wuerl is Archbishop of Washington, DC in the United States. The Archdiocese of Washington is home to over 620,000 Catholics living in Washington and five Maryland counties: Calvert, Charles, Montgomery, Prince George’s and St. Mary’s.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Residents of the most isolated and war-ravaged parts of Syria are desperately awaiting the arrival of promised food aid and other emergency supplies. The Syrian government agreed yesterday to allow humanitarian deliveries to some of the most isolated areas. Tens of thousands of people are said to be facing the imminent threat of death by starvation.
Caritas Internationalis has launched an international campaign with its regional partners in the Middle East to pressure the international community to act decisively to bring the nearly five-year-old civil war in Syria to an end.
The General Secretary of Caritas Internationalis, Michel Roy, told us there is real danger of losing sight of the terrible human toll of the conflict.
Listen to Susy Hodges’ interview with Michel Roy:
Caritas Internationalis, together with its colleagues, all agree that Syria is at the heart of a geo-political struggle in which the Syrian people “count for nothing.”
“When we met last September we agreed to ask the international community to seek peace,” Roy said. “The problem is that the international community will talk about peace but will not include Assad in its talks. This means, according to Roy, that “we go on with the war.”
Caritas Internationalis therefore decided to launch a campaign for peace in Syria, Iraq and the Middle East so as to exert pressure on the governments there and around to the world to make sincere, inclusive efforts at a workable peace process. The objective is to overcome international indifference toward the Syrian people. “After five years,” says Roy, “war in Syria has become normal.”
Roy also reminds listeners that what we cannot forget is that “Daesh” (the so-called Islamic State) was born in Syria and is the same movement that killed so many innocent civilians in the Paris massacre.
Citing Fr Timothy Radcliffe, Roy states that to end the war we need to allow all Syrians to sit down together. Peace is not going to come from those who have strong financial or geo-political interests in the process, like the US, Russia, arms manufacturers and oil executives.
“Daesh [Islamic State] is comprised of educated people,” Roy says. Such people, he notes, were educated in Europe, worked with Saddam Hussein, and were educated in America. Even if it makes the international community uncomfortable, they need to be included in talks in order to bring an end to the Syrian war.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis said on Friday that the embrace of God’s love has the power to silence all our sins, no matter how many. He stressed that not all love comes from God but He is the true love. The Pope’s words came during his homily at the morning Mass celebrated in the Santa Marta residence.
Taking his cue from the gospel reading from the letter of John the Apostle, Pope Francis’s homily was a reflection on the different meanings of the word ‘love’ and the two most important commandments for a Christian: to love God and to love our neighbour.
“This word ‘love’ is a word that is used so many times and when we use it we don’t know exactly what it means. What is love? Sometimes we can think of the love in the soap operas but that doesn’t appear to be love. Or else love can seem like having a crush on a person but then it fades away. Where does true love come from? Whoever loves has been created by God because God is love. Don’t say: ‘Every love is God,’ No, God is love.”
The Pope said the Apostle John underlines how God loves us first and there are many examples of this in the gospel such as during the multiplication of the loaves of bread by Jesus or in the parable of the prodigal son.
“When we have something on our mind and we want to ask God to forgive us, it’s He who is waiting for us – to forgive us. This Jubilee Year of Mercy, to some extent, is also this: that we may know that our Lord is waiting for us, each one of us. Why? To embrace us. Nothing more. To say to us: son, daughter, I love you. I let my Son be crucified for you: this is the price of my love, this is the gift of my love.”
Pope Francis went on to stress how “the Lord is waiting for me, the Lord wants me to open the door of my heart” and we must have this certainty that He will wait for us just as we are and not as we are told to be.
“We must go to the Lord and say: ‘You know Lord how much I love you.’ Or, if you don’t feel able to say it in that way: ‘You know Lord that I would like to love you but I am such a bad sinner.’ And He will do the same as he did with the prodigal son who squandered all his money on vices: he won’t let you finish your speech and with an embrace will silence you. The embrace of God’s love.”
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis warned against false spirituality and worldliness saying many people appear to be spiritual but live in a way that is totally detached from the presence or needs of others. He stressed that works of mercy are at the heart of our faith in God and the visible sign of that faith. The Pope was speaking at his first Mass at the Santa Marta residence since the Christmas break. The cue for the Pope’s homily came from the first letter of John where the Apostle writes of remaining in the Lord. The Pope explained that a Christian is somebody who remains in God, who has the Holy Spirit and who is guided by Him. Noting that John warned against Antichrists, Pope Francis said not every spirit is to be trusted and it’s necessary to test them to see whether they are from God. He said to do this we need to discern if we follow the spirit of God. And this is the daily rule of life that John teaches us.” But what does it mean to “test the spirits,” asked the Pope? It is not about “ghosts”, it is about testing, to see “what happens in my heart”, what is at the root “of what I’m feeling now, where does it come from? This is to test if “what I’m hearing comes from God” or comes from the other,” from the Antichrist. Pope Francis went on to warn against worldliness, saying this is the spirit that distances us from the Spirit of God. He said we need to have a good discernment of what is happing in our soul and the Apostle John gives us that guideline. “The criterion is the Incarnation. I can feel so many things inside, even good things, good ideas. But if these good ideas, these feelings, do not lead to God who became flesh, do not lead me to my neighbour, my brother, then they are not from God. For this reason, John begins this passage of his letter by saying: ‘This is God’s commandment that we should believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another.'” We can, the Pope continued, have “many pastoral plans”, imagine new “methods to get closer to the people”, but “if we do not follow the path of God who became flesh, the path of the Son of God who became man to walk with us, we are not on the path of the good spirit: it is the Antichrist, it is worldliness, it is the spirit of the world.” “How many people seem spiritual: ‘How spiritual that person is!’ but they do not talk about doing works of mercy. Why? Because the works of mercy are the visible sign of our confession that the Son of God became flesh: visiting the sick, feeding the hungry, taking care of those who are abandoned… works of mercy: why? The reason is because each of our brothers, whom we must love, is the flesh of Christ. God became flesh to identify with us. And those who suffer are one and the same as the suffering Christ.” Pope Francis went on to warn against believing every spirit, saying “you have to test to test the spirits to see whether they are from God.” “Serving our neighbour, our brother, our sister in need”, maybe “in need, also, of good advice, of a listening ear,” “these are the signs that we are following the path of the good spirit, namely the path of the Word of God made flesh.” “Let us ask the Lord today, he concluded, for the grace to know exactly what happens in our hearts, our desires, if we are more open to the spirit of God, that brings me to the service of others, or to the spirit of the world that revolves around myself, my closed views, my selfishness, so many other things … Let us ask for the grace to discern what happens in our hearts.” (from Vatican Radio)…