The Pope highlighted the “scandal” of Jesus during a Mass he celebrated to formally close Catholic Social Week that ended on 7 July in the city of Trieste.
During the Mass, attended by nearly 100 bishops, some 260 priests and roughly 8,500 people from Italy and neighbouring countries, the Pope discussed Sunday's Gospel reading that described how no prophet is welcome in his own land, and that when Jesus spoke to his own community, he too “was a cause of scandal to them”.
Focusing on the word and theme of scandal, the Pope said the scandal of Jesus was that he was not a powerful God who satisfied every desire, but was a humble and apparently weak God who died a painful death, and who demands that his followers overcome their own shortcomings and selfishness. <br><br><strong>RELATED: <a href="https://catholicherald.co.uk/the-strength-of-jesuss-broken-hands-nailed-to-the-cross/?swcfpc=1"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">Jesus’s broken hands nailed to Cross show how true strength comes from weakness</mark></a></strong>
Jesus represents an “uncomfortable” God, the Pope said, arguing that in the face of the many political and social challenges of modern society, “what we need today is precisely this: the scandal of faith”.
He went on: “Not a religiosity closed in on itself, that looks up to heaven without caring about what happens on earth and celebrates liturgies in the temple but forgets the dust blowing in our streets.
“Instead, we need the scandal of faith, a faith rooted in the God who became man and, therefore, a human faith…that touches people’s lives, that heals broken hearts, that becomes a leaven of hope and a seed of a new world.”
This faith, the Pope said, is not afraid to touch society’s wounds and is capable of overcoming mediocrity, therefore becoming “a thorn in the flesh of a society often anaesthetised and dazed by consumerism”.
“It is, above all, a faith that disrupts the calculations of human selfishness, that denounces evil, that points out injustices, that disturbs the schemes of those who, in the shadow of power, play with the lives of the weak,” the Pope said.<br><br><strong>RELATED: <a href="https://catholicherald.co.uk/?p=794277"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">Pope laments ‘health’ of democracy across the world</mark></a></strong>
Pope Francis urged Christians to be scandalised by the plight of the poor, migrants and prisoners, as well as various societal injustices, and to take strength from the example and experience of Jesus who was condemned for his counter-cultural standards.
People were scandalised by Jesus’s contact with human fragility and woundedness, the Pope noted, and he was condemned for it, yet he remained steadfast in his commitment to conveying God’s love and compassion.
“So, too, we Christians are called to be prophets and witnesses of the Kingdom of God, in all the situations we live in, in every place we inhabit,” the Pope added.
Focusing on the the city of Trieste, located on the Italian border with Slovenia and which was briefly an Anglo-American protectorate after World War II, the Pope described it as a “crossroads of peoples and cultures", and encouraged locals to dream “of a new civilisation founded on peace and fraternity”.
“Let us not be scandalised by Jesus but, on the contrary, let us be indignant at all those situations where life is degraded, wounded, and killed; let us bring the prophecy of the Gospel into our flesh, with our choices even before our words,” he said.
After Mass, Pope Francis delivered his traditional noontime Angelus address and thanked organisers for arranging the latest Catholic Social Week.
He challenged locals in Trieste and the surrounding area to “combine openness and stability, welcome and identity,” adding, “you have what it takes.”
“As Christians we have the Gospel, which gives meaning and hope to our lives; and as citizens you have the Constitution, a reliable compass for the path of democracy,” he said.
The Pope closed by telling attendees to go forward “without fear, open and firm in human and Christian values, welcoming but without compromising human dignity".
“This is not something to be played with,” he said, before praying for countries experiencing war, including Ukraine, Palestine, Israel, Myanmar and Sudan.<br><br><em>Photo: Detail from 'Getsemani' by Sofia Novelli, painting; screenshot from <a href="https://christian.art/art-competition-2024-gallery/"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">www.christian.art/art-competition-2024-gallery/</mark></a>. </em>
