Pope Francis' complete homily to the extraordinary Urbi et Orbi

"When the evening has come" (Mk 4:35). The Gospel passage we have just heard begins like this. For weeks now it is evening. Dense darkness has gathered on our squares, on our streets and on our cities; has taken over our lives, filling everything with deafening silence and an anguishing void, which stops everything as it passes; we feel it in the air, we notice in people's gestures, their looks give them. We find ourselves frightened and lost. Like the disciples of the Gospel, we were caught off guard by an unexpected and turbulent storm. We realized that we are on the same boat, all fragile and disoriented, but at the same time important and necessary, all of us called to row together, each of us needs to comfort the other. On this boat ... it's all of us. Just like those disciples, who spoke anxiously with one voice, saying "We are dying" (v. 38),

It is easy to recognize ourselves in this story. What is more difficult to understand is Jesus' attitude. While his disciples are quite alarmed and desperate, he is in the stern, in the part of the boat that sinks first. And what does it do? Despite the storm, he sleeps deeply, trusting in the Father; this is the only time in the Gospels that we see Jesus sleeping. When he wakes up, after calming the wind and the waters, he turns to the disciples in a reproachful voice: “Why are you afraid? Have you no faith? "(V. 40).

Let's try to understand. What does the lack of faith of the disciples consist of, contrary to the trust of Jesus? They hadn't stopped believing in him; in fact, they invited him. But let's see what they call it: "Master, don't you care if we perish?" (v. 38). You don't care: they think Jesus isn't interested in them, they don't care. One of the things that hurts us and our families the most when we hear them say, "Don't you care about me?" It is a phrase that hurts and unleashes storms in our hearts. He would have shaken Jesus too. Because he, more than anyone else, cares for us. Indeed, once they have invited him, he saves his disciples from their discouragement.

The storm exposes our vulnerability and discovers those false and superfluous certainties around which we have built our daily programs, our projects, our habits and priorities. It shows us how we have made the same things that nourish, support and strengthen our lives and communities become boring and weak. The storm lays bare all our prepackaged ideas and the oblivion of what feeds the souls of our people; all those attempts that anesthetize us with ways of thinking and acting that presumably "save" us, but instead prove unable to put us in touch with our roots and keep alive the memory of those who preceded us. We deprive ourselves of the antibodies we need to face adversity.

In this storm, the facade of those stereotypes with which we have camouflaged our egos, always worrying about our image, has fallen, once again discovering that (blessed) common belonging, of which we cannot be deprived: our belonging as brothers and sisters.

"Why are you afraid? Have you no faith? "Lord, your word affects us tonight and concerns us, all of us. In this world, which you love more than us, we have gone on at breakneck speed, feeling powerful and capable of doing anything. Greedy for profit, we let ourselves be taken by things and attracted by haste. We have not stopped at your reproach against us, we have not been shaken by wars or injustices all over the world, nor have we listened to the cry of the poor or of our sick planet. We continued regardless, thinking that we would remain healthy in a sick world. Now that we are in a stormy sea, we implore you: "Wake up, Lord!".

"Why are you afraid? Have you no faith? "Lord, you are calling us, calling us to faith. Which is not so much to believe that you exist, but to come to you and trust in you. This Lent resounds with urgency: "Get converted!", "Return to me with all your heart" (Joel 2:12). You are calling us to take this test moment as a moment of choice. It is not the moment of your judgment, but of our judgment: a time to choose what matters and what passes, a time to separate what is necessary from what is not. It is time to get our lives back on track with regards to you, Lord and others. We can look at so many exemplary companions for the journey, who, although frightened, reacted by giving life. This is the power of the Spirit poured out and modeled in courageous and generous self-denial. It is life in the Spirit that can redeem, enhance and demonstrate how our lives are intertwined and supported by ordinary people - often forgotten - who do not appear in the headlines of newspapers and magazines or on the big catwalks of the last show, but who undoubtedly in these days are writing the decisive events of our time: doctors, nurses, supermarket employees, cleaners, carers, transport suppliers, law enforcement and volunteers, volunteers, priests, men and women religious and so many others who they understood that nobody achieves salvation alone. In the face of so much suffering, where the authentic development of our peoples is evaluated, we experience Jesus' priestly prayer: "May they all be one" (Jn 17:21). How many people exercise patience and offer hope every day, taking care not to sow panic but a shared responsibility. How many fathers, mothers, grandparents and teachers show our children, with small daily gestures, how to face and face a crisis by adjusting their routines, looking up and encouraging prayer. Those who pray, offer and intercede for the good of all. Prayer and silent service: these are our victorious weapons.

"Why are you afraid? You have no faith "? Faith begins when we realize that we need salvation. We are not self-sufficient; we founders alone: ​​we need the Lord, as the ancient navigators needed the stars. We invite Jesus into the boats of our life. We hand over our fears to him so he can conquer them. Like the disciples, we will experience that there will be no shipwreck with him on board. Because this is the strength of God: to turn everything that happens to us to good, even bad things. Bring serenity in our storms, because with God life never dies.

The Lord asks us and, in the midst of our storm, invites us to awaken and put into practice that solidarity and hope capable of giving strength, support and meaning to these hours when everything seems to falter. The Lord awakens to awaken and revive our Easter faith. We have an anchor: with his cross we have been saved. We have a helm: with his cross we have been redeemed. We have hope: with his cross we have been healed and embraced so that nothing and nobody can separate us from his redeeming love. In the midst of isolation, when we suffer from a lack of tenderness and the possibility of meeting, and we experience the loss of so many things, we listen once again to the announcement that saves us: he is risen and lives for our side. The Lord asks us from his cross to rediscover the life that awaits us, to look towards those who look at us, to strengthen, recognize and favor the grace that lives within us. Let us not extinguish the wavering flame (cf. Is 42: 3) which never waver and let hope rekindle.

Embracing his cross means finding the courage to embrace all the difficulties of the present time, abandoning for a moment our enthusiasm for power and properties to make room for the creativity that only the Spirit is able to inspire. It means finding the courage to create spaces where everyone can recognize that they are called and allow new forms of hospitality, brotherhood and solidarity. With his cross we were saved to embrace hope and let it strengthen and support all measures and all possible ways to help us protect ourselves and others. Embrace the Lord to embrace hope: this is the strength of faith, which frees us from fear and gives us hope.

"Why are you afraid? You have no faith "? Dear brothers and sisters, from this place that tells the solid faith of Peter, tonight I would like to entrust you all to the Lord, through the intercession of Mary, People's Health and Stormy Sea Star. From this colonnade that embraces Rome and the whole world, may God's blessing come down on you as a consoling embrace. Lord, may you bless the world, give health to our bodies and comfort our hearts. You ask us not to be afraid. Yet our faith is weak and we are afraid. But you, Lord, will not leave us at the mercy of the storm. Tell us again: "Do not be afraid" (Mt 28, 5). And we, together with Peter, "project all our anxieties on you, because you worry about us" (cf. 1 Pt 5, 7).