are following, because deafness spreads.
 "You may say to me, 'But these people were following the Master, they were
busy
listening to the words of the Master. They were intent on Him'. I think that
this is one of the most challenging things about Christian spirituality. The
Evangelist John tells us, 'How can you love God, Whom you do not see, if you do
not love your brother whom you do see?'. One of the great temptations we
encounter along the way, as we follow Jesus, is to separate these two things -
listening to God and listening to our brother - which belong together. We need
to be aware of this. The way we listen to God the Father is how we should
listen
to His faithful people. To pass by, without hearing the pain of our people,
without sinking roots in their lives and in their world, is like listening to
the word of God without letting it take root and bear fruit in our hearts. Like
a tree, a life without roots is a one which withers and dies".
 The second response to Bartimaeus' cry was to tell him to keep quiet. "Be
quiet, don't bother us, don't disturb us, we who are engaged in community
prayer, we who have attained a high level of spirituality. Do not bother us, do
not disturb. Unlike the first response, this one hears, acknowledges, and makes
contact with the cry of another person. It recognises that he or she is there,
but reacts simply by scolding. There are bishops, priests, nuns, Popes, who wag
their finger like this. ... And the poor faithful people of God, how often they
are affected by the bad mood or the personal situation of one of Jesus'
followers. It is the attitude of some leaders of God's people; they continually
scold others, hurl reproaches at them, tell them to be quiet. 'Madam, take your
crying child out of the church while I am preaching'. As if the cry of a child
were not a sublime form of sermon'.
 This is the drama of the isolated consciousness, of those disciples who think
that the life of Jesus is only for those deserve it. At its basis there is a
profound disdain for the holy faithful people of God. They seem to believe
there
is only room for the 'worthy', for the 'better people', and little by little
they separate and differentiate themselves from the others. They have made
their
identity a badge of superiority. They are not pastors, but foremen: 'I am here,
now get into your place'. They hear, but they don't listen. The need to show
that they are different has closed their heart. Their need to tell themselves,
'I am not like that person, like those people', not only cuts them off from the
cry of their people, from their tears, but most of all from their reasons for
rejoicing. Laughing with those who laugh, weeping with those who weep; all this
is part of the mystery of a priestly heart".
 Thirdly, they told him to take heart and get up. "It is not so much a direct
response to the cry of Bartimaeus as an echo, or a reflection, of the way Jesus
Himself responded to the pleading of the blind beggar. In those who told him to
take heart and get up, the beggar's cry issued in a word, an invitation, a new
and changed way of responding to God's holy People. Unlike those who simply
passed by, the Gospel says that Jesus stopped and asked what was happening. He
stopped when someone cried out to Him. Jesus singled him out from the nameless
crowd and got involved in his life. And far from ordering him to keep quiet, He
asked him, 'What do you want me to do for you?'. He didn't have to show that He
was different, somehow apart; He didn't decide whether Bartimaeus was worthy or
not before speaking to him. He simply asked him a question, looked at him and
sought to come into his life, to share his lot. And by doing this He gradually
restored the man's lost dignity; He included him. Far from looking down on him,
Jesus was moved to identify with the man's problems and thus to show the
transforming power of mercy. There can be no compassion without stopping,
hearing and showing solidarity with the other. Compassion is not about zapping,
it is not about silencing pain, it is about the logic of love. A logic, a way
of
thinking and feeling, which is not grounded in fear but in the freedom born of
love and of desire to put the good of others before all else. A logic born of
not being afraid to draw near to the pain of our people. Even if often this
means no more than standing at their side and praying with them.
 "This is the logic of discipleship, it is what the Holy Spirit does with us
and
in us", emphasised the Pope. "We are witnesses of this. One day Jesus saw us on
the side of the road, wallowing in our own pain and misery, in our
indifference.
He did not close his ear to our cries. He stopped, drew near and asked what He
could do for us. And thanks to many witnesses, who told us, 'Take heart; get
up', gradually we experienced this merciful love, this transforming love, which
enabled us to see the light. We are witnesses not of an ideology, of a recipe,
of a particular theology. We are witnesses to the healing and merciful love of
Jesus. We are witnesses of His working in the lives of our communities. This is
the pedagogy of the Master, this is the pedagogy which God uses with His
people.
It leads us to passing from distracted zapping to the point where we can say to
others: 'Take heart; get up. The Master is calling you'. Not so that we can be
special, not so that we can be better than others, not so that we can be God's
functionaries, but only because we are grateful witnesses to the mercy which
changed us. ... And when you live in this way, there is joy and good cheer.
 "On this journey we are not alone. We help one another by our example and by
our prayers. We are surrounded by a cloud of witnesses. Let us think of Blessed
Nazaria Ignacia de Santa Teresa de Jesus, who dedicated her life to the
proclamation of God's Kingdom through her care for the aged, her 'kettle of the
poor' for the hungry, her homes for orphaned children, her hospitals for
wounded
soldiers and her creation of a women's trade union to promote the welfare of
women. Let us also think of Venerable Virginia Blanco Tardio, who was
completely
dedicated to the evangelisation and care of the poor and the sick".
 "These women, and so many other persons like them - anonymous, many of them -
who follow Jesus, are an encouragement to us along our way", exclaimed the
bishop of Rome. "May we press forward with the help and cooperation of all. For
the Lord wants to use us to make his light reach to every corner of our world".

___________________________________________________________

 To popular movements: the universal destination of goods is not a figure of
speech in the Church's social teaching
 Vatican City, 10 July 2015 (VIS) - The Pope's day in Santa Cruz de la Sierra
concluded with his participation in the Second World Meeting of Popular
Movements, organised in collaboration with the Pontifical Council "Justice and
Peace" and the Pontifical Academy for Social Sciences, attended by delegates
from popular movements from all over the world representing workers in
precarious employment and the informal economy, landless farmers, "villeros"
(inhabitants of poor areas), indigenous peoples, immigrants, and social
movements.
 Also present were Cardinal Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson, president of "Justice
and Peace", and Bishop Marcelo Sanchez Sorondo, chancellor of the Pontifical
Academy. The first meeting took place in the Vatican in October 2014, and was
attended by the president of Bolivia, Evo Morales, who yesterday also presented
a discourse in the Expo Feria centre, hosting the event in which three thousand
people have participated.
 The following is the full text of the discourse given by Pope Francis:
 "Good afternoon! Several months ago, we met in Rome, and I remember that first
meeting. In the meantime I have kept you in my thoughts and prayers. I am happy
to see you again, here, as you discuss the best ways to overcome the grave
situations of injustice experienced by the excluded throughout our world. Thank
you, President Evo Morales, for your efforts to make this meeting possible.
During our first meeting in Rome, I sensed something very beautiful:
fraternity,
determination, commitment, a thirst for justice. Today, in Santa Cruz de la
Sierra, I sense it once again. I thank you for that. I also know, from the
Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace headed by Cardinal Turkson, that many
people in the Church feel very close to the popular movements. That makes me
very happy! I am pleased to see the Church opening her doors to all of you,
embracing you, accompanying you and establishing in each diocese, in every
justice and peace commission, a genuine, ongoing and serious cooperation with
popular movements. I ask everyone, bishops, priests and laity, as well as the
social organisations of the urban and rural peripheries, to deepen this
encounter.
 "Today God has granted that we meet again. The Bible tells us that God hears
the cry of his people, and I wish to join my voice to yours in calling for
land,
lodging and labour for all our brothers and sisters. I said it and I repeat it:
these are sacred rights. It is important, it is well worth fighting for them.
May the cry of the excluded be heard in Latin America and throughout the world.
 "Let us begin by acknowledging that change is needed. Here I would clarify,
lest there be any misunderstanding, that I am speaking about problems common to
all Latin Americans and, more generally, to humanity as a whole. They are
global
problems which today no one state can resolve on its own. With this
clarification, I now propose that we ask the following questions.
 "Do we realise that something is wrong in a world where there are so many
farmworkers without land, so many families without a home, so many labourers
without rights, so many persons whose dignity is not respected? Do we realise
that something is wrong where so many senseless wars are being fought and acts
of fratricidal violence are taking place on our very doorstep? Do we realise
something is wrong when the soil, water, air and living creatures of our world
are under constant threat? So let's not be afraid to say it: we need change; we
want change.
 "In your letters and in our meetings, you have mentioned the many forms of
exclusion and injustice which you experience in the workplace, in
neighbourhoods
and throughout the land. They are many and diverse, just as many and diverse
are
the ways in which you confront them. Yet there is an invisible thread joining
every one of those forms of exclusion: can we recognise it? These are not
isolated issues. I wonder whether we can see that these destructive realities
are part of a system which has become global. Do we realise that that system
has
imposed the mentality of profit at any price, with no concern for social
exclusion or the destruction of nature?
 "If such is the case, I would insist, let us not be afraid to say it: we want
change, real change, structural change. This system is by now intolerable:
farmworkers find it intolerable, labourers find it intolerable, communities
find
it intolerable, peoples find it intolerable ... The earth itself - our sister,
Mother Earth, as St. Francis would say - also finds it intolerable. We want
change in our lives, in our neighbourhoods, in our everyday reality. We want a
change which can affect the entire world, since global interdependence calls
for
global answers to local problems. The globalisation of hope, a hope which
springs up from peoples and takes root among the poor, must replace the
globalisation of exclusion and indifference.
 "Today I wish to reflect with you on the change we want and need. You know
that
recently I wrote about the problems of climate change. But now I would like to
speak of change in another sense. Positive change, a change which is good for
us, a change - we can say - which is redemptive. Because we need it. I know
that
you are looking for change, and not just you alone: in my different meetings,
in
my different travels, I have sensed an expectation, a longing, a yearning for
change, in people throughout the world. Even within that ever smaller minority
which believes that the present system is beneficial, there is a widespread
sense of dissatisfaction and even despondency. Many people are hoping for a
change capable of releasing them from the bondage of individualism and the

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