He Who Serves With Love Is Able To Protect
Clara reflexión del
provincial de los palotinos en Irlanda
By Fr. Derry Murphy SAC, Provincial Irish Province of the Mother of Divine Love
Together with the entire
Church I give thanks to God for Pope Francis and for our Emeritus Pope
Benedict.
The homily preached by
Francis today is faithful to his preaching style, it is profound, anchored in
the Word of God, centered on God and on our concrete response to it in daily
life; and it is, as always, concise.
It indicates to us in clear
steps how he is living this call; he begins by giving thanks to God, then
speaks of having ‘listened to’ the Word proclaimed in the Mass and then
directly enters into the central theme: ‘to be a ‘custos’ a ‘protector’, his
true vocation following the example of St. Joseph.
He emphasizes his awareness
that the vocation and the responsibility to be a ‘protector’ is one shared by
all people, and that it embraces all people and all that God has created, all
that lives on this earth. In living this common vocation to be protectors of
the gifts of God he warns us of the dangers which emerge, they are the fruit of
sin and result in destruction and wreak havoc in human life.
He affirms that he is
nourished by the call he has received and by the power which accompanies it and
which is a vocation to service. In quoting the words of Jesus to Peter ‘feed my
lambs, feed my sheep’ he is very clear; and this gives rise to the hope of
which he spoke and which will characterize his Papacy.
The affirmation that ‘only
the person who serves with love is able to be a protector’ is an unequivocal
message to the world.
In conclusion, the language
Pope Francis uses, the repetition of the words ‘tenderness’, ‘love’, ‘hope’,
‘service’, ‘protector - to protect’, ‘God’ and ‘Mary’, the phrases ‘to protect
Jesus with Mary’, to ‘be protectors of God’s gifts (and not owners)’, or ‘tragically
in every period of history… there are ‘Herods’, issue to us a strong challenge
to live all this in our common vocation and in communion with him.
I
leave the final words to Pope Francis, words which speak for themselves: To protect … especially the poorest…
this is a service that the Bishop of Rome is called to carry out, yet one to
which all of us are called, so that the star of hope will shine brightly… and I
ask all of you to pray for me! Amen.
P. Derry
Murphy, SAC
Provincial de la Provincia Madre del Divino Amor (Provincia Irlandesa) de los Palotinos y
Presidente de la Unión del Apostolado Católico.
Provincial de la Provincia Madre del Divino Amor (Provincia Irlandesa) de los Palotinos y
Presidente de la Unión del Apostolado Católico.
(19 de
marzo de 2013) © Innovative Media Inc.
No comments:
Post a Comment