Pope Francis ended the second day of his pastoral visit to Kazakhstan with the Holy Mass, as Catholics from all over the country and from other parts of Asia came to Nur-Sultan for the Eucharist presided over by the Pope. In his homily, the Pope elaborated on the meaning of the Holy Cross of Christ and urged all races and religions to treat each other with love.
(Vatican News Network)Pope Francis presided over Holy Mass at the Expo Square in Nur-Sultan, capital of Kazakhstan, on September 14, the Feast of the Holy Cross. In his homily, the Pope emphasized that there is a fundamental difference between the logic of God and the logic of the world. The cross was originally the “torture of death”, but because of Jesus Christ it has become a tool for all to gain salvation. The Pope encouraged those present to develop brotherhood “because what we learn from the cross of Christ is love, not hatred”.
The Eucharist is held in Latin and Russian, and the prayers of the faithful are recited in Russian and Kazakh. About 6,000 people attended the ceremony, and the priests who co-consecrated with the Pope included: Archbishop Tomasz B. Peta of the Archdiocese of Astana to the Holy Virgin Mary, and Chairman of the Central Asia Bishops Conference Meng Meng Bishop José Luis Mumbiela Sierra, and Cardinal Giorgio Marengo, Apostolic Vicar of Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. In the first reading from the “Household Register”, the Lord sent fiery serpents into the wilderness to kill many Israelites who were impatient with the Lord. Whoever bites will survive as long as he looks at the bronze snake on the wooden pole (see: Hu 21:4-9). In the selected Gospel passages, St. John the Evangelist writes: “Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so the Son of Man will be lifted up, that all who believe in him may have eternal life in him” (cf.: John 3:13-17)
The Pope first spoke of the Israelites who were impatient with God and Moses, and invited them to reflect on their own and collective experiences. The Pope said: “How many times have we been exhausted in the wilderness, losing faith and patience, without seeing the end of the journey! There is also a wilderness in this great country with beautiful scenery, telling us the toil and exhaustion in our hearts. We also have moments of exhaustion and trials, when we no longer have the strength to look up to the sky and to God.”
In these dark moments on the personal, ecclesiastical and societal level, we are “bitten by the serpent of lack of faith”, mired in pessimism, resignation and self-isolation. In fact, Kazakhstan “has no shortage of painful bites”. “I think of the fiery serpent of violence, persecuted by atheists, of a road that is often obstructed, in which the freedom of peoples is threatened and their dignity harmed,” the Pope said.
Referring to past experiences, the Pope reminded everyone not to think that the darkness of the past is gone forever. Pope Francis thus referred to the words of his predecessor, St. John Paul II, during his visit to the country in September 2001: “Peace is not earned once and for all, but must be fought every day; The same goes for harmonious coexistence, holistic development and social justice among all ethnic groups and religious traditions. May Kazakhstan increase more and more fraternity, dialogue and understanding…, built for solidarity and cooperation with other peoples, countries and cultures Bridges, which require the efforts of all. First of all, it is necessary to renew faith in the Lord: look up on high, gaze upon him, learn his love for the world and for his sacrifice on the cross.”
Then the Pope spoke regarding the snake that saved lives. The Lord heard Moses’ plea in the wilderness, and the Pope asked: Why did God not destroy the serpents himself, but rather through Moses? “This style of conduct revealed to us his actions in the face of sin. Then, as now, in the great spiritual battles that have existed until the end of history, God did not remove the downhill path that human beings are free to follow,” the Pope explained.
“In the face of our downward trend, God has given us new heights: if we lift our eyes to Jesus, the wounds of sin cannot continue to hold us, because on the cross He took the venom of sin and death Himself, defeated Its destructive power. Faced with the spread of sin in the world, that is exactly what the Father does; he gave us Jesus, who is close to us in ways we might never have imagined.”
Jesus “became sin for us” (cf. 2 Cor 5:21), the serpent that brought salvation. Our salvation, says the Pope, consists in looking at Jesus crucified: He gives us a new perspective on our life and history: “From the cross of Christ we learn love , not hatred; forgiveness, not revenge.”
“Jesus’ open arms are the tender embrace of God who wants to receive us, to show us the fraternity we are called to live with each other and with all people. His arms show us the way, the Christian’s The way: It is not the way of imposing, coercive, powerful and violent. It is by no means the way of attacking other brothers and sisters with the cross of Christ! Other brothers and sisters also depend on the gift of Christ for their life. The way is another, the way of salvation: it is the way of humble, gratuitous, world-oriented love, with neither ifs nor buts.”
At the end of the sermon, the Pope exhorted everyone not to live with venom, “not to bite each other, not to gossip” and “not to pollute the world with sin and mutual mistrust from evil”. The meaning of living the Christian life is to “be a joyful witness of new life, love and peace”.
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