"We got used to eating the hard bread of misinformation"

Pope Francis celebrated a Mbad this morning in Macedonia Square in SKopie, capital of northern Macedonia, the last day of the Holy Father's apostolic journey to Bulgarian and Macedonian lands, the 29th of his pontificate.

We leave you the homily that the Pope addressed to the faithful gathered in the square, offered by the Holy See Press Office in Spanish:

"Whoever comes to me will not be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never thirst" (Jn 6,35), tells us the Lord a moment ago.

In the Gospel, a crowd is concentrated around Jesus, who still had before his eyes the multiplication of the loaves. One of those moments that were engraved in the eyes and in the heart of the first community of disciples. It was a holiday … the feast of the discovery of the abundance of God and the request made to his children, brothers to break up and share the bread. Imagine for a moment this crowd. Something had changed. For a few moments, those thirsty, silent people who followed Jesus in search of a word were able to touch with their hands and feel in their bodies the miracle of brotherhood, capable of satisfying and multiplying.

The Lord has come to give life to the world and does so by challenging the narrowness of our calculations, the mediocrity of our expectations and the superficiality of our intellectualisms; It questions our looks and our certainties inviting us to move towards a new horizon paving the way for a new way of constructing reality. He is the living bread descended from heaven: "Whoever comes to me shall not be hungry, and he who believes in me shall never thirst."

This crowd discovered that the appetite for bread also bore other names: hunger for God, hunger for brotherhood, hunger for meeting and shared feast.

We got used to eating the hard bread of misinformation and we ended the prisoners with discredit, labels and disqualification; we believed that conformism would quench our thirst and we ended up drinking indifference and insensitivity; we fed on dreams of splendor and grandeur and ended up eating distraction, confinement and loneliness; we were soaked in bonds and we lost the taste for fraternity. We looked for the result quickly and safely and we are overwhelmed by impatience and anxiety. Prisoners of virtuality, we have lost the taste and flavor of reality.

Let's say it with force and without fear: we are hungry, Lord. We are hungry, Lord, for the bread of your Word able to open our borders and our solitudes. We are hungry, Lord, of fraternity so that indifference, disrepute, disqualification do not fill our tables and do not take first place with us. We are hungry, Lord, for meetings where your Word can arouse hope, awaken tenderness, sensitize the heart, open paths of transformation and conversion.

We are hungry, Lord, to experience as this group the multiplication of your mercy, capable of breaking down stereotypes and dividing and sharing the Father's compbadion for all persons, especially those who are not cared for, who are forgotten or despised. Let us say it with force and without fear, we are thirsting for bread, Lord, the bread of your word and the bread of fraternity.

In a few moments, we will move, we will go to the altar table to feed on the Bread of Life, following the command of the Lord: "He who comes to me will not be hungry, and that which whoever believes in me will never be thirsty "(Jn 6,35). That's the only thing the Lord asks us: come on. This invites us to go forward, to move forward, to go out. He exhorts us to walk to him to share his life and his mission. "Come," the Lord tells us: a coming that does not only mean going from one place to another, but the ability to let ourselves be moved, transformed by His Word into options, feelings, and priorities to venture to accomplish his gestures and talking with his family. same language, "the language of bread that says tenderness, fellowship, generosity towards others"[1]concrete and palpable love because it is daily and real.

In each Eucharist, the Lord divides and distributes and also invites us to go and share with him and to be part of this multiplying miracle that wants to reach and touch every corner of this city, this country, this country with little of tenderness and compbadion.

The hunger for bread, fraternity, the hunger for God. As she understood this Mother Teresa who wanted to base her life on two pillars: Jesus incarnate in the Eucharist and Jesus incarnate in the poor. The love we receive, the love we give. Two inseparable pillars that have punctuated his path have set in motion to satisfy his hunger and thirst. He went to the Lord and, in the same act, went to his despised, unloved, alone and forgotten brother, he went to his brother's house and found the face of the Lord … for he knew that "the love of God and the love of neighbor are confused: in the most humble we find Jesus himself and in Jesus we find God »[2]and this love was the only one capable of satisfying his hunger.

Brothers: Today, the risen Lord continues to walk among us, where daily life unfolds and plays out. He knows our hunger and repeats: "He who comes to me will not be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty" (Jn 6:35). Let us encourage each other to stand up and experience the abundance of their love, satisfy our hunger and thirst in the sacrament of the altar and in the sacrament of the brother.

Gratitude at the end of Mbad in Skopje

Dear brothers and sisters,

Before the final blessing, I feel the need to express my feelings of gratitude. I thank the Bishop of Skopje for his words and especially for the work he has done to prepare for this day. And with him, I thank all those who collaborated, priests, religious and lay faithful. Thank you sincerely!

I also renew my thanks to the country's civilian authorities, the police and volunteers. The Lord will reward everyone in the best way. For my part, I have presented you in my prayer and I also ask you to pray for me.

[1] J. M. Bergoglio, Homily Corpus Christi, Buenos Aires, 1995.

[2] Benedict XVI, Letter enc. Deus caritas est, 15