Go out to meet others, Pope urges faithful in New York
September 26, 2015
“God is living in our cities,” Pope Francis assured the congregation as he celebrated Mass in New York’s Madison Square Garden on September 25.
The Pope arrived in the midtown arena after riding in the Popemobile through Central Park. The Pope, who had been riding in a small Fiat in Washington and in New York, agreed to use the Popemobile so that the many New Yorkers who were unable to obtain admission to Madison Square Garden could see him passing by. Pope Francis—who has reportedly complained about the level of security surrounding his movements in the US—clearly enjoyed waving to the crowds that greeted him.
In his homily during the Friday-evening Mass, the Pope—speaking again in Spanish—encouraged the faithful to sense the presence of God in their daily lives, and to share their faith with their neighbors.
Jesus “keeps telling his disciples to go, to go out,” the Pope said. “He urges them to go out and meet others where they really are, not where we think they should be.” He continued:
Go out and proclaim, go out and show that God is in your midst as a merciful Father who Himself goes out, morning and evening, to see if his son has returned home and, as soon as He sees him coming, runs out to embrace him.
In his message to New Yorkers, the Pope remarked that the faithful should be aware of the love of God and “contemplate his living presence in the midst of life, in the midst of the city.” “Living in a big city is not always easy,” the Pope continued. “Yet big cities are a reminder of the hidden riches present in our world.”
At the same time, the Holy Father observed, there are many people in a big city who are in danger of being lost in the confusion. “They are the foreigners, the children who go without schooling, those deprived of medical insurance, the homeless, the forgotten elderly.” He urged the faithful to reach out to these people, too, with love and support.
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