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“You are the light of the world.” Don’t take my word for it, that’s Gospel truth from Jesus Himself (Mt 5:14). And it’s a tall order, indeed.
Something Beautiful for God was the title of the classic work by Malcom Muggeridge that, back in 1971, introduced Mother Teresa to the world at large. This title can describe very movingly the sacrifices that the four Sisters of Mother Teresa made up to the point of being killed by a group of Muslim terrorists.
During his recent trip to Mexico, Pope Francis once again weighed-in on the debate about migrants. While governments are concerned about granting civil and legal status to the migrants, the Holy Father has appealed to all to look at migrants with eyes and hearts of mercy, in the hope of preserving and uplifting their rights and dignity as human beings.
In Ireland, the discovery of a syndicate bringing impoverished young men and women into slave-like conditions in Romania has shocked police and the public. The human trafficking ring was centered in Letterkenny, County Donegal where a group of young men was being forced to work without salary and to sleep in dirty, unsanitary degrading conditions.
Deeply concerned about a “globalization of indifference,” Pope Francis, in his 2016 World Day of Peace message entitled “Overcome Indifference and Win Peace,” warns that “the first kind of indifference in human society is indifference to God, which then leads to indifference to one’s neighbor and to the environment.”
On the evening of that first day of the week,” according to the Gospel of John, “when the doors were locked, where the disciples were … Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them: ‘Peace be with you.’ ”
The world is a wonderful place. Our God is so good in giving it to us. But to a large extent, we have not taken good care of it, nor of each other. We have polluted the water, fouled the air and are dangerously changing the climate.
As the first pope in history to address a joint session of Congress, Pope Francis, defending the human right of masses of oppressed and poor people to immigrate, said: “We must not be taken aback by their number, but rather view them as persons, seeing their faces and listening to their stories, trying to respond as best we can to their situation.”
Despite the many scandals and problems hounding the Catholic Church, outsiders and even disgruntled former members, are baffled why many Catholics choose to remain in the fold. Only those who know what is at the core of the Church, no matter how rotten the outside has become, can truly understand why.
After decades of debate on whether his assassination was prompted by politics or the defense of the faith, Pope Francis has declared the slain Archbishop of San Salvador a martyr, paving the way for his beatification on May 23.
