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Pope Francis’ address to the Association of Hispanic Priests in the USA
Clementine Hall – Thursday, 16 November 2023
(Matthew 8:11) ‘Many will come from the east and the west
and sit at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven’
Dear brothers,
Thank you for coming here: this is the Peter’s house, it is your house, because the Church is a house with open doors, where all come from east to west to sit at the table that the Lord has prepared for us. And if we want to make the Church refined, it is a house with closed doors, and that is not good. Beware of ecclesiastical refinement. I read carefully the questions you have sent me – they are many – and while I was thinking about how to answer them, I remembered the words the Lord said to St. Teresa of Jesus (when they took away the books she trusted): “I will give you a living book”, – Christ is the book I highly recommend.
But we have to seek Him, in Scripture and in the Gospel, in silent adoration, because we have lost a little the sense of adoration. We have to find the Lord in the silence of adoration.
If I were to ask you now … how many hours a week you spend in worship, that would be a good test. I will put the question out there, but everyone can answer for themselves.
No, because it is too much effort, because . . . here, because . . . there.
If you don’t pray, if you don’t worship, your life is of little value.
In the United States, a National Eucharistic Congress is being prepared for next year, and Blessed Carlo Acutis and St. Manuel González have been chosen as its patrons, both of whom, like so many saints of the Church, excelled in the art of reading this living Book in front of the Tabernacle, in the silent, kneeling school.
It is precisely from the catecheses of Saint Manuel that I would like to take a key to answering the questions you have posed. On one occasion, Saint Manuel wrote to a group of believers and reflected on the role of the holy women of Calvary, as models for every disciple before the Cross of the Lord, then and now. They are a model. The same helplessness, the same desire to act against injustice that the holy women experienced in those moments, we can experience in the face of the problems of immigrants, the closure of certain civil and religious authorities, the challenges of interculturality, the complexity of evangelization: so many things.
In the face of these difficulties, the saint warns us that “Jesus does not stop suffering”.
Jesus says that He will remain on Calvary until the end of time, and although He is risen, He continues to remain on Calvary in the person of His brothers and sisters.
In every tabernacle, in every consecrated chalice, we see the Cross standing, and He asks us: “”Is there anything we can do today to relieve the suffering Christ? Do it, do it as soon as possible”.
But do it knowing that “the Passion will be the companion of the Jesus of your Tabernacles” in every suffering brother and sister, and what God asks of you is not to leave them alone.
Do not leave those who suffer alone, do not leave the Lord of the Tabernacle alone, convince yourselves that you cannot do anything with your hands if you do not do it with your knees.
Adoration, Eucharistic silence and intercession before the Tabernacle. And then – yes, service.
But it is like ping-pong, one thing leads to another, one thing leads to another.
St. Manuel tells us, Jesus does not ask us to prevent the Passion, but to give Him glory in the midst of it. In this regard, I ask you please: beware of settling down, do not settle, do not get comfortable. Sometimes the modern world leads us to schedules: “Father, can you hear my confession?” “No, the schedule is from such and such an hour”. Please, first the people, then the schedule. Don’t become “employees” of the sacred. That is the danger of this culture.
Check your commitment to people, your openness of heart.
Inspired by these saints, I leave it to the Lord in the tabernacle to respond to your concerns.
Some answers may seem naive to you, like the efforts of the young Carlo Acutis to spread what was for him an exceptional discovery, “a highway to heaven”. Others will seem greater than you, such as the continuation of the social and apostolic works promoted by St. Manuel.
In fact, this pastor, in his recommendations, stated that what a priest can do today begins with simple prayer, a close word, fraternal welcome and persevering work.
Prayer, q simple and close word, fraternal welcome and persevering work.
Do not spare yourselves!
A priest from a poor, working class neighborhood, used to say he sometimes felt like closing the window. Because people would go to him at all hours to ask for something, to ask for a blessing, to ask for anything.. Because people are very inconvenient, like the Lord, who is inconvenient.
And the priest told me: “When they see the door closed, they knock on the window, so I have to close the window”. No, open the door! This is fundamental: priests for the people.
And here I want to mention one thing. Do not have dirty nails, have clean nails, because the nails get dirty when the priest starts to climb. And you climb for this post, for this parish, for this canonry, and then human promotion surpasses the gratitude of preaching.
And if you lose that, you will become poor priests who have lost the joy of live.
Always return to the call of Jesus’ to serve, to be at the disposal of others.
Do not have dirty nails from climbing, because afterwards, when you reach the top, what you sees is quite indecent, I do not want to say.
Brothers, do not put your trust only in big ideas, nor in well-designed pastoral proposals.
People scare me when they come with all those pastoral programs. So that others can implement them, “not me”. Do not look for culprits. “It was so-and-so’s fault that it didn’t work”.
First of all, ask, “What did I do?”. Look within yourself to find the fault; this is pastoral humility.
Give yourselves to the One who has called you to give yourselves, and who only asks you to be faithful and persevering, with the certainty that it will be He who will complete the work and make your efforts bear good fruit. And let us hope that you sow much, and let us hope that you do not have to take sleeping pills because you are so tired by the evening. Let us hope! Thank
