802 New Canonized Saints – Pope Francis

Below is the translation of the homily delivered by Pope Francis during the Canonization Mass held in St. Peter’s Square yesterday morning – 12 May, 2013.  This was the first set of canonizations of his pontificate with a record 802 canonizations.

Dear brothers and sisters,.

On this seventh Sunday of Easter we are gathered together with delight to celebrate a feast of sanctity. Let us give thanks to God, who made his magnificence, the magnificence of Love, shine in the Martyrs of Otranto, in Mother Laura Montoya and in Mother María Guadalupe García Zavala. I welcome every one of you who have actually come for this feast– from Italy, from Colombia, from Mexico, from other nations– and I thank you!

I would such as to think about the brand-new saints in the light of the Word of God that has been proclaimed. This is a Word that has welcomed us to fidelity to Christ, even unto death; it has actually called us to acknowledge the urgency and the appeal of bringing Christ and his Gospel to all; and it has actually contacted us of the witness of charity, without which even martyrdom and missionary work lose their Christian character. The Acts of the Apostles, when they speak to us of the deacon Stephen, the first Christian martyr, insist on saying that he was a man “full of the Holy Spirit” (6:5, 7:55). What does this mean? It means that he was full of the Love of God, that is whole individual, his entire life was animated by the Spirit of the Risen Christ, a lot so that it led him to follow Christ in overall fidelity, to the point of the present of self.

Today the Church proposes for our veneration a team of martyrs who were called together to the supreme witness to the Gospel in 1480. About 800 people, who made it through the siege and intrusion of Otranto, Italy, were decapitated on the outskirts of that city. They declined to deny their faith and they passed away confessing the risen Christ. Where did they find the strength to continue to be devoted? Precisely in faith, which allows us to see beyond the limits of our human vision, beyond the boundaries of earthly life, it permits us to ponder “the paradises opened up,” as St. Stephen states, and the living Christ at the Father’s right hand. Dear friends, let us maintain the faith that we have received and that is our treasure, let us renew our fidelity to the Lord, even in the midst of misunderstandings and challenges; God will never ever let us lack strength and serenity.

As we venerate the Martyrs of Otranto, let us ask God to sustain many Christians who, in our own time and in many parts of the world, now still deal with physical violence, and to give them the courage of fidelity and to respond to wicked with good.

The reservation we can draw from the words of Jesus that we have actually heard in the Gospel: “I pray for those who believe in me through their word: that all may be one; as you, Father, are in me and I am in you, could they also be in us” (John 17:20). St. Maria Laura Montoya was an instrument of evangelization initially as an instructor and then as a spiritual mom of the native individuals, to whom she gave hope, welcoming them with God’s love and bringing them to him with an effective pedagogy that respected their culture and did not oppose it. In her work of evangelization Mother Laura truly made herself all things to all men, according to the expression of St. Paul (cf. 1 Cor. 9:22). Today too her spiritual daughters live and bring the Gospel to the most rare and needy locations, as a kind of vanguard of the Church.

This first saint, born in the stunning nation of Colombia, instructs us to be generous with God, not to live our faith alone– as if it were possible to live the faith in a separate way– but to interact it, to convey the joy of the Gospel with words and the witness of life in every place where we find ourselves. Wherever we live let us let this light of the Gospel shine! She teaches us to see the face of Jesus mirrored in the other, to get rid of indifference and uniqueness, which corrode Christian sectors and corrode our heart, and she teaches us to welcome all without prejudice, without discrimination, without reticence, with sincere love, offering them the best of ourselves and above all sharing with them exactly what is most precious to us, which is not our works or our organizations, no! Our most valuable possession is Christ and his Gospel.

A 3rd idea. In today’s Gospel, Jesus prays to the Father with these words: “I made known to them your name and I will make it known, that the love with which you loved me could be in them and I in them” (John 17:26). The fidelity of martyrs unto death and the proclamation of the Gospel to everyone are rooted in, have their roots in the love of God poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit (cf. Romans 5:5), and in the testimony that we needs to provide of this love in our day-to-day life. St. María Guadalupe García Zavala understood this well. Giving up a comfortable life– the amount of damages is done by a comfortable life, health; the “bourgeoisification” of the heart paralyzes us. Giving up a comfortable life to follow Jesus’ call, she taught the love of poverty, which permitted a higher love of the inadequate and infirm. Mother Lupita knelt on the floor in the healthcare facility before the ill and deserted to serve them with tenderness and compassion. And this is called “touching the flesh of Christ.” The poor, the deserted, the ill, the marginalized are the flesh of Christ. And Mother Lupita touched the flesh of Christ and taught us in this manner of acting: do not be ashamed, do not be afraid, do not be repulsed by “touching the flesh of Christ.” Mother Lupita understood what this “touching the flesh of Christ” implied. Today her spiritual little girls continue to look for to mirror God’s love in works of charity, without avoiding sacrifice and facing all challenges with meekness, with apostolic willpower (hypomonē), enduring them with courage.

This new Mexican saint welcomes us to enjoy as Jesus did, and this implies not bring shut up in ourselves, in our own issues, our own ideas, our own interests, in this little world that doings this much damage to us, however going out and taking care of those who require attention, understanding, assistance, to being them the warmth and proximity of God’s love, with delicate motions of genuine affection and love.

Fidelity to Christ and to his Gospel, to proclaim it with our words and lives, witnessing to God’s love with our love, with our charity to all: these are the luminous instances and trainings the saints who are proclaimed today. They likewise posture questions for our Christian life: How am I faithful to Christ? We bring this question with us to reflect on throughout the day: How am I trustworthy to Christ? Am I able to manifest my faith with respect but also with courage? Am I mindful to others, do I acknowledge those in need, do I see everybody as a brother or sister to like?

Let us request the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the brand-new saints, that the Lord fill our lives with the happiness of his love. Amen.