Pope celebrates all saints day in Verano

Pope Francis celebrated mass at the Cemetery of Verano today to commemorate the feast of All Saints.

In his homily, Pope Francis spoke off the cuff, drawing from the Mass’s first reading taken from the book of Apocalypse, he focused on three images. The first was the warning against the devastation of the Earth to the four angels. Pope Francis said that there is a phrase that lies in the hearts of all of us: “we can destroy the world better than you” that is, Man has the capacity to devastate the world worse than the angels. “Devastate life, culture, values, hope” .

He remarked “how much do we need this strength of the Lord, so that he would sign us with his love to destroy this insane career of destroying creation.”

Pope Francis then moved on to speak about an innumerable crowd mentioned in the reading. He compared them to the forgotten and thrown away in this life. “It seems that the people, the hungry and sick children do not count. They seem to be of a different species, not even human.This multitude stands before of God”.

He exhorted in his homily that we think about the saints unknown to us. “Those who come from great tribulation in the many parts of the world. The Lord sanctifies these people through tribulation”, he said.

Finally, Pope Francis offered a third image from the homily, that is God. “We are sons of God, but what we will be has not yet been revealed. But we have the hope that we will be like Him. The blessing of the Lord is hope. The hope that He will have mercy on His People”.

He reminded the faithful that “in order to journey back to God the Father, in this world of devastation, of wars, of tribulation, we must act according to the beatitudes. It is this path that will save us. This path will lead us through problems and persecution, but only this path will lead us forward.

“The people who go forward on the path of the beatitudes will reach God and become saints in that final meeting with Him”.

Vatican Radio