Pope
Francis celebrated Mass on Thursday in St Peter’s Basilica, inside the
St Sebastian Chapel where Blessed Pope John Paul II is buried.
Every
Thursday morning, a group of Polish worshippers takes part in a Mass
celebrated in the St Sebastian Chapel.
This week, the Mass was
celebrated by Pope Francis himself.
In his homily, the Pope focused on
the love of God, and on two powerful images illustrating the two
different ways in which this love might be received.
On the
one hand, he said, we have the certainty of the apostle Paul: “no one
can separate me from the love of Christ”.
Paul lived through
persecution, through illness, through betrayal, but the love of Christ
was always at the centre of his life.
On the other hand, Pope Francis
continued, we have the sadness of Jesus as he looks upon Jerusalem, the
unfaithful. And the heart of Jesus wept for this city that didn’t
understand the love of God, for this love that was not received.
Pope
Francis contrasted the two images – Paul, who feels he is a sinner, but
finds strength in the love of God, and Jerusalem, with its people who
don’t accept the love of God, or worse, who half accept it, depending on
their own convenience.
So let us ask ourselves, Pope Francis concluded –
do I have a strong love, like Paul, or do I have a tepid heart, like
Jerusalem?