APOSTOLIC JOURNEY OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS TO LITHUANIA, LATVIA AND ESTONIA [22-25 SEPTEMBER 2018] HOLY MASS, HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS
Santakos Park in Kaunas (Lithuania)
[…] Jesus, knowing what the disciples were discussing, provided them with an
antidote to their struggles for power and their rejection of sacrifice. And to make his
teaching all the more solemn, he sat down, as a teacher would, summoned them and
set a child in their midst; the kind of child that would earn a penny for doing chores
no one else would care to do. Whom would Jesus place in our midst today, here, on
this Sunday morning? Who will be the smallest, the poorest in our midst, whom we
should welcome a hundred years after our independence? Who is it that has nothing
to give us, to make our effort and our sacrifices worthwhile? Perhaps it is the ethnic
minorities of our city. Or the jobless who have to emigrate. May be it is the elderly
and the lonely, or those young people who find no meaning in life because they have
lost their roots.
“In their midst” means at the same distance from everybody, so that no one can
claim not to notice, no one can argue that it is “somebody else’s responsibility”
because “I didn’t see him”, or “I am further away”. And without anyone drawing
attention to oneself, wanting to be applauded or singled out for praise[…]
