Penitential Celebration: Pope Francis' Homily (FULL TEXT: English)

RITE FOR RECONCILIATION OF MORE PENITENTS WITH INDIVIDUAL CONFESSION AND ACQUITTAL

"May I see again" ( Mk 10,51). It is this demand that today we want to turn to the Lord. See again, after our sins made ​​us lose sight of the good and we were distracted by the beauty of our calling, instead of making us wander away from the goal.

This Gospel passage has great symbolic value, because each of us in the situation of Bartimaeus. His blindness had led to poverty and to live on the edge of the city, depending on the others around. Although sin has this effect: it impoverishes us and isolates us. It 'a spiritual blindness that prevents us from seeing the essential, to set their eyes on loving who gives life; and leads gradually to dwell on the superficial, to make it insensitive to others and to do good. How many temptations have the strength to obscure the view of the heart and to make short-sighted! How easy and wrong to believe that life depends on what you have, the success or admiration you receive; that the economy is made only of profit and consumption; that their individual desires should prevail on the social responsibility! Looking only to our self, we become blind, turned off and turned in on ourselves, joyless and devoid of freedom. It 's so bad!

But Jesus passes; passes and does not exceed: "stopped," says the Gospel (v. 49). Then a shudder runs through the heart, because one realizes of being watched by the Light, from the gentle light that invites us to not stay locked in our dark blindness. The nearby presence of Jesus is felt that far from Him we miss something important. It makes us feel in need of salvation, and this is the beginning of the healing of the heart. Then, when the desire to be healed makes bold, it leads to prayer, to cry out forcefully and help, as did Bartimaeus, "Son of David, Jesus, have mercy on me!" (V. 47).

Unfortunately, how those "many" of the Gospel, there is always someone who does not want to stop, you do not want to be bothered by those who shout their pain, preferring to silence and rebuke the poor bothers (cf. v. 48). It's tempting to go on as if nothing had happened, but this way you remain distant from the Lord, and keep away from Jesus the others. We recognize that we are all beggars of love of God, and let no Lord passing. "I'm afraid of the Lord is passing by," St. Augustine said. Afraid to pass and I let him go. We give voice to our most true desire: "[Jesus], I see!" (V. 51). This Jubilee of Mercy is a favorable time to welcome the presence of God, to experience his love and return to Him with all your heart. Like Bartimaeus, we throw away the cloak and let's stand (cf. v. 50): throw away, that is, what keeps it from being shipped in the journey towards Him, without fear of leaving what gives us security and to which we are attached; do not we sit, rialziamoci, we find our spiritual stature - standing - the dignity of beloved children standing before the Lord to be from him eye to eye, forgiven and recreated. And perhaps the word that arrives today in our heart, is the same as the creation of man: "Get up!". God created us in the foot, "Get up!".

Today more than ever, especially us Pastors we are called to listen to the cry, perhaps hidden, those who wish to meet the Lord. We are required to review those behaviors that sometimes do not help others to draw closer to Jesus; schedules and programs that do not meet the real needs of those who might approach the confessional; human rules, if they are worth more than the desire for forgiveness; our strength that could keep away from the tenderness of God. We should not belittle the demands of the Gospel, but we can not risk to frustrate the sinner's desire to be reconciled to the Father, because the return of the child home is what the Father awaits first of all (cf. Lk 15.20 to 32).

Our words are those of the disciples who, repeating the same expressions of Jesus, said to Bartimaeus: "Courage! Get up, call you "(v. 49). We are sent to give courage, to support and lead to Jesus. Ours is the ministry of accompaniment, because the encounter with God is personal, intimate, and the heart can be opened sincerely and fearlessly to the Savior. Do not forget: it is only God who acts in every person. In the Gospel it is He who stops and asks the blind; it is he who ordered him lead; it is he who listens to him and heals him. We were chosen - we pastors - to arouse the desire of conversion, to be instruments that facilitate the meeting, to reach out and perform, making visible and operating his mercy. That every man and woman who approaches the confessional are a father; You have a father who is waiting; are the Father who forgives.

The conclusion of the Gospel story is full of meaning: Bartimaeus "Immediately he received and followed him along the way" (v. 52). We too, when we come to Jesus, we review the light to look to the future with confidence, we find the strength and courage to make our journey. Indeed, "those who believe, sees' (Enc. Lett. Lumen fidei , 1) and goes forward with hope, because he knows that the Lord is present, sustains and guides. Let us follow him, as faithful disciples, to make partakers those we meet on our journey of the joy of his love. And after the embrace of the Father, the Father's forgiveness, we are celebrating in our hearts! Because he's a party!

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