In the Massal Mass, with which the Easter triduum of Holy Week opens, Pope Francis urged the priests to “leave clericalism” no longer to live looking for “consensus at all costs.”
“The jubilee year thus represents, for us the priests, a specific call to recommend under the sign of conversion. Pilgrims of hope, to leave clericalism and become announcers of hope,” said the Holy Father in the homily he prepared for the Mass of Holy Thursday, celebrated instead by the President Emeritus of the Administration of the Heritage of the Apostolic Headquarters (Apsa) Calcagno
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The 88 -year -old pontiff continues to improve his health problems, both from the point of view of mobility and breathing and voice, but has chosen to delegate to Cardinals de la Curia the main liturgical celebrations of Holy Week.
“The pastor who loves his people does not live in search of approval and consensus at all costs,” he said in the homily that the Italian prelate pronounced before about 4,300 people.
In this celebration, the priests renew before the Bishop the promises that made the day of their ordination.
It is called Massal Mass because it includes the blessing of the holy oils, which will serve throughout the year to impart the sacraments of confirmation, the anointing of the sick and the priestly ordination. Cardinal Calcagno has celebrated it in the Basilica of San Pedro, before near more than 1,800 priests who renewed their promises symbolically before his bishop, Pope Francis.
On the other hand, Pope Francis asked presbyters not to fall into discouragement because “God never fails.” “By calling us to his mission and by inserting ourselves sacramentally in his life, he also frees others through us,” added the Holy Father.
He then found that the priestly ministry is “a silent, but radical and free delivery.”
God’s people want to participate
“It is the kingdom of God, the one that narrate the parables, effective and discreet as yeast, silent as the seed,” he explained, after emphasizing that the people of God expect “the restitution and the remission of debts”, as well as “the redistribution of responsibilities and resources.”
In an evening mention to the practical indications of the synodality synod – for which the Pontiff approved an application plan in all the dioceses until 2028 -, he pointed out that the people of God “want to participate and, by virtue of baptism, it is a great priestly people.”
“This kingdom of priests does not refer only to the clergy. The” we “that Jesus Plasma is a people whose limits cannot see, in which the walls and customs fall,” he said.
He added: “Our common house, so wounded, and human fraternity, so denied but indelible, call us to take a position. The harvest of God is for all: a living field, where it grows a hundred times more than what was sown. That encourages us, in the mission, the joy of the kingdom, which rewards all effort.”
In his homily – which is usually one of the longest of those read in the celebrations – he has proposed to the priests “to read the ministerial priesthood as pure service to the priestly people, who will soon live a city without the need for temple.”
Thus, he said that, through the renewal of the priestly promise, “it is a people who find comfort”, since “the jubilee begins in our life.” And he asked, in this regard, that this “is not once every twenty -five years”, but in that daily proximity of the priest with his people, in which the prophecies of justice and peace are fulfilled.
The Pontiff cited in the homily to San Carlos de Foucauld and urged the priests to have, like Jesus, “a heart in love with the Word of God.”
In addition, he proposed to reflect, in particular, on which prophecy comply with: “There is a vocational page, in general, at the beginning of the path of each of us. Through it, God continues to call us, if we guard it, so that love is not watched.”
And he added: “Dear priests, each of us has a word to fulfill. Each of us has with the Word of God a relationship that comes from afar. And we put it at all service only when the Bible remains our first home. Within it, each one has more dear pages. This is beautiful and important! We also help others find the pages of their life: perhaps to the spouses, when they choose the readings of their marriage; mourning and seek passages to entrust the deceased to the mercy of God and the prayer of the community. ”
However, he said that it is also important “the page chosen by Jesus.”
“There is no grace or Messiah if the promises remain only as promises, if from here they do not come true. Everything is transformed. This is the spirit that we invoke about our priesthood: we have been anointed with him, and precisely the spirit of Jesus remains as a silent protagonist of our service,” he said.
That is why he urged priests to be consistent, because “the people perceive” the smell of the Holy Spirit “when words come true.”
“The poor, before others, as well as children, adolescents, women and also those who have been injured in their relationship with the Church, have ‘smell’ for the Holy Spirit: they distinguish him from other mundane spirits, they recognize him when the announcement and life coincide in us. We can become a prophecy fulfilled, and that is beautiful!” He said.
He also asked the faithful to pray “for the joy of the priests.”
“Many fears inhabit us and great injustices surround us, but a new world has already emerged. God loved the world that gave us his Son, Jesus. He anoints our wounds and wives our tears,” he concluded.
Victoria Cardiel
Victoria Cardiel is a journalist specialized in social and religious information issues. Since 2013, he has covered all the news of the Vatican for various media, such as the Spanish news agency Europa Press, or the weekly of the Archdiocese of Madrid, Alfa and Omega.