‘The Church in Iraq is alive’: Pope Francis at Mass in Erbil

By Christopher Wells

“Today, I can see firsthand that the Church in Iraq is alive, and that Christ is alive and working in Him, His holy and faithful people,” said Pope Francis in his Homily during the closing Mass of the apostolic trip to Iraq.

The Holy Father based his homily on a passage from São Paulo: “Christ, power and wisdom of God”. Jesus, he said, “revealed that power and wisdom above all, offering forgiveness and showing mercy.”

Often, “we fall into the trap of thinking that we should show others that we are powerful or wise,” said the Pope. Suffering from “wounds of war and violence”, we are tempted to react “with human power, human wisdom”. “However, the truth is that we all need the power and wisdom of God revealed by Jesus on the Cross,” said Pope Francis.

Cleaning the temple of our hearts

Moving on to reading the Sunday Gospel, which tells how the Lord expelled the money changers from the Temple, Pope Francis said that God the Father sent Jesus to clean not only the Temple built of stone, “but, above all, the temple of our hearts ”. Our hearts, he said, must be cleansed “of the falsehoods that tarnish them, of hypocritical duplicity”, of “deceptive security guards”; of “pernicious temptations of power and money”.

But we cannot cleanse our hearts by our own efforts, said the Pope. Instead, it’s “Jesus Christ, He alone, [who] he can purify us from the works of evil … He has the power to overcome our ills, to cure our diseases and to rebuild the temple of our heart ”.

Signs of the Kingdom of Christ

Pope Francis went on to say, “Jesus not only cleanses us from our sins, but gives us a share in His own power and wisdom.” Jesus, he said, frees us from “narrow and divisive notions of family, faith and community” to build an inclusive Church and a society that cares for our brothers and sisters in need.

At the same time, Jesus “strengthens us to resist the temptation to seek revenge” and sends us “not as proselytists, but as missionary disciples, men and women to testify of the transforming power of the Gospel”.

When He promises to raise the Temple after three days, the Pope said, Jesus is not only talking about his own bodily Resurrection, “but also about the Church”. The Lord, he said, “promises us that, by the power of the resurrection, He can lift us, and our communities, from the ruins left by injustice, division and hatred.”

Jesus, said Pope Francis, “wants to anoint all wounds, heal all painful memories and inspire a future of peace and brotherhood on this earth”.

Confirming Iraqi Christians in their faith

Turning to the Iraqi Christian community, the Holy Father concluded his homily, saying: “The Church in Iraq, by the grace of God, is already doing much to proclaim this wonderful wisdom from the Cross, spreading Christ’s mercy and forgiveness, particularly the larger ones. need.”

This, said the Pope, “is one of the reasons that led me to come as a pilgrim among you, to thank you and to confirm you in your faith and testimony”.

Pope blesses statue of Mary

Due to the health and safety measures of the coronavirus, about 10,000 people were present at the Franso Hariri Stadium in Erbil for the Sunday Eucharistic Liturgy, with tens of thousands following through the media, including radio, television and the internet.

At the conclusion of the Eucharistic liturgy, Pope Francis blessed a statue of the Virgin Mary that had been vandalized by Islamic State militants. The statue’s head and hands were cut off, but the head was later recovered and replaced.

Father Samir Sheer, director of Radio Mariam in Erbil, explained that the statue originally came from the Christian village of Karamles. “After the blessing,” he said, “the statue will return to the plain of Nineveh. The hope of the local Christians is that Our Lady will soon return to embrace her children in Karamles.”