Homily of Pope Francis at Mass celebrated in Mozambique

Pope Francis presided at the Zimpeto Stadium in Maputo on Friday, September 6, in front of 60,000 people, the last event of his apostolic visit to Mozambique before continuing his trip to Africa.

In his homily, the Holy Father spoke of reconciliation, the fight against poverty, degradation of the environment and exploitation.

"Jesus wants to end forever the habitual practice – yesterday and today – of being a Christian and living under the law of retaliation. You can not think of the future, build a nation, a society based on the "fairness" of violence. I can not follow Jesus if the order that I am defending and that I live is an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. "

Then, the complete homily of Pope Francis:

Dear brothers and sisters.

We heard in the Gospel of Luke a pbadage from the sermon on the plain. After choosing his disciples and proclaiming the Beatitudes, Jesus said: "To you who hear me, I say: love your enemies" (Lk 6,27). A word has also been sent to us today that we hear in this stage.

And he says it clearly, stating simply and firmly a path, a narrow path that needs virtues. Because Jesus is not an idealist who does not know the reality, he speaks of the concrete enemy, the real enemy; He who described in the previous bliss (6,22): of the one who hates us, excludes, insults and proscribes as being infamous.

Many of you can still tell stories of violence, hatred and first-person disagreements; some in their own flesh, others of someone known who is no longer there, others even lest the wounds of the past be repeated and try to erase the path of peace, as in Cabo Delgado.

Jesus does not invite us to an abstract, ethereal or theoretical love, written on desks and for speeches. The path that he proposes to us is the one that he first went through, the one that made him love those who betrayed and judged him unfairly, those who killed him. .

It's hard to talk about reconciliation when the wounds caused by so many years of disagreement are still fresh or inviting this step of forgiveness that does not mean ignoring the pain or asking that memory or ideals be lost (See Exhort, Apangelii Gaudium, 100).

Even so, Jesus Christ invites us to love and to do good; which is much more than ignoring the one who hurt us or making the effort not to cross our lives: it is a mandate for an active, selfless and extraordinary kindness to those who have us. it hurts.

But he does not stay there, he also asks us to bless them and pray for them; that is to say, our word about them is good, the generator of life and not of death, that we do not pronounce their name by insult or revenge, but to inaugurate a new bond of peace. The staff that Teacher offers us is high.

With this invitation, Jesus wants to end forever the usual practice – yesterday and today – of being a Christian and living under the law of retaliation. You can not think of the future, build a nation, a society based on "fairness" of violence. I can not follow Jesus if the order that I am defending and that I live is "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth".

No family, no group of neighbors or ethnic group, with the exception of a country, has a future if the engine that unites them, calls them and covers the differences is revenge and hatred . We can not accept and unite to avenge ourselves, to make the abuser the same as we do, to plan retaliation opportunities in seemingly legal formats. "Arms and violent repression, rather than providing solutions, create new and worse conflicts" (ibid., 60).

The "fairness" of violence is always a hopeless spiral and its cost is very high. Another way is possible because it is essential to remember that our peoples have the right to peace. You have the right to peace.

To make his invitation more concrete and applicable to everyday life, Jesus proposes a first golden rule within the reach of all: "as you want people to behave like you, as you behave with it. "(Lk 6.31) – and this helps us to discover what is the most important part of this mutual treatment: to love, help and lend without expecting anything in return.

"Love us," Jesus tells us; and Paul translates this as "clothe himself with endearing compbadion and kindness" (Col 3: 12). The world did not know – and still does not know – the virtues of mercy, compbadion, killing or abandoning the disabled and the elderly, eliminating the wounded and sick or taking advantage of the suffering of animals. He also did not do kindness, goodness, which led us to have the good of our neighbor as dear as his.

Overcoming the times of division and violence is not just an act of reconciliation or peace, understood by the absence of conflict, but the daily commitment of each of us to actively and actively active, which leads us to treat others with this mercy. and the kindness with which we want to be treated; mercy and kindness especially to those who, because of their condition, are quickly rejected and excluded.

It is an attitude of strong and not weak, an attitude of men and women who discover that it is not necessary to mistreat, denigrate or crush to feel important, but on the contrary. And this attitude is the prophetic force that Jesus Christ taught us to want to identify with them (see Mt 25: 35-45) and to show us that service is the means.

Mozambique is a territory rich in natural and cultural wealth, but paradoxically, a large part of its population is below the poverty line. And sometimes, it seems that those who have the pretended desire to help have other interests. And he is sad when it is among the brothers of the same country who are corrupt; It is very dangerous to accept that this is the price to pay for foreign aid.

"It will not be so among you" (Mt 20,26, see verses 26-28). By his words, Jesus exhorts us to be the protagonists of another agreement: that of his kingdom. Here and now, seeds of joy and hope, peace and reconciliation. What the Spirit is promoting is not overflowing activism, but above all attention to the other, to recognize and value it as a brother until he feels his life and pain as our life and our pain. It is the best thermometer to discover all the ideologies of all kinds that try to manipulate the poor and unfair situations in the service of political or personal interests (see Exhort, Ap Evangelii Gaudium, 199). ). Only then will we be, wherever we are, seeds and instruments of peace and reconciliation.

We want peace to reign in our hearts and in the beating of our people. We want a future of peace. We want "the peace of Christ to reign in your hearts" (Col 3:15), as the letter of St. Paul says. He uses a verb that comes from the field of sport; This is the word that refers to the referee who decides questionable things: "May the peace of Christ be the arbiter in your hearts."

If the peace of Christ is the arbiter in our hearts, then when the feelings are in conflict and we are animated by two opposite senses, let's play for Christ. The decision of Christ will keep us on the path of love, on the path of mercy, on the option for the poor, on the preservation of nature.

On the road to peace If Jesus is the arbiter among the conflicting emotions of our heart, among the complex decisions of our country, Mozambique has a guaranteed future of hope; then our country will sing to God, giving thanks for the heart, with psalms, hymns and inspired songs (cf Col 3:16).