Dear brothers and sisters, good Sunday!
Today, in many countries, the solemnity of the body and blood of Christ is celebrated, Corpus Domini. The Gospel tells the miracle of loaves and fish. To feed the thousands of people who came to listen to him and ask for healing, Jesus invites the apostles to present him the little they have. Blesses the loaves and fish and order them to distribute them to everyone. The result is surprising. Not only each receives enough food, but advances in abundance.
The miracle, beyond the prodigy, is a sign and reminds us that the gifts of God, even the little ones, grow all the more they are shared. However, reading all this on the day of Corpus Domini, we reflect on an even deeper reality. We know, in fact, that at the root of every human sharing there is a greater one that precedes it, that of God towards us.
He, the Creator, who gave us his life to save us, asked his creature to be a mother, to give him a fragile, limited, fatal body like ours, relying on her as a child. Thus it has fully shared our poverty, choosing to use to redeem ourselves of the little that we could offer him. Let’s think about how beautiful it is, when we make a gift, perhaps small, proportionate to our possibilities, to see that it is appreciated by those who receive it. As we are happy when we feel that, despite its simplicity, that gift unites us even more to those we love.
Well, in the Eucharist, between us and God, this takes place. The Lord welcomes, sanctifies and blesses the bread and wine that we put on the altar together with the offer of our life and transforms them into the body and blood of Christ, a sacrifice of love for the salvation of the world. God joins us, welcoming with joy what we bring and invites us to unite us with him, receiving and sharing his gift of love with the same joy.
In this way, says Sant’Agostino, as from the grains of wheat gathered together, a single bread is formed. Thus, in the concord of charity, a single body of Christ is formed.
Dear, tonight we will do the Eucharistic procession. We will celebrate the Holy Mass together and then we will start on the way, bringing the Holy Sacrament through the streets of our city. We will sing, pray and finally collect in front of the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore to implore the blessing of the Lord on our homes, our families and all humanity.
Both this celebration is a luminous sign of our commitment to be every day, starting from the altar and tabernacle, bearers of communion and peace for each other in sharing and charity.
They come to me alarming news from the Middle East, especially from Iran. In this dramatic scenario, which includes Israel and Palestine, he risks falling into oblivion the daily suffering of the population, especially in Gaza and other territories, where the urgency of adequate humanitarian support becomes increasingly pressing.
Today more than ever humanity shouts and invokes peace. It is a cry that asks for responsibility and reason and must not be suffocated by the roar of weapons and rhetorical words that incite the conflict. Each member of the international community has a moral responsibility: to stop the tragedy of the war before it becomes an irreparable chasm.
There are no distant conflicts when human dignity is at stake. War does not solve problems, on the contrary amplifies them and produces injuries deep in the history of peoples, which employ generations to heal. No armed victory can compensate for the pain of mothers, the fear of children and the stolen future.
That diplomacy silence the weapons, that nations trace their future with peace works, not with the violent violence and conflicts.
I greet all of you, Romans and pilgrims. I am happy to greet the parliamentarians and the mayors present here on the occasion of the Jubilee of the rulers and administrators. I greet the faithful of Bogota and San Luis in Colombia, those who came from Poland, including pupils and teachers of a technical institute of Krakow, the Strenberg musical band in Austria, the faithful of Hanover in Germany, the confirmants of Gioia Tauro and the boys of Tempio Pausania.
I wish everyone a good Sunday and bless those who today actively participate in the Corpus Domini festival, also with singing, music, infioratte, crafts and above all with prayer and procession.
Thank you all and good Sunday!
