Celebrating Mass on the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Pope Francis offered words that, while not Christmas-themed, were wonderfully appropriate for the last two weeks of Advent. He reminded us of the closeness of God as shown through the Mother of His Son.
Just as the Virgin Mary was present to the Indigenous people of Mexico five centuries ago, he said she is with us today during this time of war and turmoil.
“Today as yesterday, Our Lady of Guadalupe wants to meet us too as she did one day with Juan Diego on the hill of Tepeyac,” the Pope said. “She wants to stay with us. She begs us to allow her to be our mother, to open our lives to her Son Jesus and to welcome his message so as to learn to love like him.”
It was a beautiful reminder that Our Lady of Guadalupe invites us to turn our lives to her son and to learn to love as he does. “Our Lady of Guadalupe came to the blessed lands of America, presenting herself as the ‘mother of the true God for whom we live’ to console and attend to the needs of the little ones, without excluding anyone, to embrace them as a caring mother with her presence, love and consolation,” he said.
It was also a reminder that “God never stops watching over our world—needy and wounded—to assist it with His compassion and mercy,” he said. “His way of intervening, of manifesting himself, always surprises us, and fills us with joy.”
So it came as a surprise when the next day a friend suggested to me that the Pope’s message appeared to be lacking in hope.
Lacking in hope? Where did that impression come from?
My friend drew my attention to a newspaper article in The Daily Mail:
“Pope warns he has seen ‘omens of even greater destruction and desolation’ for mankind.”
The second headline read: The Pontiff said even more dire times for humanity are set to come in the future.
I checked Catholic media accounts of the Mass to make sure The Daily Mail was writing about the same event. It was.
I read the Pope’s entire homily. About three-quarters of the way through the homily I found it. A single line about this current time of bitterness we’re living in: “And although this horizon appears gloomy and disconcerting, although it appears with omens of even greater destruction and desolation, faith, love and divine condescension still teach us and tell us that this is also a propitious time of salvation …”
What a misleading effort. One sentence that was more about the present than the future was used to rewrite the Pope’s message of hope and joy.
My Christmas prayer for everyone is that we consider and take to heart the Pope’s theme for World Communications Day next year, Veritatem facientes in caritate (Speaking the truth in love.)
As we deal with the conflicts afflicting the world, the Pope wants to show us that “non-hostile communication is more necessary than ever,” and that communication must be rooted in truth and love.
It’s a lesson that apparently is easy to miss.
