On Friday, February 2, Pope Francis celebrated Mass for the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord and marked the 22nd World Day for Consecrated Life. The text of his homily is available here. An excerpt of the homily follows:
How good it is for us to hold the Lord "in our arms" (Lk 2:28) like Simeon. Not only in our heads and in our hearts, but also "in our hands," in all that we do: in prayer, at work, at the table, on the telephone, at school, with the poor, everywhere. Having the Lord "in our hands" is an antidote to insular mysticism and frenetic activism, since a genuine encounter with Jesus corrects both saccharine piety and frazzled hyperactivity. Savoring the encounter with Jesus is also the remedy for paralysis of routine, for it opens up the daily "havoc" of grace. The secret to fanning the flame of our spiritual life is a willingness to allow ourselves to encounter Jesus and to be encountered by him; otherwise we fall into a stifling life, where disgruntlement, bitterness and inevitable disappointments get the better of us. To encounter one another in Jesus as brothers and sisters, young and old, and thus to abandon the barren rhetoric of "the good old days" -- a nostalgia that kills the soul -- and to silence those who think that "everything is falling apart." If we encounter Jesus and our brothers and sisters in the everyday events of our life, our hearts will no longer be set on the past or the future, but will experience the "today of God" in peace with everyone.
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