Image: Christ with children by Carl Heinrich Bloch 1800s
Holy Mass and Beatification of the Venerable Servant of God Anne de Jésus
Pope Francis’ Homily for 26th Sunday of Ordinary Time
King Baudouin Stadium (Brussels)Sunday, 29 September 2024
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1st Reading: Book of Numbers 11:25-29
Then the Lord came down in the cloud and spoke to him and took some of the spirit that was upon him and put it upon the seventy elders; and when the spirit rested upon them, they prophesied. But they did so no more.
Now two men remained in the camp, one named Eldad, and the other named Medad, and the spirit rested upon them; they were among those registered, but they had not gone out to the tent, and so they prophesied in the camp. And a young man ran and told Moses, “Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.” And Joshua the son of Nun, the minister of Moses, one of his chosen men, said, “My lord Moses, forbid them.” But Moses said to him, “Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets, that the Lord would put his spirit upon them!”
2nd Reading: James 5L1-6)
Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you. 2 Your riches have rotted and your garments are moth-eaten. 3 Your gold and silver have rusted, and their rust will be evidence against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasurefor the last days. 4 Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out; and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. 5 You have lived on the earth in luxury and in pleasure; you have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. 6 You have condemned you have killed the righteous man; he does not resist you.
Gospel Mark 9:38-43,45,47-48John said to Jesus, ‘Master, we saw a man who is not one of us casting out devils in your name; and because he was not one of us we tried to stop him.’ But Jesus said, ‘You must not stop him: no one who works a miracle in my name is likely to speak evil of me. Anyone who is not against us is for us.
‘If anyone gives you a cup of water to drink just because you belong to Christ, then I tell you solemnly, he will most certainly not lose his reward.
‘But anyone who is an obstacle to bring down one of these little ones who have faith, would be better thrown into the sea with a great millstone round his neck.
And if your hand should cause you to sin, cut it off; it is better for you to enter into life crippled, than to have two hands and go to hell, into the fire that cannot be put out.
And if your foot should cause you to sin, cut it off; it is better for you to enter into life lame, than to have two feet and be thrown into hell.
And if your eye should cause you to sin, tear it out; it is better for you to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye, than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell where their worm does not die nor their fire go out.’
“Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to be offended, it is much better for him that a millstone be put around his neck and be thrown into the sea” (Mk 9:42).
With these words, addressed to the disciples, Jesus warns against the danger of scandalizing, that is, of obstructing the path and wounding the lives of the “little ones”.
It is a strong warning, a severe warning, on which we must stop and reflect.
I would like to do so with you, also in the light of the other sacred texts, through three key words: openness, communion and witness.
At the beginning the opening.
The First Reading and the Gospel tell us about the free action of the Holy Spirit who, in the account of the Exodus, fills with his gift of prophecy not only the elders who went with Moses to the tent of meeting, but also two men who had remained in the camp.
This makes us think, because, if at first their absence from the group of the elect was scandalous, after the gift of the Spirit it is scandalous to forbid them to exercise the mission which, despite this, they have received.
Moses, a humble and wise man, understands this well, and with an open mind and heart he says: “If only they were all prophets among the Lord’s people, and would the Lord to put his spirit upon them!” (Num 11:29). Beautiful omen!
These are wise words that are a prelude to what Jesus says in the Gospel (cf. Mk 9:38-43, 45, 47-48).
Here the scene takes place in Capernaum, and the disciples would in turn like to prevent a man from casting out demons in the name of the Master, because – they say – “he did not follow us” (Mk 9:38), that is, “he is not in our group”. They think like this: “Those who do not follow us, those who are not ‘of us’ cannot perform miracles, they have no right to them”.
But Jesus surprises them – as always, Jesus always surprises us – and he surprises and reproaches them, inviting them to go beyond their schemes, not to be “scandalized” by God’s freedom.
He says to them: “Do not prevent him […] he who is not against us is for us” (Mk 9:39-40).
Let us observe these two scenes well, that of Moses and that of Jesus, because they also concern us and our Christian life.
In fact, all of us, with Baptism, have received a mission in the Church.
But it is a gift, not a title of boast. The community of believers is not a circle of privileged people, it is a family of the saved, and we are not sent to bring the Gospel into the world because of our own merits, but because of God’s grace, his mercy and the trust that, beyond all our limitations and sins, he continues to place in us with Fatherly love, seeing in ourselves what we ourselves cannot see.
This is why he calls, sends us and patiently accompanies us day by day.
And so, if we want to cooperate, with open and caring love, in the free action of the Spirit without being a scandal, an obstacle to anyone with our presumption and our rigidity, we need to carry out our mission with humility, gratitude and joy.
We must not resent it, but rather rejoice in the fact that others can also do what we do, so that the Kingdom of God may grow and so that we may all be united, one day, in the arms of the Father.
Then: The Communion
And this brings us to the second word: communion.
St James speaks to us of it in the Second Reading (Jas 5:1-6 above) with two powerful images: the riches that are corrupted (cf. v. 3), and the reapers’ protests that reach the ears of the Lord (cf. v. 4).
It reminds us, in this way, that the only way of life is that of giving, of love that unites in sharing.
The path of selfishness only generates closures, walls and obstacles – “scandals”, in fact – chaining us to things and distancing us from God and from our brothers and sisters.
Selfishness, like everything that impedes charity, is “scandalous” because it crushes the little ones, humiliating the dignity of persons and stifling the cry of the poor (cf. Ps 9:13).
And this was as true in the time of St. Paul as it is for us today.
Let us think, for example, of what happens when the principles of interest and the logic of the market alone are placed at the basis of the life of individuals and communities (cf. Evangelii Gaudium, 54-58).
A world is created in which there is no longer room for those in difficulty, nor is there mercy for those who make mistakes, nor compassion for those who suffer and do not make it. There is none.
Let us think of what happens when children are scandalized, affected, abused by those who should take care of them, of the wounds of pain and helplessness first of all in the victims, but also in their families and in the community.
With my mind and heart I go back to the stories of some of these “little ones” that I met the day before yesterday.
I have heard them, I have felt their suffering as abused and I repeat it here: in the Church there is room for everyone, everyone, everyone but we will all be judged and there is no place for abuse, there is no place for the cover of abuse.
I ask everyone: do not cover up abuse!
I ask the bishops: do not cover up abuse!
Condemn abusers and help them heal from this disease of abuse.
Evil does not hide: evil must be brought out into the open, so that it is known, as some abused have done and with courage.
Let it be known. And that the abuser be judged. Whether the abuser is judged, whether he is a layman, a layman, a priest or a bishop: let him be judged.
The Word of God is clear: it says that the “protests of the reapers” and the “cry of the poor” cannot be ignored, they cannot be erased, as if they were the discordant note in the perfect concert of the world of well-being, nor can they be muffled with some form of façade of welfarism.
On the contrary, they are the living voice of the Spirit, they remind us of who we are – we are all poor sinners, all of us, the first self –; and abused people are a lament that rises to heaven, that touches the soul, that makes us ashamed and calls us to convert.
Let us not hinder its prophetic voice, silencing it with our indifference.
Let us listen to what Jesus says in the Gospel: far from us the scandalous eye, which sees the needy and turns away!
Far from us the scandalous hand, which clenches itself into a fist to hide its treasures and greedily withdraws into its pockets!
My grandmother used to say: “The devil enters through the pockets”.
That hand that strikes to commit sexual abuse, an abuse of power, an abuse of conscience against those who are weaker.
And how many cases of abuse do we have in our history, in our society!
Far from us is the scandalous foot, which runs fast not to be close to those who suffer, but to “pass by” and stay at a distance!
Away with all this: far from us!
Nothing good and solid is built like this!
And a question that I like to ask people: “Do you give alms?” – “Yes, Father, yes!” – “And tell me, when you give alms, do you touch the hand of the destitute person, or do you throw it away like that and look the other way? Do you look at the eyes of people who suffer?“. Let’s think about this.
If we want to sow seeds for the future, also at the social and economic level, it will do us good to return to putting the Gospel of mercy at the basis of our choices.
Jesus is mercy.
All of us, all of us, have been given mercy (mercied).
Otherwise, however imposing they may seem, the monuments of our opulence will always be giants with feet of clay (cf. Dn 2:31-45).
Let’s not deceive ourselves: without love nothing lasts, everything vanishes, falls apart, and leaves us prisoners of an elusive, empty and meaningless life, of an inconsistent world that, beyond the facades, has lost all credibility, why? Because it scandalized the little ones.
Finally: Witness
And so we come to the third word: witness. In this regard, we can take our cue from the life and work of Anna de Jesus, Anna de Lobera, on the day of her beatification.
This woman was one of the protagonists, in the Church of her time, of a great reform movement, in the footsteps of a “giant of the spirit” – Teresa of Avila – whose ideals she spread in Spain, France and also here, in Brussels, and in what was then called the Spanish Netherlands.
In a time marked by painful scandals, inside and outside the Christian community, she and her companions, with their simple and poor life, made up of prayer, work and charity, were able to bring many people back to the faith, to the point that someone defined their foundation in this city as a “spiritual magnet”.
By choice, she left no writings. Instead, she committed herself to putting into practice what she had learned (cf. 1 Cor 15:3 – I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures,), and with her way of life she helped to lift the Church up at a time of great difficulty.
Let us therefore welcome with gratitude the model of “feminine holiness” that he left us (cf. Gaudete et Exsultate, 12), delicate and strong, made up of openness, communion and witness. Let us commend ourselves to her prayer, imitate her virtues and renew with her our commitment to walk together in the footsteps of the Lord.
Footnote (Daniel 2:31-45)
31 “You saw, O king, and behold, a great image. This image, mighty and of exceeding brightness, stood before you, and its appearance was frightening. 32 The head of this image was of fine gold, its breast and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze, 33 its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay. 34 As you looked, a stone was cut out by no human hand, and it smote the image on its feet of iron and clay, and broke them in pieces; 35 then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold, all together were broken in pieces, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away, so that not a trace of them could be found. But the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.
36 “This was the dream; now we will tell the king its interpretation. 37 You, O king, the king of kings, to whom the God of heaven has given the kingdom, the power, and the might, and the glory, 38 and into whose hand he has given, wherever they dwell, the sons of men, the beasts of the field, and the birds of the air, making you rule over them all—you are the head of gold. 39 After you shall arise another kingdom inferior to you, and yet a third kingdom of bronze, which shall rule over all the earth. 40 And there shall be a fourth kingdom, strong as iron, because iron breaks to pieces and shatters all things; and like iron which crushes, it shall break and crush all these. 41 And as you saw the feet and toes partly of potter’s clay and partly of iron, it shall be a divided kingdom; but some of the firmness of iron shall be in it, just as you saw iron mixed with the miry clay. 42 And as the toes of the feet were partly iron and partly clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly brittle. 43 As you saw the iron mixed with miry clay, so they will mix with one another in marriage,[a] but they will not hold together, just as iron does not mix with clay. 44 And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed, nor shall its sovereignty be left to another people. It shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall stand for ever; 45 just as you saw that a stone was cut from a mountain by no human hand, and that it broke in pieces the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold. A great God has made known to the king what shall be hereafter. The dream is certain, and its interpretation sure.”