VATICAN - Pope Francis: Jesus puts encounter first in his mission

Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - "Jesus is not concerned with showing off to the crowds, with doing a job, with following a timetable in carrying out his mission. On the contrary, he always makes it his priority to encounter others, to relate to them, and to sympathize with the struggles and setbacks that often burden hearts and take away hope".

With these words, Pope Francis presided this morning in St. Peter's Square over a solemn Eucharistic concelebration, which marked the conclusion of the Jubilee events dedicated to the Armed Forces and Police.

The Pontiff did not read the full text of the homily: "Excuse me, I will now ask the Master [of Liturgical Celebrations] to continue reading due to my difficulty in breathing", he said after reading the first part of the text and adding a few spontaneous words. Last Thursday, the Holy See Press Office announced in a statement that the Pope was suffering from bronchitis, which is why the weekend audiences were held at the Casa Santa Marta.

Archbishop Diego Ravelli, Master of Pontifical Liturgical Celebrations, then continued reading the text. In his reflection, the Pope highlighted three key words, taken from the passage of the Gospel according to Luke proclaimed in the liturgy of the day, which tells of the call of the first Apostles: "he saw", "he went aboard " and "he sat down". Christ - the papal homily stressed - "looks with compassion at the expressions of those men, sensing their discouragement and frustration after having worked all night and caught nothing, their hearts as empty as the nets they haul". But Jesus "does not simply stand by and watch as things go wrong, as we often do, and then complain bitterly. Rather, taking the initiative, he approaches Simon, spends time with him at that difficult moment and chooses to board the boat of his life, which that night had seemed fraught with failure".

Jesus "boards the boat in order to proclaim the good news, to tell of the beauty of God even amid the struggles of life, and to reaffirm that hope endures even when all seems lost.
Then the miracle happens: when the Lord gets into the boat of our lives to bring us the good news of God’s love that constantly accompanies and sustains us, then life begins anew, hope is reborn, enthusiasm revives, and we can once again cast our nets into the sea".

In his homily, read by Archbishop Ravelli, the Bishop of Rome also expressed his gratitude to "all the military" who daily carry out their service to protect security and justice: "We are grateful for what you do, at times at great personal risk".

At the end of the celebration, in the words pronounced before the Angelus, in front of the multitude of women and men in uniform gathered in St. Peter's Square, Pope Francis renewed his appeal for peace, citing the conciliar constitution Gaudium et Spes: "This armed service is to be exercised only for legitimate defence, never to impose dominion over other nations, always observing the international conventions on matters of conflict, and before that, in sacred respect for life and creation". The Pontiff also recalled the conflicts that continue to tear peoples and nations apart: "Let us pray for peace, in tormented Ukraine, in Palestine, in Israel and throughout the Middle East, in Myanmar, in Kivu, and in Sudan. Let arms be silent everywhere, and let the cry of the peoples, who are asking for peace, be heard!" (F. B.) (Agenzia Fides, 9/2/2025)

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