On the day dedicated to the Virgin of Guadalupe, Francis spoke about authentic prominence; not the kind that is full of the arrogance or humiliation for others, but the one that doesn’t fear tenderness and hugs, to restore dignity of those who have has fallen.
Vatican City (AsiaNews) – Pope Francis led Mass this evening in St Peter’s Basilica to celebrate the feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Patroness of the Americas.
In his homily, the pontiff said that we learn “authentic prominence” at Mary’s school, not one of arrogance or humiliation for others, but the one that is not afraid of tenderness and hugs, to restore dignity to those who have fallen.
Mary walks with the lightness and tenderness of a mother. She walked to Tepeyac "to accompany Juan Diego – the Indian man to whom she had appeared – and continues to walk across the continent when, as an image, a candle, a rosary or a Hail Mary, “she enters a house, a prison cell, a hospital room, an old-age home, a school, a rehabilitation clinic."
"In Mary’s school we learn to walk across our neighbourhood and city, not with shoes that provide magic solutions, instant answers and immediate results; and not with the power of fantastic claims of a pseudo-progress which, little by little, succeeds only in usurping cultural and family identities, draining the vital fabric that has sustained our peoples, with the pretentious intention of establishing a single uniform current of thought."
"In Mary’s school we learn to walk the city and feed our hearts with the multicultural richness that dwells in the continent” and “listen to the hidden heart that beats in our peoples and – like a smouldering fire under surface ashes – upholds the sense of God and his transcendence, the sacredness of life, respect for creation, the bonds of solidarity, the joy of the art of good living and the capacity to be happy and celebrate without conditions” (see Meeting with the CELAM Steering Committee, Colombia, 7 September 2017).
"In Mary’s school we learn that prominence does not need to humiliate, mistreat, despise, or mock others to feel valued or important; that physical or psychological violence do not need to be resorted to in order to feel safe and secure. This form of prominence does not fear tenderness or hugs, and knows that its best face is service. In her school we learn the authentic prominence [needed] to restore dignity to all those who have fallen and to do so with the all-mighty power of divine love, which is the irresistible force of his promise of mercy."
“In Mary, the Lord rejects the temptation to give prominence to the force of intimidation and power, the shout of the loudest or the need to assert oneself on the basis of lies or manipulation." Through Mary, the Lord protects believers so that they "can constantly know" solidarity.