Like every July 25, a Holy Mass was celebrated in the Spanish National Church of Santiago and Montserrat in Rome in honor of its patron saint, the Apostle James.
This year, the ceremony was chaired by Ángel Fernández Artime, the first successor of Don Bosco created cardinal by Pope Francis, in the consistory from September 30, 2023.
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In his homily, the Salesian cardinal warned about the “great temptation” that the world has had throughout history: power, which can be overcome with service and testimony.
After greeting the authorities present, among whom were the Spanish Cardinal Luis Ladaria Ferrer and Maximino Caballero Ledo, Prefect of the Secretariat of Economic Affairs of the Holy See, Cardinal Artime thanked the invitation and the presence of the faithful, the majority of them Spaniards residing in Rome.
Placing his gaze on the day’s Gospel, the cardinal specified that, “two thousand years later, the world has changed a lot. Our world is complicated, complex, and we realize that reality becomes difficult.”
He also pointed out that “as believers and Christians we cannot compete by wanting to do the same as others, with our own means.”
He also assured that “the means we have can help us do good” and stressed that “the greatest strength we have today is not strategies,” but testimony.
“If we are able to bear witness to who we are and how we move, that reaches us, that touches the heart,” he said.
Along these lines, he invited the faithful to “be attentive to the greatest temptation that the world has and has had in history: the great temptation is called power. Faced with this giant, the Lord continues to say whoever wants to be first, let him serve.”
The greatest strength we have, Cardinal Artime continued, “has to do with simplicity, testimony.”
“If it is not service, it is power, and if it is power, it does not come from God and is not blessed by God or Jesus. Just as one exalts himself, he falls with the same ease, we see it every day in the world,” he warned.
Almudena Martínez-Bordiú
I am a graduate in Journalism and Advertising from the CEU San Pablo University in Madrid. Specialized in religious information in Spain since 2015. I have been a senior correspondent for ACI Prensa and EWTN Noticias in the Vatican for two years and I am currently a European correspondent based in Spain.