Continuing his trip to Canada, Pope Francis celebrated Mass this July 28 at the National Shrine of Saint Anne de Beaupré located in Quebec.
In his homily delivered in Spanish, the Pope warned that “there is only one path, one single path, it is the path of Jesus, that path that is Jesus himself” so he invited “let us believe that Jesus joins our path and let him reach us, let it be his Word that interprets the history we live as individuals and as a community, and that shows us the way to heal and reconcile”.
Below is the homily delivered by Pope Francis:
The journey of the disciples to Emmaus, at the end of Saint Luke’s Gospel, is an image of our personal journey and of the Church’s journey. In the course of life —and of the life of faith—, while we carry forward the dreams, projects, illusions and hopes that live in our hearts, we also face our frailties and weaknesses, we experience defeats and disappointments, and many times we are blocked by the feeling of failure that paralyzes us. But the Gospel tells us that, precisely at that moment, we are not alone, the Lord comes to meet us, stands by our side, follows our own path with the discretion of a kind passer-by who wants to open our eyes and make our hearts burn. heart. Thus, when disappointments give way to an encounter with the Lord, life is reborn to hope and we can reconcile ourselves, with our brothers and sisters, and with God.
Let us then follow the itinerary of this path that we can title: from failure to hope.
First of all, there is the feeling of failure, which dwells in the hearts of these two disciples after the death of Jesus. They had pursued a dream with enthusiasm. In Jesus they had placed all their hopes and desires. Now, after the scandalous death on the cross, they turn their back on Jerusalem to return home, to the life of before. His is a return trip, as if wanting to forget that experience that has filled his hearts with bitterness, that Messiah condemned to death like a criminal on the cross. They return home despondent, “with a sad countenance” (Lk 24:17). The expectations that had been created came to nothing, the hopes in which they believed crumbled, the dreams that they would have wanted to realize gave way to disappointment and bitterness.
This experience that also concerns our life and, in the same way, the spiritual path, on all the occasions in which we are forced to resize our expectations and learn to live with the ambiguity of reality, with the shadows of life and with our weaknesses. It is something that happens to us every time our ideals face the disappointments of life and our plans fall into oblivion because of our frailties; when we start good projects but we do not have the capacity to carry them out (cf. Rm 7,18); when in the activities that concern us or in our relationships we sooner or later experience a defeat, an error, a setback or a fall. This happens as we see what we believed in or committed to crumble and also when we feel under the weight of our sin and guilt.
This is what happened to Adam and Eve in the first Reading, their sin not only alienated them from God, but it distanced them from each other. They did nothing but accuse each other. And we also see it in the disciples of Emmaus, whose discomfort at having seen Jesus’ project collapse only left them room for a sterile discussion. The same can be verified in the life of the Church: that community of the Lord’s disciples represented by the two from Emmaus. Although the Church is the community of the Risen One, we can find her wandering lost and disillusioned before the scandal of evil and violence on Calvary. He then has no other option than to take the feeling of failure in hand and ask himself: what has happened?, why has it happened?, how could it have happened?
Brothers and sisters, these are questions that each one of us asks himself; and they are also burning issues that resonate in the heart of the pilgrim Church in Canada, in this arduous path of healing and reconciliation that she is carrying out. We too, before the scandal of evil and before the Body of Christ wounded in the flesh of our indigenous brothers, have submerged ourselves in bitterness and feel the weight of the fall. Allow me to spiritually join the multitude of pilgrims who climb the “Scala Santa”, which evokes the ascent of Jesus to Pilate’s praetorium; and accompany them as a Church in these questions that arise from a heart full of pain: Why did all this happen? How could something like this happen in the community of Jesus’ followers?
At this point, we must be attentive to the temptation to flee, which is present in the two disciples of the Gospel. Retrace the path, escape from the place where the events occurred, try to make them disappear, look for a “quiet place” like Emmaus in order to forget them. There is nothing worse, in the face of life’s setbacks than running away so as not to face them. It is a temptation of the enemy, which threatens our spiritual path and the path of the Church; she wants us to believe that defeat is final, she wants to paralyze us with bitterness and sadness, to convince us that there is nothing to do and that therefore it is not worth finding a way to start over.
However, the Gospel reveals to us that, precisely in situations of disappointment and pain, precisely when we experience in amazement the violence of evil and the shame of guilt, when the river of our life dries up because of sin and failure, when, stripped of everything, it seems to us that there is nothing left, it is precisely there that the Lord comes out to meet us and walks with us.
On the road to Emmaus, He discreetly approaches to accompany and share with those saddened disciples his resigned steps. And what does he do? He does not offer generic words of encouragement or circumstance, nor easy consolations, but rather, revealing in the Holy Scriptures the mystery of his death and his resurrection, he illuminates the history and events that they have experienced. In this way, he opens their eyes to see things with a new look. We too who share the Eucharist in this Basilica can reread many events of history. In this same place there were already three temples, but there were also people who did not back down in the face of difficulties and were able to dream again despite their mistakes and those of others.
Thus, when a fire devastated the sanctuary one hundred years ago, they did not give up, building this temple with courage and creativity. And all those who share the Eucharist from the nearby Plains of Abraham can also perceive the spirit of those who did not allow themselves to be kidnapped by the hatred of war, destruction and pain, but instead knew how to redesign a city and a country.
Finally, before the disciples of Emmaus, Jesus breaks the bread, opening their eyes and showing himself once again as a God of love who offers his life for his friends. In this way, he helps them get back on the road with joy, start over, and go from failure to hope.
Brothers and sisters, the Lord also wants to do the same with each one of us and with his Church. How can our eyes be opened again? How can our hearts be set on fire by the Gospel once more? What to do while we are afflicted by the various spiritual and material trials, while we seek the path towards a more just and fraternal society, while we wish to recover from our disappointments and tiredness, while we hope to heal from the wounds of the past and reconcile with God and with each other?
There is only one way, one way, it is the way of Jesus, that way that is Jesus himself (cf. Jn 14,6). Let us believe that Jesus joins our path and let him reach us, let it be his Word that interprets the history that we live as individuals and as a community, and that shows us the path to heal and reconcile. Let us break the Eucharistic Bread with faith because around the table we can rediscover ourselves as beloved children of the Father, called to be all brothers. Jesus, breaking the Bread, confirms the testimony of the women, whom the disciples had not believed, that he has risen! In this Basilica, where we remember the mother of the Virgin Mary, and in which there is also the crypt dedicated to the Immaculate Conception, we have to highlight the role that God has wanted to give to women in his plan of salvation. Saint Anne, the Blessed Virgin Mary, the women of Easter morning show us a new path of reconciliation, the maternal tenderness of so many women can accompany us —as the Church— towards once again fruitful times, in which to leave behind so much sterility and so much death, and place Jesus, the Risen Crucified, in the center.
In fact, in the center of our questions, of the work that we carry within, of the same pastoral life, we cannot put ourselves and our frustrations, we must put Him, the Lord Jesus. At the heart of everything, let us place his Word, which illuminates events and restores our eyes to see the effective presence of God’s love and the possibility of good even in apparently lost situations. Let us also place the Bread of the Eucharist, which Jesus still breaks for us today, to share his life with ours, embrace our weaknesses, support our weary steps and heal our hearts. And, reconciled with God, with others and with ourselves, we can also be instruments of reconciliation and peace in the society in which we live.
Lord Jesus, our path, our strength and consolation, we turn to you like the disciples of Emmaus: “Stay with us, for it is already late” (Lk 24:29). Stay with us, Lord, when hope declines and the dark night of disappointment falls. Stay with us because with you, Jesus, our path takes a new direction and from the blind alleys of distrust, the wonder of joy is reborn. Stay with us, Lord, because with you the night of pain is changed into radiant dawn of life. We simply say: stay with us, Lord, because if you walk by our side, failure opens up the hope of a new life. Amen.
(Translated from ACI Prensa)