The
Lord is a fierce warrior in defence of His people – the prayers of His
people are His only weakness.
These were the words of Pope Francis
during Mass on Saturday morning in the Vatican’s Santa Marta.
Pope
Francis focused his homily on the strength of the Lord as saviour of
His chosen people, and on the strength which His people can find in
prayer.
Jesus tells His disciples a parable about the
necessity of praying without ever becoming weary, like the widow who
insistently petitioned a dishonest judge for justice, until she
eventually obtained it. God “will secure the rights of His chosen ones
who call out to him day and night”, Pope Francis said, just as He did
when Moses led the people of Israel out of Egypt.
When God
calls Moses, He says to him: “I have heard the cry, the lament of my
people”. The Lord listens, Pope Francis said: His “all-powerful word
from heaven’s royal throne bounded, a fierce warrior”. That’s what the
Lord is like, the Pope explained, when He defends His people: He is a
fierce warrior, He saves His people.
This is the strength of
God, Pope Francis continued, but what is our strength? Ours is the
strength of the widow: to knock at the heart of God, to knock, to lament
our many problems, many pains, to ask the Lord to free us from these
pains, from these sins, from these problems. Our strength is prayer, the
Pope said, and the prayer of a humble person is the weakness of God.
The Lord is weak only in this one sense: He is weak before the prayers
of His people.
You are like the widow, Pope Francis said to
those present, you must pray, ask, knock at the heart of God every day.
The widow never tired, she was always brave. And the Lord listens to His
people’s prayer. You, Pope Francis concluded, are the privileged
representatives of the people of God, and you must pray to the Lord for
the many needs our Church and of humanity.