Seasons of Grace
How often I’ve enjoyed the little pearls of wisdom which come from Pope Francis’ morning homilies! “That would be a great blog post!” I say to myself; but all too frequently, I don’t get around to writing about it. Life goes on.
Each morning when he’s at home in Vatican City, Pope Francis celebrates an early morning Mass in the chapel at his residence, the Domus Sanctae Marthae. The audience varies–journalists, nuns and priests, office workers, gardeners, and heads of state; and the homily, while always tied to the Gospel for the day, frequently speaks directly to the needs of the gathered worshippers.
Now you can revisit the familiar off-the-cuff remarks which have become a hallmark of this papacy–not just reading the soundbytes, but savoring the full message. Now Image Books, a division of Penguin Random House, has gathered 186 of those brief homilies into a single volume, Encountering Truth: Meeting God in the Everyday.
You’ll be captivated by Pope Francis’ single-page homilies which offer commonsense wisdom and homespun truths such as these:
- Faith is not up for negotiation
- We are not saved by wizards, psychics, or ourselves
- Christians must build bridges, not walls
- The Mass is not a social event
- Praying means “bothering” God until he listens to us
- No to hypocrites “gussied up” as saints
The Pope’s imaginative analogies and his unique expressions soften his message when he urges his flock to turn away from sin and embrace the Faith:
- A Christian must not avoid the Cross
- Following Jesus means no half measures
- Let’s worship God to keep from being idolaters or hypocrites
- Half convinced Christians are Christians defeated
- Inconsistent Christians, a scandal that kills
* * * * *
Encountering Truth features a preface by Fr. Federico Lombardi, S.J., director of the Holy See Press Office, as well as an introduction by Fr. Antonio Spadaro, S.J., director of the Italian Jesuit magazine La Civiltà Cattolica. It is translated from the Italian by Matthew Sperry.
Father Spadaro, who has reported from the Vatican throughout Pope Francis’ first two years, interviewed the Pope and asked him what it means to him to celebrate the Mass every morning and to give these brief and intense homilies. Pope Francis responded, speaking of the difference between dogmatic and moral teaching and the missionary proclamation of the Church:
“A beautiful homily, a genuine sermon must begin with the first proclamation, with the proclamation of salvation. There is nothing more solid, deep, and sure than this proclamation. Then you have to do catechesis. Then you can draw even a moral consequence. But the proclamation of the saving love of God comes before moral and religious imperatives. Today sometimes it seems that the opposite order is prevailing….
The message of the Gospel, therefore, is not to be reduced to some aspects that, although relevant, on their own do not show the heart of the message of Jesus Christ.”
So Pope Francis sees the homily, Father Spadaro explains, as a proclamation that concentrates on the essential, the necessary, which is what is most stirring and attractive and makes the heart burn, as for the disciples on the road to Emmaus.
* * * * *
Father Lombardi, in his preface to the book, reflects on the difference in style between the homilies of Pope Benedict XVI and those of Pope Francis. He recalls Pope Benedict’s homilies as among the most precious texts of his pontificate; and Fr. Lombardi calls them “sublime” because of their “harmonious and profound synthesis of theology, spirituality, and teaching of Christian life, their yearning and beauty, the splendor of the truth.”
The homilies of Pope Francis, he notes, are evidently of a different nature–homilies of a son of St. Ignatius who is accustomed, as Fr. Spadaro explains, to “helping souls” to “seek and find the will of God” every day.
* * * * *
As we prepare for the Holy Year of Mercy which commences on November 20, 2015, Pope Francis’ off-the-cuff morning meditations offer hints of the concerns which weigh on this pope’s heart. His messages are chock-full of imagery and colloquialisms, yet imbued with the grace and mercy of God. Together, the collection offers plenty of fodder for morning meditations or bedtime reflections.
Encountering Truth is scheduled for release on June 16, but you can pre-order your copy here.
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