By Joseph Tulloch
Pope Leo reflected on love, suffering and humility on Thursday evening, as he presided over Mass at Gran Canaria Stadium.
Gran Canaria, a Spanish island just off the West coast of Africa, is a major arrival point for migrants seeking a new life in Europe.
In his homily, the Pope said that he wanted to remember “the sufferings to which this land bears witness”, and invited his listeners to pray together for “our brothers and sisters who have lost their lives at sea.”
‘Torment for the heart’
Pope Leo began his homily by reflecting on the first reading for the Mass, which was taken from the Book of Deuteronomy and describes God’s “unconditional” love for the Israelites.
This is a love, the Pope said, which “permeates our entire being”, and is “fire for the soul, light for the mind, peace, an irresistible impulse toward freedom … torment for the heart”.
It is in this “unconditional” divine love, Leo said, that our own vocation to love is rooted.
Spiritual, intellectual, and physical development
The Pope then turned to consider the day’s second reading, taken from the First Letter of John.
In the Apostle’s words, Leo said, lies an invitation “to embrace those who suffer with motherly compassion”.
Our compassion, however, he said, must not stop at material assistance, but rather give rise to an effort to promote the “spiritual, intellectual, and physical” development of those in need.
The ‘restless I’
The day’s Mass fell on the Vigil of the Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus. Bringing his homily to a close, Pope Leo said he wanted to reflect on a particular characteristic of the Heart of Christ: humility.
Leo said that, “dazed by the clamor of a bombastic, omnipresent and restless ‘I’,” many today “lack the silence necessary to hear within themselves … the hidden, beating heart of love.”
Jesus, the Pope suggested, shows us the solution: “we must step down from the pedestals of arrogance that divide us and see ourselves in the humility that unites us.” – Vatican News
