Archbishop Gallagher: Pope still serves Church and humanity in his fragility
By Benedetta Capelli
In his homily at the Mass for the Pope’s health, Archbishop Gallagher underlined Pope Francis’ gratitude “for the closeness and the prayer that rises abundantly to Heaven for him.”
The Secretary for Relations with States and International Organizations celebrated the Mass on Thursday afternoon at the Church of the Gesù in Rome, the spiritual home of the Society of Jesus, to which the Pope belongs.
He was joined by several Ambassadors to the Holy See in praying for the Pope’s health and ongoing recovery from bilateral pneumonia at Rome’s Gemelli Hospital.
Archbishop Gallagher focused his homily on the divine love that “constantly flows” from God “through the pierced Heart of Jesus” and which seeks our response, saying God’s love meets us in “our misery, our sins, and takes on the quality of mercy.”
“The important season of Lent,” emphasized the Archbishop, “is a favorable time to deepen this path,” which he said requires us to allow ourselves to be loved by God, so that spiritual rebirth opens us to “new spaces and new horizons of hope, of freedom, and of peace.”
Danger of passing from life to death
On the other hand, noted Archbishop Gallagher, we face the danger of focusing more on death than on life.
“Our own times witness the threat of evil becoming increasingly significant, and darkness at times seems to prevail even over the light,” he said. “We see it sadly in martyred Ukraine, in Palestine, Israel, Lebanon, Myanmar, Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and in other places of conflict.”
Yet, he added, spiritual rebirth can lead us to the path of encounter, though obstacles are never lacking.
“There are unfortunately those who constantly feed a culture of death,” said Archbishop Gallagher, by embracing “the perverse logic of hatred, domination, and thus war, on every level. The world thus becomes a theater of clashes between ethnicities and civilizations, cultures, and religions.”
Diplomacy at the service of the common good
Christians are instead called to spread the values of love, justice, and peace, he said.
“Blessed are those times and places,” Archbishop Gallagher underlined, “where people sit around the same table and place their trust in the power of reason and conscience, having as their horizon the inexpressible value of human dignity!”
He said our world need a type of diplomacy that is “detached from miserable human interests in order to work freely in favor of the common good, cooperating together to ensure for all the supreme goods of justice and peace.”
Archbishop Gallagher recalled the Pope’s many invitations to embrace the logic of encounter, since humanity was created to enjoy altruistic relationships.
Self-centeredness, he added, becomes a cage that prevents us from being a “blessing” for others.
“There is an enormous difference between the one who brings life to others, reaching out a hand to save, and the one who instead brings death, depriving the other of the help necessary to survive,” he said.
Prayerful recognition of the voice of conscience
Archbishop Gallagher reminded the Ambassadors to the Holy See that humanity needs “a higher light” to guide our choices and help us to carry them out.
“It is precisely in prayer, which is also made of silence,” he said, “that we must learn to hear the voice of conscience, which is not an arbitrary judgment, but the voice of the Lord that resounds in the inner sanctuary of the mind and the heart.”
“Those who have fought for human dignity, who struggled against dictatorships, tyranny, and injustices—even if they did not always share the Christian faith or a religious faith,” he said, “did so in the name of conscience, recognizing in it that higher voice which points out the right path.”
Archbishop Gallagher concluded his homily by inviting diplomats to “enter into silence and enter this inner sanctuary of conscience,” especially during this Lenten season, while entrusting ourselves to the Virgin of Silence, “to whom we also entrust the Pope’s health and peace in the world.”
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