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Thursday of the Fifteenth week in Ordinary Time

Commentary of the day
Pope Francis
Homily of 19/03/2013, Pontifical inauguration Mass (trans. © Libreria Editrice Vaticana)

Become my disciples "for I am meek and humble of heart"

Dear friends... the core of the Christian vocation is Christ! Let us protect Christ in our lives, so that we can protect others, so that we can protect creation! The vocation of being a “protector”, however, is not just something involving us Christians alone; it also has a prior dimension which is simply human, involving everyone. It means protecting all creation, the beauty of the created world, as the Book of Genesis tells us and as Saint Francis of Assisi showed us. It means respecting each of God’s creatures and respecting the environment in which we live.

It means protecting people, showing loving concern for each and every person, especially children, the elderly, those in need, who are often the last we think about. It means caring for one another in our families: husbands and wives first protect one another, and then, as parents, they care for their children, and children themselves, in time, protect their parents. It means building sincere friendships... In the end, everything has been entrusted to our protection, and all of us are responsible for it. Be protectors of God’s gifts!...

Please, I would like to ask all those who have positions of responsibility in economic, political and social life, and all men and women of goodwill: let us be “protectors” of creation, protectors of God’s plan inscribed in nature, protectors of one another and of the environment. Let us not allow omens of destruction and death to accompany the advance of this world! But to be “protectors”, we also have to keep watch over ourselves! Let us not forget that hatred, envy and pride defile our lives! Being protectors, then, also means keeping watch over our emotions, over our hearts, because they are the seat of good and evil intentions (Lk 6,45): intentions that build up and tear down! We must not be afraid of goodness or even tenderness!