{"id":1389,"date":"2014-04-27T21:15:55","date_gmt":"2014-04-28T01:15:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nuntiatura.ca\/en\/?p=1389"},"modified":"2015-02-25T15:49:59","modified_gmt":"2015-02-25T20:49:59","slug":"sunday-of-the-divine-mercy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.nuntiatura.ca\/en\/sunday-of-the-divine-mercy\/","title":{"rendered":"Two Popes, two Saints. A Canonization Celebration"},"content":{"rendered":"

Homily of the Apostolic Nuncio, Msgr. Luigi Bonazzi<\/strong>
\nVancouver, April 27, 2014<\/p>\n

Dear brothers and sisters,<\/p>\n

I greet all of you with great joy. I bring and offer each one of you the\u00a0greetings and paternal affection of Pope Francis. In the communion of the great\u00a0family that is the Church, Pope Francis is spiritually here with us: he thanks you\u00a0and blesses you.<\/p>\n

I thank your beloved Pastor, Archbishop Michael Miller, who wanted to give\u00a0me a gift: to be with you and share with you the experience of celebrating Divine\u00a0Mercy Sunday on the very day when in Rome, in the presence of a great multitude,\u00a0Pope Francis proclaimed as saints, two great Popes: Pope John XXIII and Pope\u00a0John Paul II.<\/p>\n

I will first ask you a favor: have mercy on my poor English. I rely very\u00a0much upon the generosity of your attentive listening. I know, indeed, that the\u00a0attention and love of those who are listening give beauty and flavor to the words of\u00a0the speaker. I invite you all to be protagonists in this moment: you, listening with\u00a0love; me offering to you these modest words! Thank you.<\/p>\n

Some beautiful words of Pope Benedict XVI help me to begin my homely.\u00a0In his encyclical Letter, dedicated to hope, he wrote, \u201cHuman life is a journey.\u00a0Towards what destination? How do we find the way? Life is like a voyage on the\u00a0sea of history, often dark and stormy, a voyage in which we watch for the stars that\u00a0<\/em>indicate the route. The true stars of our life are the people who have lived good\u00a0lives. They are lights of hope. Certainly, Jesus Christ is the true light, the sun that\u00a0has risen above all the shadows of history.<\/em>\u201d (Spe Salvi, no. 49)<\/p>\n

Dear brothers and sisters: Jesus Christ, the Crucified and Risen, the Sun par\u00a0excellence, accompanies us in this liturgical celebration. Let us allow the Risen\u00a0Lord to take us by the hand. He is among us, just as he stood among his disciples\u00a0on Easter evening, in the Upper Room, where they had gathered in fear and with\u00a0the doors closed. We are today the Upper Room, the Cenacle. Jesus himself\u00a0comes into our midst and says to us, \u201cPeace be with you.\u201d (John 20:26) Let us ask: who were the people Jesus greeted when he said \u201cPeace be with\u00a0you.\u201d? We know: they were his disciples, the apostles, who, at his arrest, fled and
\nabandoned Jesus; one even came to deny him!<\/p>\n

We are not so different from those disciples. We also \u2013 if we are honest \u2013\u00a0must acknowledge having denied and betrayed the love of God. We do this all\u00a0those times when in our choices we are saying: \u201cYou do not interest me. I do not\u00a0need your love, nor your commandments. I prefer to do what pleases me.\u201d<\/p>\n

What happens when Jesus appears to the disciples and shows them his hands\u00a0and side marked by the wounds of the crucifixion? It is a moment of great\u00a0commotion. The Gospel says, \u201cThe disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.\u201d\u00a0The gospel does not tell us the reason for this joy but we can easily guess. We can\u00a0think that, in different ways, each disciple may have thought, \u201cI abandoned him and\u00a0he comes to look for me; I betrayed the friendship of my master and he comes\u00a0again to call me friend; I thought it was all over and he tells me that everything can\u00a0start again; we distanced ourselves from him and he reunites us to himself and to\u00a0one another.\u201d For the disciples it is a new experience of that love which is rich in\u00a0mercy (Eph. 2:4), and which Jesus taught \u2013 let us think of the parable of the\u00a0prodigal son (Luke 15:11-25) \u2013 and especially manifested by his life, taking care of\u00a0the poor, the sick, the sinners. The disciples discover that Jesus offers them the\u00a0opportunity to rise up after the fall and that he is calling them to a new beginning.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeace be with you<\/em>\u201d Jesus says again and continues, \u201cAs the Father has sent\u00a0me, even so I send you.\u201d As if to say, \u201cI have shown you the love, forgiveness and\u00a0mercy of the Father: now you have to be the witnesses of the love and mercy of the\u00a0Father! Go and tell others that there is no tear that cannot be dried, no sin that\u00a0cannot be forgiven\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cReceive the Holy Spirit.<\/em>\u201d Precisely because it is not within our own\u00a0strength that we can forgive, Jesus gives us the Holy Spirit, the same Spirit who\u00a0had made him exclaim on the cross, \u201cFather, forgive them for they know not what\u00a0they do.<\/em>\u201d (Luke 23:34) As we know, it is on the day of our baptism that each of us\u00a0received the Holy Spirit. That day a love making us capable of loving as Jesus\u00a0loves including forgiving, was given to us. Let this love flow forth from us. Let
\nthis love come alive in us. The Christian is a person forgiven who forgives; he is a\u00a0child of God who, receiving the mercy of God becomes merciful.<\/p>\n

After reminding that \u2013 in the journey of our life \u2013 Jesus is the true light, Pope\u00a0Benedict XVI continues, \u201cBut to reach him we also need lights close by<\/em> \u2013 people\u00a0who shine with his light and so guide us along our way.\u201d Who are these \u201clights close by\u201d? We know them. They are, firstly, the Virgin Mary whom with\u00a0profound trust we call \u201cStar of the Sea\u201d, and the saints, these friends of God who\u00a0are our friends, our treasures. In a particular way we can apply to the Blessed\u00a0Virgin Mary and to the saints the saying: \u201cWho finds a friend finds a treasure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Saint Pope John XXIII and Saint Pope John Paul II are two new treasures,\u00a0two great friends that the Church gives us.<\/p>\n

Pope John Paul II was a great apostle of mercy, by his teaching and above\u00a0all, by the witness of his life. Permit me to recall with you what I consider to be the\u00a0most significant example: his meeting with Ali Agca, the young Turk who had\u00a0attempted to assassinate him. It was on December 27, 1983. Two years after the\u00a0attempt on May 13, 1981. Pope John Paul II had gone to pay a visit to his would be\u00a0assassin in the Roman prison of Rebibbia. A personal meeting of 15 minutes\u00a0took place. Leaning towards each other \u2013 the man who had used violence and the\u00a0man who had suffered from violence \u2013 they looked and listened with love to each\u00a0other. Once the meeting ended, the Pope went to visit some 200 women detained\u00a0in the same prison and shared with them what he had experienced in the encounter\u00a0with Ali Agca. He said: \u201cWe met as men and as brothers, because we are all\u00a0brothers and all the events of our lives must lead us to fraternity.<\/strong>\u201d<\/p>\n

I have always been struck by this episode and witness. John Paul II teaches\u00a0us that all life experiences, even the most painful, lead us to fraternity. It is not true
\n\u2013 says the Pope now Saint \u2013 that discord and hatred can only generate more discord\u00a0and more hatred. No! The evil that unfortunately lives within the human heart can\u00a0be stopped. It\u2019s enough to allow mercy to work within us: mercy which is the gift\u00a0of the Crucified and Risen Lord, the gift that enables us to overcome evil with\u00a0good, to transform enmity into friendship, and therefore to increase fraternity\u00a0within the human family.<\/p>\n

In particular, John Paul II has taught us that forgiveness and mercy are\u00a0something more than pious intentions when they promote brotherhood: in other\u00a0words when they lead us to see one another and treat one another as God sees and\u00a0treats us: as his children. For this to happen it is necessary to constantly overcome\u00a0all those emotional, temperamental, cultural and social obstacles that our personal\u00a0or collective history may build. \u201cThere is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither\u00a0slave nor free, there is neither male nor female<\/em>\u201d – the apostle Paul used to remind\u00a0the Christian community of Galatia \u2013 \u201cfor you are all one in Christ Jesus.<\/em>\u201d (Gal.\u00a03:28) In the context of the history of Canada these words may be translated in this\u00a0way: there is neither English or French, Filipino or Chinese, Polish or Mexican\u2026\u00a0or rather\u2026 there are English and French, Filipinos and Chinese, Polish and\u00a0Mexicans \u2013 because the Lord respects and promotes our own history and\u00a0individuality \u2013 but above all, we are all brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n

A few words now on Saint Pope John XXIII. He was born in the region\u00a0where I too was born: Bergamo. It is also for this reason that your Archbishop\u00a0kindly did me the honor of asking me to speak to you today. Pope John XXIII.\u00a0What can we say about him?<\/p>\n

He who had been affectionately called il Papa buono<\/em>, \u201cthe good Pope\u201d had a\u00a0secret. He was faithful to a resolution made since he was a young priest: to\u00a0transform into an opportunity for goodness every situation of life, thanks to the\u00a0power of prayer and charity. He pledged to keep from all bitterness, to avoid anger\u00a0and personal outbursts, to have for all a happy and smiling patience. He made as\u00a0his own, the aspiration taken from the Gospel, \u201cJesus, meek and humble of heart\u00a0(Mt. 11:29), make my heart like unto thine.\u201d Belonging to a family of humble and\u00a0modest farmers, he knew that it was precisely the meek and gentle that Jesus\u00a0promised would \u201cinherit the earth.\u201d (Mt. 5:5) Yes, in the end, it is neither violence\u00a0nor arrogance but goodness, the spirit of kindness, gentleness and peace that\u00a0conquers hearts. Of all these things, Saint Pope John XXIII is a living example.<\/p>\n

Lord, help us to be instruments of peace and mercy. Help us to give and to\u00a0receive pardon. Help us to see the others not as strangers but as brothers, perhaps\u00a0different but always brothers, and to work together to build a civilization of love.\u00a0Then we will rejoice. Then all of us, like the disciples when they saw the Lord,\u00a0will experience joy. The true joy. Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Homily of the Apostolic Nuncio, Vancouver, April 27, 2014<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[45,22],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.nuntiatura.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1389"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.nuntiatura.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.nuntiatura.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.nuntiatura.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.nuntiatura.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1389"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/www.nuntiatura.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1389\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1655,"href":"http:\/\/www.nuntiatura.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1389\/revisions\/1655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.nuntiatura.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.nuntiatura.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.nuntiatura.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}