VATICAN INFORMATION SERVICE
YEAR XXII - # 126
DATE 07-07-2015

Summary:
- Pope Francis' first homily in Latin America: for the family, the best is yet
to come
- Visit to the president of Ecuador and Quito Cathedral
- Other Pontifical Acts

___________________________________________________________

 Pope Francis' first homily in Latin America: for the family, the best is yet
to
come
 Vatican City, 7 July 2015 (VIS) - Yesterday more than a million people
attended
the Pope's first Mass in Ecuador, in Guayaquil. He first visited the Shrine of
Divine Mercy, the city's second largest place of worship, built at the behest
of
Archbishop Antonio Arregui Yarza between 2009 and 2014 and able to hold 2,300
people.
 Upon arrival at the Shrine, the Holy Father was welcomed by an immense crowd,
with whom he prayed a Hail Mary before leaving the temple, and whom he greeted
with the following words: "Now I will celebrate Mass, and I hold you all in my
heart. I will ask for each one of you, I will say to the Lord, 'You know the
names of those who were there'. I will ask Jesus for great mercy for every one
of you; I will ask Him to care for you and to cover you with His mercy. May Our
Lady always be by your side".
 "And now, before I leave - because I am on my way to Mass, and the archbishop
tells me we are running out of time - I give you my blessing ... I am not
asking
you to give me anything! But I ask you, please, to pray for me. Will you
promise
me? May God Almighty, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, bless you. Thank
you for your Christian witness".
 The Pope then travelled the 25 kilometres that separate the Shrine from
Samanes
Park, where he celebrated Holy Mass specially dedicated to families. The Gospel
reading recounted the wedding at Cana, and in his homily the Pope focused on
Mary who expresses to Jesus her concern as the newly-weds have no wine.
 "The wedding at Cana is repeated in every generation, in every family, in
every
one of us and our efforts to let our hearts find rest in strong love, fruitful
love and joyful love. Let us make room for Mary, 'the Mother' as the evangelist
calls her. Let us journey with her now to Cana.
 "Mary is attentive, she is attentive in the course of this wedding feast, she
is concerned for the needs of the newly-weds. She is not closed in on herself,
worried only about her little world. Her love makes her 'outgoing' towards
others. She does not seek her friends to say what is happening, to criticise
the
poor organisation of the wedding feast. And since she is attentive, she
discretely notices that the wine has run out. Wine is a sign of happiness, love
and plenty. How many of our adolescents and young people sense that these is no
longer any of that wine to be found in their homes? How many women, sad and
lonely, wonder when love left, when it slipped away from their lives? How many
elderly people feel left out of family celebrations, cast aside and longing
each
day for a little love, from their sons and daughters, their grandchildren,
their
great grandchildren? This lack of this 'wine' can also be due to unemployment,
illness and difficult situations which our families around the world may
experience. Mary is not a 'demanding' mother, nor a mother-in-law who revels in
our lack of experience, our mistakes and the things we forget to do. Mary,
quite
simply, is a Mother! She is there, attentive and concerned. It is gratifying to
hear this: Mary is a Mother! I invite you to repeat this with me: Mary is a
Mother! Once again: Mary is a Mother! And once more: Mary is a Mother!
 "But Mary, at the very moment she perceives that there is no wine, approaches
Jesus with confidence: this means that Mary prays. She goes to Jesus, she
prays.
She does not go to the steward, she immediately tells her Son of the
newly-weds'
problem. The response she receives seems disheartening: 'What does it have to
do
with you and me? My hour has not yet come'. But she nonetheless places the
problem in God's hands. Her deep concern to meet the needs of others hastens
Jesus' hour. And Mary was a part of that hour, from the cradle to the cross.
She
was able 'to turn a stable into a home for Jesus, with poor swaddling clothes
and an abundance of love'. She accepted us as her sons and daughters when the
sword pierced her son's heart. She teaches us to put our families in God's
hands; she teaches us to pray, to kindle the hope which shows us that our
concerns are also God's concerns.
 "Praying always lifts us out of our worries and concerns. It makes us rise
above everything that hurts, upsets or disappoints us, and helps to put
ourselves in the place of others, in their shoes. The family is a school where
prayer also reminds us that we are not isolated individuals; we are one and we
have a neighbour close at hand: he or she is living under the same roof, is a
part of our life, and is in need.
 "And finally, Mary acts. Her words, 'Do whatever he tells you', addressed to
the attendants, are also an invitation to us to open our hearts to Jesus, who
came to serve and not to be served. Service is the sign of true love. Those who
love know how to serve others. We learn this especially in the family, where we
become servants out of love for one another. In the heart of the family, no one
is rejected; all have the same value. I remember once how my mother was asked
which of her five children - we are five brothers - did she love the most. And
she said: it is like the fingers on my hand, if I prick one of them, then it is
as if the others are pricked also. A mother loves her children as they are. And
in the family, children are loved as they are. None are rejected. 'In the
family
we learn how to ask without demanding, to say "thank you" as an expression of
genuine gratitude for what we have been given, to control our aggressivity and
greed, and to ask forgiveness when we have caused harm, when we quarrel,
because
in all families there are quarrels. The challenge is to then ask for
forgiveness. These simple gestures of heartfelt courtesy help to create a
culture of shared life and respect for our surroundings'. The family is the
nearest hospital; when a family member is ill, it is in the home that they are
cared for as long as possible. The family is the first school for the young,
the
best home for the elderly. The family constitutes the best 'social capital'. It
cannot be replaced by other institutions. It needs to be helped and
strengthened, lest we lose our proper sense of the services which society as a
whole provides. Those services which society offers to its citizens are not a
type of alms, but rather a genuine 'social debt' with respect to the
institution
of the family, which is foundational and which contributes to the common good.
 "The family is also a small Church, called a 'domestic Church' which, along
with life, also mediates God's tenderness and mercy. In the family, we imbibe
faith with our mother's milk. When we experience the love of our parents, we
feel the closeness of God's love.
 "In the family, and we are all witnesses of this, miracles are performed with
what little we have, with what we are, with what is at hand... and many times,
it
is not ideal, it is not what we dreamt of, nor what 'should have been'. There
is
one detail that makes us think: the new wine, that good wine mentioned by the
steward at the wedding feast of Cana, came from the water jars, the jars used
for ablutions, we might even say from the place where everyone had left their
sins ... it came from the 'worst' because 'where sin increased, grace abounded
all
the more'. In our own families and in the greater family to which we all
belong,
nothing is thrown away, nothing is useless. Shortly before the opening of the
Jubilee Year of Mercy, the Church will celebrate the Ordinary Synod devoted to
the family, deepen her spiritual discernment and consider concrete solutions
and
help to the many difficult and significant challenges facing families today. I
ask you to pray fervently for this intention, so that Christ can take even what
might seem to us impure, like the water in the jars scandalising or threatening
us, and turn it - by making it part of his 'hour' - into a miracle. The family
today needs this miracle.

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 * Origin: Sursum Corda! BBS=Huntsville AL=bbs.sursum-corda.com (1:396/45)