REFLECTION ON POPE FRANCIS' INAUGURAL HOMILY

 He Who Serves With Love Is Able To Protect

Clara reflexión del provincial de los palotinos en Irlanda

· Dublin, 19 March 2013 (Zenit.org) Redacción | 235 hitos

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.

(19 de marzo de 2013) © Innovative Media Inc.