By Lisa Zengarini
In his address to the some 70,000 altar servers gathered in St Peter’s Square on Tuesday, as part their weeklong pilgrimage to Rome, Pope Francis highlighted the deep meaning of the motto chosen for the international event: “With you” (Isa 41:10).
This expression, he noted, “encapsulates the mystery of love”, which is the “mystery of our lives.”
Being with God
The Pope remarked that in the liturgy they serve, these two words refer first of all to God who, in the Eucharist, “becomes a real and concrete presence in the Body and Blood of Christ.”
“When we receive Holy Communion,” Pope Francis explained, “we experience that Jesus is ‘with us’ both spiritually and physically,” not in words, but with that “act of love, which is the Eucharist.”
Because Jesus is with us, we can truly be with Him
In Communion, the Pope continued, altar servers too “can say to the Lord Jesus, ‘I am with you’”, not in words, “but with your heart and your body, with your love.”
By ministering with an attentive mind, heart and body, “the mystery of God who is with you gives you the ability to be with others in a new way” thus carrying out “His commandment to ‘love one another as I have loved you’,” he said.
Being close to our neighbours
Being with Jesus, therefore, implies also being close to our neighbours, “not in words, but in deeds, with gestures, with your heart”, even to “those we might not like”, who are different from us; to foreigners; to those “whom we feel do not understand us”; who never come to church; and who say they do not believe in God.
Concluding, Pope Francis, thanked the organisers for choosing such meaningful motto, and the pilgrims for coming to Rome “to share the joy of belonging to Jesus, of being servants of his love, servants of His wounded heart that heals our wounds, that saves us from death, and that gives us eternal life.”
Cardinal Hollerich’s introduction
The audience was introduced Cardinal Jean Claude Hollerich who is accompanying the pilgrims throughout the week.
The Archbishop of Luxembourg noted that the motto “With you” is an invitation to be “true friends of all men with the help of Christ”. However, he remarked, we are true friends only when we extend our hands to serve and help those in need: “the poor, the persecuted, the oppressed, the homeless, the unemployed, the refugees or those without a country.”
The celebration
The Pope’s greeting was followed by a liturgy of the Word with six prayer intentions of the faithful introduced by Cardinal Hollerich in German, French, Hungarian, and Portuguese in which participants also prayed for peace in the world. At the end of the celebration Pope Francis greeted each of the bishops accompanying the altar servers and then toured St Peter’s Square to greet the young pilgrims.
The pilgrimage, organised by the International Association for altar boys and girls (Coetus Internationalis Ministrantium), kicked off Jul 29 and will run until Aug 3. – Vatican News
