Even the rain falling on Saint Peter's Square early in the morning, couldn't prevent one of the most colorful masses of the year, the Jubilee of the Sick and Persons with Disabilities.
Throughout the Mass, there was a simultaneous translation into sign language, Gospel passages were read by the participants and there was a theatrical representation of one of the readings.
'Not having anything to restore, he forgave the debts of both. So which of them will love him more?'
The Pope's homily was devoted to the sick who were in the square. Pope Francis again turned against the throwaway culture and said that human nature is characterized by serious physical limitations, although these days people want to deny that reality.
POPE FRANCIS
'In an age when care for oneâ??s body has become an obsession and a big business, anything imperfect has to be hidden away, since it threatens the happiness and serenity of the privileged few and endangers the dominant model. Such persons should best be kept apart, in some 'enclosureâ? â?? even a gilded one â?? or in 'islandsâ? of pietism or social welfare, so that they do not hold back the pace of a false well-being.'
Pope Francis recalled that there is not only physical suffering, there is also spiritual. The pathology of sadness always comes from the lack of love.
POPE FRANCIS
'The world does not become better because only apparently 'perfect' people live there â?? I say 'perfect' rather than 'false' â?? but when human solidarity, mutual acceptance and respect increase.â?
The road to happiness always happens when we are able to love, the Pope explained. He led by example when he greeted these patients at the end of Mass.
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