We too, disciples of the Third Millenium, can have this special personal encounter with Christ.

Pope Francis stressed this as he commemorated his 2013 visit to Lampedusa today, July 8, 2020, with a special, intimate Mass in the Chapel of his residence, Casa Santa Marta.

In a July 6 declaration, the Director of the Holy See Press Office, Matteo Bruni, announced:”On Wednesday 8 July 2020, at 11.00 a.m., on the anniversary of his visit to Lampedusa in 2013, Pope Francis will celebrate Holy Mass in the Casa Santa Marta chapel.”

“Given the health situation, only the staff of the Migrants and Refugees Section of the Department for Promoting Integral Human Development will participate in the Mass,” it concluded.

The Mass could be watched and replayed on Vatican YouTube.

In the homily, Francis stressed that seeking the face of God is motivated by the desire for a personal encounter with the Lord, with His immense love and redeeming power. The Twelve Apostles, he noted, received the grace to meet Him physically in Jesus Christ, the incarnated Son of God.

Jesus, Pope Francis remembered, called each one by na”looking at them in the eyes; and they gazed at his face, listened to His voice and saw His wonders. The personal encounter with the Lord, a time of grace and salvation, immediately entails a mission: “As you go, Jesus tells them, make this proclamation: ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand” (v. 7).”

“Such a personal encounter with Jesus Christ,” the Holy Father stressed, “is possible also for us, disciples of the third millennium.”

“As we undertake to seek the face of the Lord,” he said, “we may recognize Him in the face of the poor, the sick, the abandoned, and the foreigners whom God places on our way. And this encounter becomes for us a time of grace and salvation, as it bestows on us the same mission entrusted to the
Apostles.”

The Pope remembered when the Lord said ‘Whatever you did, you did it for me…’

“Whatever you did…” for better or for worse!” the Jesuit Pope underscored.

“This warning,” he said, “is a burning issue today. Let us use it as a fundamental element to examine our conscience on a daily basis. I think of Libya, detention camps, the abuses and violence that migrants are victims of, journeys of hope, rescue operations, and push-backs. “Whatever you did… you did it for me.”

The Pope went off the cuff, to share the following memory: “I remember that day. Seven years ago, right in the south of Europe in that Island. Some told me their stories, how much they had suffered to arrive there, and there were interpreters . . . One recounted terrible things in his own language, and the interpreter seemed to translate well.”

“However,” the Argentine Pontiff observed, “this man first spoke for a long time and the translation was brief . . .  I thought, well one can see that to express itself this language has longer [twists and turns].”

The Pope said that when he returned home, there was the lady at the reception — “peace to her soul, now she is no longer alive” who was the daughter of Ethiopians.

“She understood the language and had seen the meeting on TV, and said this to me: ‘Listen, what the Ethiopian translator said to you isn’t a quarter of the tortures and sufferings that they have seen,’” Francis remembered.

The Pope lamented that “they gave me a ‘distilled’ version.

“This is happening today with Libya: war, yes, awful, but they give us a “distilled” version. You can’t imagine the hell that is lived there, in those detention lagers and these people came with only one hope: to cross the sea,” he said.

Pope Francis concluded, praying: “May the Virgin Mary, Solacium migrantium, “Solace or Comfort of Migrants”, help us discover the face of Her Son in all our brothers and sisters who are forced to flee from their homeland because of the many injustices that still afflict our world today.”

Here is the Vatican-provided translation of the Pope’s address in English, prior to the Pope’s addition of the off-the-cuff remarks:

***

Dear brothers and sisters,

Today’s responsorial Psalm urges us always to seek the Lord’s face: “Rely on the mighty
Lord, constantly seek His face” (Ps 104). This quest is a fundamental attitude in the life of all the
faithful, who have come to realize that the ultimate goal of their existence is the encounter with
God.

To seek the face of God is an assurance that our journey in this world will end well. It is an
exodus towards the Promised Land, our heavenly home. Our destination, our North star helping us
not to lose the way, is the face of God.

At the time the people of Israel were described by the prophet Hosea in the first reading (cf.
10,1-3.7-8.12), they were lost. They had lost sight of the Promised Land and were wandering in the desert of iniquity. The Israelites’ heart had drifted away from the Lord because of abundance, prosperity and riches. These had filled their heart with falsehood and injustice.

It is a sin, from which even we, modern Christians, are not immune. “The culture of comfort, which makes us think only of ourselves, makes us insensitive to the cries of other people, makes us live in soap bubbles which, however lovely, are insubstantial; they offer a fleeting and empty illusion which results in indifference to others; indeed, it even leads to the globalization of indifference. In this globalized world, we have fallen into globalized indifference. We have become used to the suffering of others: it doesn’t affect me; it doesn’t concern me; it’s none of my business!” (Homily in Lampedusa, 8th July 2013).

Hosea’s words reach us today as a renewed call to conversion, to turn our eyes to the Lord and see His face. The prophet says: “Sow for yourselves justice, reap the fruit of piety. Break up for yourselves a new field, for it is time to seek the Lord, till he come and rain down justice upon you” (10,12).

To seek the face of God is motivated by the desire for a personal encounter with the Lord, with His immense love and redeeming power. The twelve apostles, described in today’s Gospel (cf. Mt 10,1-7), received the grace to meet Him physically in Jesus Christ, the incarnated Son of God.

He called each one by name, looking at them in the eyes; and they gazed at his face, listened to His voice and saw His wonders. The personal encounter with the Lord, a time of grace and salvation, immediately entails a mission: “As you go, Jesus tells them, make this proclamation: ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand” (v. 7).

Such a personal encounter with Jesus Christ is possible also for us, disciples of the third millennium. As we undertake to seek the face of the Lord, we may recognize Him in the face of the poor, the sick, the abandoned, and the foreigners whom God places on our way. And this encounter becomes for us a time of grace and salvation, as it bestows on us the same mission entrusted to the
Apostles.

Today, we mark the seventh anniversary of my visit to Lampedusa. In light of the Word of
God, I wish to reassert what I said to the participants in the meeting “Liberi dalla paura” of February last year: “The encounter with the other is also an encounter with Christ. He himself told us. It is He who knocks on our door, hungry, thirsty, naked, sick, imprisoned, seeking an encounter with us and requesting our assistance. And if we still had any doubt, here are His unequivocal
words: ‘I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me’” (Mt
25,40).

“Whatever you did…” for better or for worse! This warning is a burning issue today. Let us use it as a fundamental element to examine our conscience on a daily basis. I think of Libya, detention camps, the abuses and violence that migrants are victims of, journeys of hope, rescue operations, and push-backs. “Whatever you did… you did it for me.”

[….]

May the Virgin Mary, Solacium migrantium, “Solace or Comfort of Migrants”, help us
discover the face of Her Son in all our brothers and sisters who are forced to flee from their
homeland because of the many injustices that still afflict our world today.
[Original text: Italian] [Pope’s prepare address, provided by the Vatican]

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