mda. “A new sun rises over the New Civilization that is born tody. A chain stronger than hate and than death: We know it: The road is Love…” This was the song that greeted Francis in his warm, spontatneous and long awaited encounter with his Argentinean young people, a song that does not seem to want to end: The road is love…a song that seems to be the program of this week in Rio that seems like a year because it has provoked so many and such profound changes in so many hearts..
Rio is flooded in a torrential rain and it is celebrating…The media of the world is spreading images of hope and unpublished words: “Faith is revolutionary. And I ask you: are you willing to enter this revolutionary wave of faith?” Let me tell you what I hope will be the outcome of World Youth Day: I hope there will be noise. Here there will be noise, I’m quite sure. Here in Rio there will be plenty of noise, no doubt about that. But I want you to make yourselves heard in your dioceses, I want the noise to go out, I want the Church to go out onto the streets, I want us to resist everything worldly, everything static, everything comfortable, everything to do with clericalism, everything that might make us closed in on ourselves.. Francis said to a million young people at Copacabana and to the innumerable Argentineans in the cathedral of Rio respectively. This was said by the “Pope of the embraces”, as a newspaper from Spain calls him, this Pope who called on the bishops and priests to go out to the street and the young people to get involved and to not leave the change of the world in the hands of others: “Please, do not let others be the protagonists of change. You are the ones who hold the future. You…the future of the world will enter through you. I ask you to also be protagonists of this change. Continue to overcome apathy and offer a Christian response to the social restlessness and politics that are taking place in different parts of the world. I ask that you be builders of the future, that you get involved in the work for a better world. Dear young people, please do not remain on the fringes of life, get involved in it, Jesus did not stay on the fringes, he got involved, do not stay on the fringes of life, get involved in it like Jesus did…”
We are going to have to enlarge the churches!
“All of Brazil is vibrating”, the collaborators of schoenstatt.org related. “We went to a restuarant to get something to eat, some people entered and immediately they asked that the televsion be turned on so that could watch the Pope…” The rhythm of the live transmissions marks the rhythm of life (and the rhytym of the work of the schoenstatt.org team). There are people “live” via Skype or email that because of the time difference had not seen it. At three o’clock in the morning Sarah-Leah Pimentel in South Africa and a collaborator from Europe finished their translations “from the Pope” chatting for a while because what was experienced was too strong…and both had to be at their work a few hours later, just to turn on the pc once again. :I could not leave my house or get away from the monitor”, Claudia Echenique relates, that she taped the photos that were transmitted by CTV for the articles of this page. “I was at the National Youth Encounter in Argentina in 1985 at Cordoba. I was at World Youth Day in Buenos Aires in 1987 with John Paul II. But this surpasses EVERYTHING!!! Francis renewed hope, faith and LIFE!”
“I do not know what you think, but my impression is that with Pope Francis…We are going to have to enlarge the churches! The witness that he is giving through his example plus the message of Jesus Christ is motivating people whom I know and who were far from Catholicism, to slowly approach the Church. Long live the Holy Spirit!!!”, said Juan Barbosa, from Cordoba, Argentina, and Father José María García from Madrid responded: “You are right, Juan, beginning by enlarging our hearts so that everyone will have a place! I join your plea…long live the Holy Spirit because as Father Francis told us, he counts on us, with our prayers and with our work, with our witness to carry out the task, which is entrusted to him.”
It it is the work of the Holy Spirit! He came to make noise and what noise he made…
“Thank you for all the beautiful things that we are sharing and feeling through this means”, Rosita Ciola wrote, from El Palomar in Argentina. “I am very excited and super on fire seeing “our Holy Father”, as a true Father of the entire world!! It is incredible how he is awakening sleeping hearts, he is “he is a hit” within our youth!! It is marvelous!!!!
I read a comment that said something like “with this Pope the churches will have be enlarged!” And it is true, I believe the same thing, his message is so clear, it transmits so much force (because he is also transmitting what he lives) surely many Catholic people that we never saw at Mass are appearing…and this is God’s work, a work of his Spirit!!! He came to make noise and what noise he made!!!!!!!!
He is transmitting his love and his enthusiasm for Christ, he wanted to give the young people and many brothers/sisters “who are asleep” in their faith the opportunity to have the experience of feeling Jesus in their heart, a heart that is inhabited by Christ beats differently, feels differently, loves differently!! It is a love that burns within and we have to”share” it is the noise that Francis is asking of the young people, but to serve “everyone”, go out boys/girls!!! To transmit that joy and truth to others, go out to set the world on fire!!!!
I join in praying the one thousand Hail Marys, the Holy Father needs us and we his children say: “here we are”, I am going to watch him because the activities of this new day are about to start. May it be a very blessed day for everyone!”
“Too bad the Holy Spirit found out before we did who Jorge Bergoglio is and he took him for the world. May God bless His Holiness Francis”, states a comment in one of the newspapers of Argentina. It is a response to an article by Alfredo Leuco, a well known political journalist from Argentina; he is a Jew that is widely listened to daily after 3:00 p.m. on radio Continental of Buenos Aires, who said that he was going to elect him president because he “has the virtues, values and ideas of the most important politicians of our country and that because of his capacity and his revolutionary stamp he should be studied in the schools as one of the leading heroes from Argentina and the planet…Many times I have asked myself what it is that awakens so much admiration in me for the Pope since I am not Catholic…”, he answered himself: “He feels comfortable in the favelas of the world because he profoundly knows our villas of misery. He paints his neighborhood and that is why he is universal. He tells the truth, he preaches through example. His hands are clean, he says that sinners can be forgiven, but not the corrupt…” “I am not Catholic”, states another comment, “This Pope is touching me and I pray for him!”
My fraternal affection and my sincere solidarity
He is sincere in his solidarity. The times of prayer in complete silence on the beach of Copacabana for the young people who died at a the nightclub of Santa Maria, remains in memory. A sorrow that is in his own heart, a sorrow of solidarity. Sorrow of solidarity with the victims of the train accident in Santiago of Compostela on July 25th.
“When I was informed about the serious train derailment that occurred close to Santiago de Compostela, that provoked numerous victims and many wounded, “profoundly saddened I raised fervent prayers to the Almighty for all those killed and injured in this tragic event. With great suffering I ask your Excellency to kindly convey my spiritual closeness, affection and sincere fraternal solidarity to those who have suffered in this tragedy and to their families. I assure them of my prayers for the eternal repose of the souls of the dead, and for all those afflicted in their time of grief, in the hope of their speedy and complete recovery.
“On this day, in which the Church is entrusted to the intercession of St. James, the celestial patron of Spain and witness to the Risen Christ, I wish to express my support to all the sons of this noble land, and impart a heartfelt apostolic blessing, bearer of the hope that comes from faith and the consolation offered by authentic love”.
Francis
These are gestures that accompany his call for a solidarity that cries for those who suffer,Pope Francis encouraged the young people to let themselves be “smitten” by God’s love and allow it to transform the way they see others, so that they would treat everyone — especially the hurting – with mercy and tenderness,above all everyone who suffers, who needs help, who wait for a word, a gesture. The cross invites us to go out of ourselves to go to their encounter to extend a helping hand. “How many people were with Jesus on the way to Calvary: Pilate, Simon of Cyrene, Mary, the women… Today I ask you: which of these people do you want to be like? Do you want to be like Pilate, who did not have the courage to go against the tide to save Jesus’ life, and instead washed his hands. Tell me: are you one of those who wash their hands, who play dumb and turn away? Or are you like Simon of Cyrene, who helped Jesus to carry that heavy wood, like Mary and the other women, who were not afraid to accompany Jesus all the way to the end, with love and tenderness. And you? Which of these do you want to be like? Like Pilate? Like Simon? Like Mary?” Jesus is watching you now and He says: do you want to help me carry the Cross? Brothers and sisters, with your youthful strength, how will you answer Him?”
A Copernician revolution
“Look beloved friends”, Francis said, “faith accomplishes a revolution in us, one which we can call Copernician, because it removes us from the Centre and puts God at the centre; faith immrses us in his love and gives us security, strength, and hope”.
There are many who are already speaking about Rio 2013 as a Copernician revolution.
