HOLY MASS WITH PRIESTS, MEN AND WOMEN RELIGIOUS, CONSECRATED PEOPLE AND POLISH SEMINARIANS HOMILY OF THE HOLY FATHER

[…] The final verse of today’s Gospel speaks of a book: it is the Gospel that, we are told, does not contain all the many other signs that Jesus worked (v. 30).  After the great sign of his mercy, we could say that there is no longer a need to add another.  Yet one challenge does remain.  There is room left for the signs needing to be worked by us, who have received the Spirit of love and are called to spread mercy.  It might be said that the Gospel, the living book of God’s mercy that must be continually read and reread, still has many blank pages left.  It remains an open book that we are called to write in the same style, by the works of mercy we practise.  Let me ask you this, dear brothers and sisters: What are the pages of your books like? Are they blank? May the Mother of God help us in this. May she, who fully welcomed the word of God into her life (cf. Lk  8:20-21), give us the grace to be living writers of the Gospel. May our Mother of Mercy teach us how to take concrete care of the wounds of Jesus in our brothers and sisters in need, those close at hand and those far away, the sick and the migrant, because by serving those who suffer we honour the flesh of Christ. May the Virgin Mary help us to spend ourselves completely for the good of the faithful entrusted to us, and to show concern for one another as true brothers and sisters in the communion of the Church, our holy Mother. […]