In front of a square of Saint Peter without voices, under a leaden gray sky and a serene and persistent rain, Pope Francis prayed to the Lord, along with all the Catholics of the world who followed by the mass media, for those who today suffer the dire consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Echoing the proclaimed Gospel (Mk 4:35), he recalled that:
“For weeks now it has been evening. Thick darkness has gathered over our squares, our streets and our cities; it has taken over our lives, filling everything with a deafening silence and a distressing void, that stops everything as it passes by; we feel it in the air, we notice in people’s gestures, their glances give them away.”
He realistically underlined that
“We find ourselves afraid and lost. Like the disciples in the Gospel we were caught off guard by an unexpected, turbulent storm.”
“We have realized that we are on the same boat, all of us fragile and disoriented, but at the same time important and needed, all of us called to row together, each of us in need of comforting the other.”
“On this boat… are all of us. “
He also pointed out to us, with the eyes of a pastor, that:
The storm exposes our vulnerability and uncovers those false and superfluous certainties around which we have constructed our daily schedules, our projects, our habits and priorities. It shows us how we have allowed to become dull and feeble the very things that nourish, sustain and strengthen our lives and our communities.
Furthermore, he said that:
“The tempest lays bare all our prepackaged ideas and forgetfulness of what nourishes our people’s souls; all those attempts that anesthetize us with ways of thinking and acting that supposedly “save” us, but instead prove incapable of putting us in touch with our roots and keeping alive the memory of those who have gone before us. We deprive ourselves of the antibodies we need to confront adversity.”
And he closed this sequence, reminding us that we are all part of the great human family:
“In this storm, the façade of those stereotypes with which we camouflaged our egos, always worrying about our image, has fallen away, uncovering once more that (blessed) common belonging, of which we cannot be deprived: our belonging as brothers and sisters.”
He then reminded us that there are valuable people, often ignored, who protect us:
“our lives are woven together and sustained by ordinary people – often forgotten people – who do not appear in newspaper and magazine headlines nor on the grand catwalks of the latest show”.
However, they unknown, today promote another chapter in the history of humanity, Francis tells us that they:
“without any doubt are in these very days writing the decisive events of our time: doctors, nurses, supermarket employees, cleaners, caregivers, providers of transport, law and order forces, volunteers, priests, religious men and women and so very many others who have understood that no one reaches salvation by themselves.”
Likewise, in this crucial moment of humanity, he reminded us of what strength and hope consist of from where we can act without paralyzing ourselves:
“This is God’s strength: turning to the good everything that happens to us, even the bad things.
He brings serenity into our storms, because with God life never dies.”
“The Lord asks us and, in the midst of our tempest, invites us to reawaken and put into practice that solidarity and hope capable of giving strength, support and meaning to these hours when everything seems to be floundering. “
In his meditation, Pope Francis invited us to discover this time of trial as a time of choosing:
It is about “a time to choose what matters and what passes away, a time to separate what is necessary from what is not. “
And at the end of the prayer, we all feel united to the voice of the Pope, imploring his help from God:
“Yet our faith is weak and we are fearful. But you, Lord, will not leave us at the mercy of the storm.
Tell us again: “Do not be afraid” (Mt 28:5). And we, together with Peter, “cast all our anxieties onto you, for you care about us” (cf. 1 Pet 5:7).”
