As you can probably tell from the stories on our website recently, the amount of projects and action on our campus is substantial. I want to take a moment to thank all of you that have provided your gratitude, your prayers, and your well-wishes for our staff here at St. John. We are all working as hard as humanly possible to repair, renew, and rejuvenate every facet of our Parish Family’s home and our programs. This is truly a massive undertaking (thanks, Irma, we thought we had 3 years to do all of this), but it will enable us to enliven our spaces to showcase the positive love, joy, and action of the Catholic Church in a tangible way, not only for ourselves, but to the entire community. We do not mind the work now that will pay off in engaging souls in safe, enjoyable and faith enriching activities on our campus for years to come.
Our Holy Father has given us a clear path of action. We cannot be satisfied with simply standing aside while that evil in the world permeates into the fabric of our life. We cannot be content to simply not participate in those moments and pat ourselves on the back. We have to be the champions for good, for love.
Dear brothers and sisters and dear young Italians, good morning!
In today’s second reading, St. Paul urgently invites us: “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with which you were sealed for the day of redemption.” (Eph 4:30).
But I ask myself: how is the Holy Spirit saddened? We have all received it in Baptism and Confirmation, therefore, in order not to grieve the Holy Spirit, it is necessary to live in a manner consistent with the promises of Baptism, renewed in Confirmation. In a coherent way, not hypocrisy: do not forget this. The Christian can not be hypocritical: he must live in a coherent way. The promises of baptism have two aspects: renunciation of evil and adherence to good.
To renounce evil means to say “no” to temptations, to sin, to Satan. More concretely, it means to say “no” to a culture of death, which manifests itself in the flight from the real towards a false happiness that is expressed in lies, in fraud, in injustice, in the contempt of the other. To all this, “no”. The new life which has been given to us in Baptism, and which has the Spirit as its source, rejects a behavior dominated by feelings of division and discord. This is why the Apostle Paul exhorts to remove from his heart “all bitterness, fury, anger, shouting, and reviling must be removed from you, along with all malice” (v. 31). This is what Paul says. These six elements or vices, which disturb the joy of the Holy Spirit, poison the heart and lead to imprecations against God and neighbor.
But it is not enough not to do evil to be a good Christian; it is necessary to adhere to the good and do good. Here then is that St. Paul continues: “[And] be kind to one another, compassionate, forgiving one another as God has forgiven you in Christ” (v. 32). Many times it happens to hear some who say: “I do not hurt anyone”. And it is believed to be a saint. All right, but are you good? How many people do not do evil, but not even good, and their life flows into indifference, apathy, lukewarmness. This attitude is contrary to the Gospel, and it is also contrary to the character of you young people, who by nature are dynamic, passionate and courageous. Remember this – if you remember, we can repeat it together: “It’s good not to do evil. But it’s evil not to do good!” This was what St. Albert Hurtado said.
Today I urge you to be protagonists in the good! Protagonists in the good. Do not feel right when you do not do evil; everyone is guilty of the good he could do and did not do. It is not enough not to hate, it is necessary to forgive; it is not enough not to have a grudge, we must pray for the enemies; it is not enough not to be a cause of division, we must bring peace where it does not exist; it is not enough not to speak badly about others, we must stop when we hear someone talking badly: stop the chatter: this is doing good. If we do not oppose evil, we feed it tacitly. It is necessary to intervene where evil spreads; because evil spreads where there are no daring Christians who oppose with good, “walking in love” (cf. 5: 2), according to the warning of St. Paul.
Dear young people, you have walked a lot these days! Therefore, you are trained and I can tell you: walk in love, walk in love! And let us walk together towards the next Synod of Bishops. May the Virgin Mary support us with her maternal intercession, so that each of us, every day, with deeds, can say “no” to evil and “yes” to good. – Pope Francis 8/12/2018 (http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/it/angelus/2018/documents/papa-francesco_angelus_20180812.html)
It is our duty and responsibility to act for and in the name of good, of love. That can be as simple as ensuring a special needs individual with a cane receives Communion directly, even if they are not sitting in the handicapped row or opening the door for someone going into a store. It can mean participating in a Respect Life activity denouncing the death penalty or unjust refugee regulations. It can mean serving the poorest members of our area by pulling turkey before Thanksgiving. It certainly means loving and caring for every living thing on earth equally and completely. That is what we are called to do as Catholics and that is how we will heal and build God’s Kingdom here on earth