Today’s quotes are taken from Pope Francis’ visit to Mexico last week.
God’s dream for us
In a homily at the Ecatepec study centre, the Pope said: “God’s dream makes its home and lives in each of us so that at Easter, in every Eucharist we celebrate, we may be children of God. It is a dream so many of our brothers and sisters have had through history. A dream witnessed to by the blood of so many martyrs, both from long ago and from now.
“Lent is a time of conversion, of daily experiencing how this dream is continually threatened by the father of lies, by the one who tries to separate us, making a divided and confrontational family; a society which is divided and at loggerheads, a society of the few, and for the few.
“Lent is a time for reconsidering our feelings, for letting our eyes be opened to the frequent injustices which stand in direct opposition to the dream and the plan of God.”
The cancer of drugs
Addressing the country’s bishops in Mexico City, he said: “I urge you not to underestimate the moral and antisocial challenge that the drug trade represents for Mexican society as a whole, as well as for the Church.
“The magnitude of this phenomenon, the complexity of its causes, its immensity and its scope – which devours like a spreading cancer – and the gravity of the violence which divides with its distorted expressions, do not allow us as pastors of the Church to hide behind anodyne denunciations.
“Rather they demand of us a prophetic courage as well as a reliable and qualified pastoral plan, so that we can gradually help build that fragile network of human relationships without which all of us would be defeated from the outset in the face of such an insidious threat.”
Politics against the culture of waste
Speaking to authorities, representatives of civil society and the diplomatic corps in Mexico City, he said: “Starting with those who call themselves Christians, it is a commitment to which all of us must give of ourselves, for the construction of a political life on a truly human basis, and a society in which no one feels a victim of the culture of waste.
“Leaders of social, cultural and political life have the particular duty to offer all citizens the opportunity to be worthy contributors of their own future, within their families and in all areas where human social interaction takes place.
“In this way they help citizens to have real access to the material and spiritual goods which are indispensable: adequate housing, dignified employment, food, true justice, effective security, a healthy and peaceful environment.”
We can’t remain silent
In a homily during Mass for representatives of the indigenous communities of Chiapas, he said: “In many ways and in many forms, there have been efforts to anaesthetise our soul, and in many ways there have been endeavours to subdue and lull children and young people into a kind of lassitude by suggesting that nothing can change, that their dreams can never come true. Faced with these attempts, creation itself also raises an objection:
‘This sister now cries out to us because of the harm we have inflicted on her by our irresponsible use and abuse of the goods with which God has endowed her. We have come to see ourselves as her lords and masters, entitled to plunder her at will.’
“The environmental challenge we are experiencing and its human causes affects us all and demands our response. We can no longer remain silent before one of the greatest environmental crises in world history.”
(Compiled by Fr Joe Borg)