In the sermon prepared for New Year’s Eve, Pope Francis asks how we can thank God after such a difficult year. God, he says, always has compassion on us, and we are grateful for the acts of closeness, care, and solidarity we saw during 2020.
By Vatican News staff reporter
Pope Francis, suffering from an attack of sciatica, was absent from the celebration of Vespers and the recitation of the Te Deum – the church’s solemn praise of the past year – but still offers a reflection on how we can say thank you for the year that is coming to an end.
The liturgy was led by the Dean of the College of Cardinals, Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, who expressed the praise prepared by Pope Francis for the occasion.
In his sermon, Pope Francis wrote that resignation “at the end of a year like this” may seem ‘forced’, or even shocking, especially when we think of families who have lost loved ones, of the sick, of those alone. suffered, or who lost their jobs.
“What sense does a tragedy like this have,” he asked. In answer to our questions, he replied, God does not appeal to ‘higher reasons’, as if He were sacrificing individuals for a higher benefit. Instead, his response is the incarnation, sending his only son to become human to save everyone.
Like the Good Samaritan, God is merciful to those who have compassion and help the afflicted. And in this attitude, the pope said, we can perhaps find ‘the meaning’ of this tragedy, of this pandemic, as well as other plagues that plague mankind: to arouse our compassion and to provoke attitudes and gestures of closeness, care, of solidarity, of affection. ”
We see this happening all over the world, and even in Rome, Pope Francis wrote, and ‘it is especially for this that we thank God tonight: for the good things that have taken place in our cities during the closing and, in general, throughout the pandemic, which unfortunately is not over yet. ”
Pope Francis praised the “many people who, without making noise, are trying to make the weight of the trial more bearable.” He singled out not only health workers and priests and religious people at the forefront, but also all those who strive every day in the best way for their service to their families and those in their service to the common good. He singled out teachers and school administrators in particular, as well as civic leaders who put the interests of others, especially the most disadvantaged, above their own private interests.
“All this can not happen without the grace, without the grace of God,” Pope Francis said. “How is it possible … that so many people, without any reward other than doing good, have found the strength to care about others?” he asked. “Ultimately, even if they do not know it themselves, it is God’s power that is more powerful than our selfishness.” And so the pope said, ‘For this reason we praise Him, because we believe and know that all the good things that are accomplished day after day on earth finally come from Him, from God. . ”
The pope concluded his prepared remarks by looking to the future that awaited us, with the prayer, “May Your grace always be with us, Lord, for we have hoped in You.”