Picture below is from
The Catholic Sun
Pope Francis’ Homily at Mass in Havana’s Plaza de la Revolución
“Service is never ideological, for we do not serve ideas, we serve people.”
Here is a Vatican translation of the Holy Father’s homily during his first Mass at the Plaza de la Revolucion in Havana, Cuba.
* * *
The Gospel shows us Jesus asking a seemingly indiscreet
question of his disciples: “What were you discussing along the way?” It
is a question which he could also ask each of us today: “What do you
talk about every day?” “What are your aspirations?” The Gospel tells us
that the disciples “did not answer because on the way they had been
arguing about who was the most important”. The disciples were ashamed to
tell Jesus what they were talking about. As with the disciples then, we
too can be caught up in these same arguments: who is the most
important?
Jesus does not press the question. He does not force them
to tell him what they were talking about on the way. But the question
lingers, not only in the minds of the disciples, but also in their
hearts.
Who is the most important? This is a life-long question to
which, at different times, we must give an answer. We cannot escape the
question; it is written on our hearts. I remember more than once, at
family gatherings, children being asked: “Who do you love more, Mommy or
Daddy”? It’s like asking them: “Who is the most important for you?” But
is this only a game we play with children? The history of humanity has
been marked by the way this question is answered.
Jesus is not afraid of people’s questions; he is not afraid
of our humanity or the different things we are looking for. On the
contrary, he knows the “twists and turns” of the human heart, and, as a
good teacher, he is always ready to encourage and support us. As usual,
he takes up our searching, our aspirations, and he gives them a new
horizon. As usual, he somehow finds an the answer which can pose a new
challenge, setting aside the “right answers”, the standard replies we
are expected to give. As usual, Jesus sets before us the “logic” of
love. A mindset, an approach to life, which is capable of being lived
out by all, because it is meant for all.
Far from any kind of elitism, the horizon to which Jesus
points us is not for those few privileged souls capable of attaining the
heights of knowledge or different levels of spirituality. The horizon
to which Jesus points us always has to do with daily life, also here on
“our island”, something which can season our daily lives with eternity.
Who is the most important? Jesus is straightforward in his
reply: “Whoever wishes to be the first among you must be the last of
all, and the servant of all”. Whatever wishes to be great must serve
others, not be served by others.
Here lies the great paradox of Jesus. The disciples were
arguing about who would have the highest place, who would be chosen for
privileges, who would be above the common law, the general norm, in
order to stand out in the quest for superiority over others. Who would
climb the ladder most quickly to take the jobs which carry certain
benefits.
Jesus upsets their “logic”, their mindset, simply by
telling them that life is lived authentically in a concrete commitment
to our neighbor, that is to say, by serving.
The call to serve involves something special, to which we
must be attentive. Serving others chiefly means caring for their
vulnerability. Caring for the vulnerable of our families, our society,
our people. Theirs are the suffering, fragile and downcast faces which
Jesus tells us specifically to look at and which he asks us to love.
With a love which takes shape in our actions and decisions. With a love
which finds expression in whatever tasks we, as citizens, are called to
perform. People of flesh and blood, people with individual lives and
stories, and with all their frailty: these are those whom Jesus asks us
to protect, to care for, to serve. Being a Christian entails promoting
the dignity of our brothers and sisters, fighting for it, living for it.
That is why Christians are constantly called to set aside their own
wishes and desires, their pursuit of power, and to look instead to those
who are most vulnerable.
There is a kind of “service” which truly “serves”, yet we
need to be careful not to be tempted by another kind of service, a
“service” which is “self-serving”. There is a way to go about serving
which is interested in only helping “my people”, “our people”. This
service always leaves “your people” outside, and gives rise to a process
of exclusion.
All of us are called by virtue of our Christian vocation to
that service which truly serves, and to help one another not to be
tempted by a “service” which is really “self-serving”. All of us are
asked, indeed urged, by Jesus to care for one another out of love.
Without looking to one side or the other to see what our neighbor is
doing or not doing. Jesus tells us: Whoever would be first among you
must be the last, and the servant of all”. He does not say: if your
neighbor wants to be first, let him be the servant! We have to be
careful to avoid judgmental looks and renew our belief in the
transforming look to which Jesus invites us.
This caring for others out of love is not about being
servile. Rather, it means putting our brothers and sisters at the
center. Service always looks to their faces, touches their flesh, senses
their closeness and even, in some cases, “suffers” in trying to help.
Service is never ideological, for we do not serve ideas, we serve
people.
God’s holy and faithful people in Cuba is a people with a
taste for parties, for friendship, for beautiful things. It is a people
which marches with songs of praise. It is a people which has its wounds,
like every other people, yet knows how to stand up with open arms, to
keep walking in hope, because it has a vocation of grandeur. Today I ask
you to care for this vocation of yours, to care for these gifts which
God has given you, but above all I invite you to care for and be at the
service of the frailty of your brothers and sisters. Do not neglect them
for plans which can be seductive, but are unconcerned about the face of
the person beside you. We know, we are witnesses of the incomparable
power of the resurrection, which “everywhere calls forth the seeds of a
new world” (cf. Evangelii Gaudium, 276, 278).
Let us not forget the Good News we have heard today: the
importance of a people, a nation, and the importance of individuals,
which is always based on how they seek to serve their vulnerable
brothers and sisters. Here we encounter one of the fruits of a true
humanity.
“Whoever does not live to serve, does not ‘serve’ to live”
© Copyright 2015 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana
(September 20, 2015) © Innovative Media Inc.
