Pope Francis closed Italy's national Eucharistic Congress on Sunday with a car trip -- since bad weather made flying by helicopter impossible -- to southern Italy. He arrived to Matera after departing bright and early from Rome at 6:30 a.m. The planned welcoming ceremony with political authorities was cancelled.
The Pope stayed only a few hours in Matera, a tourist city known for its famous troglodyte dwellings made of light-colored stone, which have been used as a backdrop for films on the life of Christ, including The Gospel According to Saint Matthew by Pier Paolo Pasolini (1964) and The Passion of the Christ by Mel Gibson (2004). Before leaving, though, he did visit a local soup kitchen and gave his blessing, before heading back via car.
The Holy Father celebrated Mass with the bishops of Italy, focusing his homily on the Eucharist and the Church, in light of the Gospel reading about Lazarus and the rich man.
He reflected how the sad story of Lazarus continues even today, "when we confuse what we are with what we have, when we judge people by the wealth they have, the titles they display, the roles they play or the brand of dress they wear. It is the religion of having and appearing, which often dominates the scene of this world, but in the end leaves us empty-handed: always."
The Pope noted how "this rich man of the Gospel is not even left with a name. He is no longer anybody at all. On the contrary, the poor man has a name, Lazarus, which means 'God helps.'"
The Pope said:
"this rich man of the Gospel is not even left with a name. He is no longer anybody at all. On the contrary, the poor man has a name, Lazarus, which means 'God helps.'"
Adoring Jesus in the Eucharist gives a whole new way of looking at ourselves too:
Seeing him, seeing others
In worshiping God under the appearance of bread and wine, we hear the call to love our brothers and sisters, the Pope continued.
While the story of Lazarus and the rich man continues to be lived out today around the world, the Pope called us to "recognize that the Eucharist is a prophecy of a new world, it is the presence of Jesus who asks us to commit ourselves so that an effective conversion happens: conversion from indifference to compassion, conversion from waste to sharing, conversion from selfishness to love, conversion from individualism to fraternity."
