HOMILY FOR THE INTERNATIONAL MASS
Basilica of St Pius X, Lourdes
World Communications Day, 28 May 2017
Dear fellow pilgrims, we are here in Lourdes on the 7th Sunday of Easter, after the feast of the Ascension and before the feast of Pentecost. Our first reading today describes this in-between time when the apostles and disciples were gathered in the upper room and were in continuous prayer together with several women and Mary, the Mother of Jesus, and his brothers. The answer to their prayer would be the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. That Spirit released the power of Risen Lord in the apostles and disciples and empowered them to carry the Good News of Jesus to the ends of the earth.
Right from the beginning, the mission disciples of Jesus, and therefore the mission of the Church, has been about communication. It’s about preaching the Gospel, spreading the story and the message of Jesus to the whole world. Today we celebrate the 51st World Communications Day and Pope Francis has given us food for reflection in his message for today.
The Pope has taken as his theme: “Communicating Hope and Trust in Our Time.” It is difficult to communicate hope and trust in a world where there are events like the terrorist atrocity that took place in Manchester last week, and the numerous similar atrocities that have happened here in France, and in other countries, in the recent past. It’s hard to offer hope and trust where not only innocent men and women, but even small children, are targeted and murdered by fanatical extremists.
Pope Francis is well aware of the horrible evils in the world. He knows that they cannot and should not go unreported. Yet he is concerned that, generally speaking, our media focus too much on bad news, on violence, wars and scandals that create what he calls ‘a vicious circle of anxiety’ and ‘a spiral of fear.’ He says this is not about “ignoring the tragedy of human suffering”, nor “a naive optimism blind to the scandal of evil”. Rather, it’s about viewing things through a different lens, the lens of the “good news”, the Gospel of Jesus. He points out that Jesus himself IS the Good News, so we have to look at things through the lens of his life, death and resurrection in order to find hope and trust. As Pope Francis says in his message for today:
“This good news – Jesus himself – is not good because it has nothing to do with suffering, but rather because suffering itself becomes part of a bigger picture. It is seen as an integral part of Jesus’ love for the Father and for all mankind. In Christ, God has shown his solidarity with every human situation. He has told us that we are not alone, for we have a Father who is constantly mindful of his children. “Fear not, for I am with you” (Is 43:5)… Seen in this light, every new tragedy that occurs in the world’s history can also become a setting for good news, inasmuch as love can find a way to draw near and to raise up sympathetic hearts, resolute faces and hands ready to build anew.”
Lourdes is a great example of how a place where there is so much sickness and suffering can become, and has become, a setting for good news. We see around us in this place, at every turn, how, in the words of the Pope, “love can find a way to draw near and raise up sympathetic hearts, resolute faces and hands ready to build anew”. Lourdes a great example of how the Good News of Jesus can bring trust and hope in the midst of suffering.
Here in Lourdes we, the modern disciples of Jesus, are gathered together, not in an upper room, but in an underground basilica. We are privileged to be gathered, like the first disciples, in continuous prayer with Mary the Mother of Jesus. We pray, in these days between Ascension and Pentecost, with her who is the Mother of the Church, for a new outpouring of the Holy Spirit in our Church and in our own lives. On this World Communications Day, we pray that God’s Spirit will come anew on us and will empower us to continue the mission of the first disciples and play our part in communicating the Gospel of Jesus to the world today.
