Divine Liturgy in the main hall of the “Christos Lambrakis” Palace, where the largest ecclesiastical organ of the Balkans is located, was performed in the afternoon by the Bishop and Pope of Rome, Francis.
The Liturgy was attended in the main hall by 800 – 900 Catholics from all over Greece, while in all the other halls of the Concert Hall 2,500 people.
“On this second Sunday of the Presence, the Word of God presents to us the figure of Saint John the Baptist. The Gospel emphasizes two aspects: the place where it is located, the desert, and the content of its message, the conversion. Desert and conversion: this is what the present Gospel insists on, and this great persistence gives us to understand that these words concern us directly. “Let’s accept both,” the pope said in his speech.
“The Lord prefers smallness and humility”
In addition, he said: “The desert. The evangelist Luke introduces this place in a special way. He does speak of formal occasions and of great personalities of that time: he mentions the fifteenth year of the emperor Tiberius Caesar, the governor Pontius Pilate, King Herod and other “political leaders” of the time * then he mentions the religious leaders, and Caiaphas, which was in the temple of Jerusalem (cf. Lk 3: 1-2). At this point he declares, “The Word of God came to John, the son of Zacharias, in the wilderness” (Luke 3: 2). But how; We would expect the Word of God to be addressed to one of the great ones just mentioned. And yet no. From the lines of the Gospel emerges a subtle irony: from the high levels in which those in power reside we suddenly pass into the desert, into a man unknown and lonely. God surprises us, his choices are surprising: they do not fit into human predictions, they do not follow the power and greatness that man usually attributes to Him. The Lord prefers smallness and humility. Redemption does not begin in Jerusalem, Athens or Rome, but in the desert. This paradoxical strategy gives us a very nice message. Having power, being educated and famous is not a guarantee of pleasing God * on the contrary, it could make us proud and repel him. On the contrary, it is useful for us to be internally poor, just as the desert is poor. “
And then he urges: “Let us remain in the paradox of the desert. Prodromos prepares the coming of Christ to this inaccessible and inhospitable place, full of dangers. Now, if one wants to make a great announcement, one usually goes to beautiful places, where there is a lot of people, where there is visibility.
But John is preaching in the wilderness. Right there, in the arid place, in that empty space that extends as far as the eye can see and where there is almost no life, there the glory of the Lord is revealed, which – as the Scriptures prophesy (see Isa 40: 3-4) – turns the desert into a lake, the dry land into springs of water (see Isa 4:18). Here’s another encouraging message: God, now as then, turns his gaze to where sorrow and loneliness prevail. We can see it in life: He often fails to reach out to us when we are in the midst of applause and think only of ourselves * he succeeds mainly in times of trial. He visits us in difficult situations, in our emptiness that leaves him space, in our existential deserts “.
He goes on to say: “Dear brothers and sisters, in the life of a man or a people there are times when we have the impression that we are in a desert. And that is where the Lord is present, who is often not accepted by the one who feels successful, but by the one who feels that he does not succeed. And he comes with words of closeness, sympathy and tenderness: ” Do not be afraid, for I am with you * do not be discouraged, for I am your God. I make you strong and I come to help you ” (v. 10). Preaching in the wilderness, John assures us that the Lord is coming to set us free and to give us life again in situations that seem without redemption, with no way out. So there is no place that the Lord does not want to visit. And today we can only feel joy seeing that he chooses the desert, to reach us, in our smallness that loves it, and in our drought that wants to quench its thirst! Therefore, my dear ones, do not be afraid of smallness, because the issue is not to be small and inadequate, but to be open to God and to others. And do not be afraid of the droughts either, because God, who comes there to visit us, is not afraid of them! “
“To go beyond what our instincts tell us and our thoughts photograph”
Then he invites: “Let us now turn to the second side, the conversion. The Baptist preached it without rest and in strong tones (see Luke 3: 7). And this is also a “distressing” topic. Just as the desert is not the first place we would like to go, so the invitation to conversion is certainly not the first sentence we would like to hear. Talking about conversion can cause sadness * it seems difficult to associate it with the Gospel of joy. But this happens when the conversion is limited to a moral endeavor, as if it were only the fruit of our strength. Spiritual sadness and frustration also nest here: we would like to transform, to be better, to overcome our shortcomings, to change, but we feel that we will not succeed completely and, despite our good will, we always fall again. We have the same experience of St. Paul who, from these very places, wrote: ” I want to do good, but I do not find the strength to turn it into action * and so I do not do the good I would like, but the evil I do not want ” (Rom 7: 18-19). So if we do not have the ability to do good on our own, what does it mean to be converted?
Your beautiful language, Greek, can help us with the etymology of the evangelical verb “I repent”, “I am converting”. It is composed of the intention “after”, which here means “beyond”, and the verb “noo” which means “I think”. I am transformed, then, means I think beyond, that is, I go beyond the usual way of thinking, beyond our usual mental shapes. I think precisely of the shapes that limit everything to our ego, to our claim to self-sufficiency. Or in those closed by the austerity and fear that paralyze, by the temptation of “it always happened that way”, by the idea that the deserts of life are places of death and not places of the presence of God.
Encouraging us to conversion, John calls us to go beyond and not stop here * to go beyond what our instincts tell us and our thoughts photograph, because reality is greater. The reality is that God is greater. To be converted, then, means not to listen to the one who sinks hope, the one who repeats that in life nothing will ever change. “To convert” means to refuse to believe that we are destined to sink into the moving sands of mediocrity. And let us not lay down our arms in front of the inner ghosts, who appear mainly in the moments of ordeal to disappoint us and tell us that we will not succeed, that everything is going badly and that becoming saints is not for us. It is not so, because God exists. We must trust in Him, because He is our “beyond”, our power. Everything changes if we leave Him first. Here is the conversion: to the Lord our open door is enough to enter and do marvelous works, as a desert was enough for him and the words of John to come into the world “.
“Let us ask for the grace of hope”
Finally, he emphasizes: “Let us ask for the grace to believe that with God things change, that He heals our wounds, transforms arid places into springs of water. Let us ask for the grace of hope. Because hope is the one that inspires faith and rekindles love. Because the deserts of the world today are thirsty for hope. And while this encounter renews us in the hope and joy of Jesus Christ, and I am glad to be with you, let us ask our Mother, the Virgin Mary, to help us to be, like her, witnesses of hope, sowers of joy around us. Not only when we are happy and together, but every day, in the deserts we live in. Because that is where, by the grace of God, our life is called to be transformed and to flourish “.
The Mayor of Athens honored Pope Francis with the Gold Medal of Value of the City of Athens
The Mayor of Athens, Costas Bakoyannis, honored Pope Francis with the Gold Medal of Value of the City of Athens, which is the highest distinction of the Greek capital, after a decision of the Municipal Council and in recognition of the work, the social contribution and the deep sensitivity. of the Primate of the Roman Catholic Church.
The awarding of the Medal to the Pope took place immediately after the end of the Divine Liturgy, in a simple ceremony.
Pope Francis accepted, as an exception to the rules, this honorary distinction on the part of the city of Athens, recognizing in practice the timeless importance of the Greek capital.
A few hours earlier, the Pope had described Athens as a place that is “a gift, a legacy of humanity on which the foundations of the West were built.”
The mayor of Athens conveyed to Pope Francis the deep respect of him, as well as of the representatives of the Municipal Council, and thanked him for his contribution to the man, whom he always puts in the center with his speech and possible actions.
“The presence of Pope Francis is a great honor for Athens. His deep sensitivity, his compassion, his spiritual radiance and his multifaceted work are world-renowned. We award him the Gold Medal of the city as a minimum example of respect for his enormous contribution to the persecuted man, for his contribution to the dialogue of the Christian world, for his support so that Hagia Sophia remains a symbol of religious worship and an ecumenical monument of world renown. The mayor of Athens, Costas Bakogiannis, underlined: “Athens today is experiencing the consequences of the triple crisis: it has withstood the waves of refugees, it is living the outbreaks of the health crisis, it is already accepting the consequences of the climate. All these dimensions aggravate the pre-existing economic inequalities, for the alleviation of which we are on the same side of history, starting from our common apostolic roots, modern connecting link our common anxieties, guided by man as tradition and philosophy dictate. us from antiquity “.
The parchment that accompanies the medal states:
The Municipal Council of Athens, with its number / deed, awarded His Holiness Pope Francis, the Gold Medal of the city of Athens, as a sign of deep respect for his personality and his world prestige as a religious leader.
Recognizing his practical love and devotion to the absolute value of the human condition. His continuous effort to alleviate the problems of our suffering fellow human beings and to defend human rights, promoting the values ​​and principles of the Christian spirit, to achieve social justice and reconciliation between nations.
Present, among others, were the Ministers of Development and Investment, Adonis Georgiadis, of Education and Religions, Niki Kerameos, and of Culture and Sports, Lina Mendoni.
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