Pope Francis made an appeal after the Angelus prayer to the faithful present in
St Peter's Square, calling for "our prayer" and "actual help" for the people of
the Philippines.
Typhoon Haiyan hit
the Filipino archipelago - in particular the provinces of Leyte and Cebu (central
Philippines) - with winds of up to 300 km per hour. Filipino
authorities estimate that up to 10,000 people may have died.
"I wish to reassure
my closeness to the people of the Philippines and those of the region hit by a
terrible typhoon," the pope said. "Unfortunately, there are so many victims and
such massive damage. Let us silently pray to Our Lady for our brothers and sisters,
and let us also send them actual help." After
a brief period of silence, the Pope sang the Ave Maria.
Before the
Angelus, the pope spoke about the Gospel of the day (Lk, 20:27-38), which "shows Jesus dealing with the Sadducees,
who had denied the resurrection," ridiculing it with examples taken from earthly
life.
"Eternal
life," Francis said, "is another life in another dimension where, among other
things, there will be no marriage, which is related to our existence in this
world. The resurrected, Jesus told us, will be like
angels, living in a different state, one that we now cannot even imagine and
experience."
"Jesus
found the proof of the resurrection," he went on to say, "in the episode of
Moses and the burning bush (cfr Ex,
3:1-6), in which God revealed himself as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. God's
name is
connected to the names of the men and women to whom he is bound, and this bond
is stronger than death. This is why Jesus said, 'and he is not God of the dead,
but of the living, for to him all are alive"(Lk, 20:38). The decisive bond, the fundamental alliance is to Jesus.
He is the Covenant - He is the Life and the Resurrection, because through his
crucified love he conquered death. Through
Jesus, God gives us eternal life, gives it to everyone, and thanks to him everyone
has hope for a life that is even truer than this one. The
life God prepares for us is not just an embellishment of the current one: it goes
beyond our imagination because God continually amazes us with his love and his
mercy."
"This life does
not serve as a reference to eternity;" he concluded, "it is eternity that enlightens
and gives hope to the earthly life of each one of us. If we only look through human
eyes, we are led to say that a man's path goes from life to death. Jesus
overturns this view and states that our pilgrimage goes from death to life:
full life! Thus, death is behind us, behind and not in front of us. The God of
the living
is in front of us, the God that bears my name, and yours, yours, yours . . . the
final defeat of sin and death, the beginning of a new time of joy and endless
light. But on this earth,
in prayer, in the sacraments, in brotherhood, we already find Jesus and his
love, and so we can foretaste something of the risen life. The experience we
have of his love and his faithfulness lights up like a fire in our hearts and
increases our faith in the resurrection. Indeed, if God is faithful and loves, he
cannot be so for a limited time. Faithfulness is eternal. God's love is not limited
in time - it is forever. He is forever faithful, and He awaits
us and accompanies each one of us with this eternal fidelity."
Right after the
Marian prayer before his greetings to the various communities and groups present
in the square, where at least 50,000 people had gathered, Francis said that this
afternoon, Maria Theresia Bonzel, founder of the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual
Adoration, who lived in the 19th century, would be proclaimed
Blessed in Paderborn, Germany. "The
Eucharist," the pope said, "was the source from which she drew spiritual energy,
devoting herself with tireless charity to the weakest. Let us praise the Lord
for her witness."
The pontiff also
mentioned that today marks the 75th anniversary of the so-called 'Night
of Broken Glass'. "The violence of the night between 9 and 10 November
1938 against Jews, synagogues, homes, and shops marked a sad step towards the
tragedy of the Holocaust," he said. "Let us renew our support and solidarity towards
the Jewish people, our elder brothers. Let us pray to God that the memory of
the past, of past sins, help us be ever vigilant against all forms of hatred
and intolerance."