May 25, 2024
I am very happy to be among you for my second pastoral visit to your parish dedicated to Our Lady of Perpetual Help. A year has already passed, and many things have changed. Especially for people of a certain age, year after year we are worried because we are getting older. In fact, if I look in the mirror or I see a photograph from last year, I must say that I have actually aged a little. I see a few more wrinkles on my face. My beard is grayer now… But these observations are not enough. In fact, we as Christians have met Jesus and follow him. Jesus is the source of eternal life. If we follow him, we can experience the youthfulness of the Spirit. In this sense we can say that we become younger year after year by following Jesus, because he is the source of true life. We can easily realize whether the youth of the Spirit is in us or whether the spirit of the old man prevails, as Saint Paul says in his letters. The man with the old spirit is the one who closes himself, who does not welcome others. This person creates division. He does not know the grace of forgiveness. The youthfulness of the Spirit knows the grace of new beginning, overcomes divisions, forgets the evil he has suffered and is open to the newness of the Spirit. Those who are young in Spirit want to share their gifts with others and always want to learn new things, because they know that God is eternal novelty, eternal youth. The Gospel we heard speaks to us about a very particular theme: the relationship between a man and a woman united in marriage. The importance that Jesus attributes to this sacrament makes us understand that marriage is not only a civil and natural institution, but a true vocation. Generally, majority of the faithful live the grace of baptism, that is of being children of God, in their vocation to marriage and forming a Christian family. The faithful love between man and woman has the task of representing, within the limits of the human condition, the love that Christ has for his Church. In fact, why do we say that marriage is a sacrament and a specific vocation? Because Christ presented himself as the Groom who offers his life for his Bride, which is the Church. Christian spouses are called to fidelity in order to be a sign of Christ's love for all humanity. In reality, already in the Old Testament the prophets often spoke of the relationship between God and his people in terms of a spousal relation. God presents himself as the Groom who loves his Bride, who is the people of God. Certainly, if we look at the love between man and woman, we realize that it is marked by the limits of the human condition and by sin. For this reason, Christ gives you his grace, to be able to live your marriage deeply as a vocation to be a sign of God's love. Finally, I would like to apply this gospel on the meaning of marriage also to the life of the parish, not only in the sense of the families who attend the Church, but the parish as the bride of Christ. The community that gathers in the name of Jesus represents the image of the Bride. We all form the Church that lives on this territory. And Christ loves us with a spousal love, just as the groom is called to love his bride. As in marriage, we too as Christian community are called to be faithful to Christ and to his love, renewing our lives. Finally, our parish today is enriched by another pastor, also a sign of Jesus. In place of Father George, whom I thank for his commitment, another Father George arrives, who in reality has already been in our apostolic Vicariate in the past, as a priest in Yemen. We thank him for making himself available to be here, as assistant priest in this parish and to help the parish priest with the other priests. Finally, we cannot close this homily without remembering that today is May 24, the day on which the Salesians remember Mary Help of Christians, their patroness. In this way we pray for our Salesian priests, spiritual sons of Don Bosco, who are involved in the parish and in our school. May Mary Help of Christians accompany us with her maternal protection in these days of pastoral visit.
