Francesco receives trainers and seminarians from various dioceses in Spain who were affected by the violent floods caused by Dana at the end of last year, resulting in over 200 deaths and severe damage. The pain and mourning “open us to hope”, we stand in solidarity with those who have seen their lives shattered.
By: Tiziana Campisi – Vatican News
Published Date:
Francesco’s words to the trainers and seminarians from the Spanish dioceses of Valencia, Orihuela-Alicante, Segorbe-Castellón, Mallorca, Menorca, and Ibiza are like a heartfelt embrace in the Clementine Hall of the Apostolic Palace. These regions were devastated by the violent floods caused by Dana at the end of October last year, an extreme meteorological phenomenon in Spain that led to over two hundred deaths and significant damage. “It’s not easy to express my feelings,” says the Pope in his speech in Spanish, reflecting on the challenges everyone had to face. His thoughts particularly go to the “undoubtedly atypical Christmas holidays” experienced in the areas ravaged by the terrible natural disaster.
“God became mud” in you. The pain and mourning, despite their severity, open us to hope because they force us to reach the bottom and leave behind everything that seemed to support us, allowing us to move forward. It’s not something we can do alone; the immense darkness you have experienced and are experiencing. And I think of the selfless help of many people, the dedicated looks of the people who have been able to enlighten us with God’s tenderness. This is the field in which you are called to work.
Hope in the face of loss
Reflecting on what happened in the Iberian Peninsula, Francesco considers that Dana is a projection “of what every human being experiences when facing a loss and feeling alone, disoriented, and in need of support to move forward.”
Jesus clearly says, “because He has anointed me – because you are anointed – to heal those with broken hearts, to preach a year of the Lord’s favor.” We are already in this Year of Grace, which I have dedicated to hope, and you will experience it in all its strength by meditating on these words.
Being a priest is being another Christ
Hope is not optimism, which is a “light” expression, explains the Pope, “hope is something else” and we cannot “take people’s suffering lightly and try to console them with casual phrases and platitudes.”
Our hope has a name, Jesus, that God who did not recoil from our mud and instead of saving us from the mud, became mud for us. And being a priest is being another Christ, it is becoming mud in the people’s tears.
Selflessly giving to others
Standing by the “broken people” in Valencia, who “have lost their lives in pieces,” is necessary. “Offer them pieces of yourself, as Christ does in the Eucharist,” encourages Francesco, who urges priests to give themselves freely, “because everything you have – he concludes – you have received freely, do not forget about this generosity.”
