Here is a translation of the Holy Father's words at the noonday Angelus in Castel Gandolfo today:
Dear brothers and sisters,
The liturgy on this 19th Sunday in ordinary time prepares us in some way for the solemnity of Mary's Assumption to Heaven which we are celebrating on August 15.
In fact, it is oriented completely to the future, to heaven, where the Blessed Virgin has preceded us to the joy of Paradise. In particular, the Gospel today, following the message last Sunday, invites us Christians to detach ourselves from material goods which are mostly illusory, and to faithfully comply with our own obligations while contantly reaching towards heaven.
The believer must be alert and watchful in order to be ready to welcome Jesus when he comes in his glory. Through examples drawn from daily life, the Lord exhorts his disciples to live with this interior disposition, like the servants in the parable who are waiting for the return of their master.
"Blessed are those servants," he says, "whom the master will find sitll awake when he comes back" (Lk 12,37). We should therefore, be watchful, while praying and doing good.
It is true that on earth, we are all transients, as the second Reading from today's liturgy reminds us, from the Letter to the Hebrews. It presents Abraham to us as a pilgrim, a nomad who lives in a tent and sojourns in a strange land. And it is faith that guides him.
"Out of faith," the sacred author writes, "Abraham, called by God, obeyed and set out for the land which he was to receive as a legacy, without knowing where he was going" (Heb 11,8).
His true goal was, in fact "the city with the firm foundations, whose archiect and builder is God himself" (11,10). The city that is referred to is not of this earth. It is Paradise.
The early Christian community was aware of this, considering what is down here as 'foreign', and calling its residential nuclei in the cities 'parishes' which means precisely, colonies of strangers [
parokoi, in Greek](cfr 1 Pt 2,11).
In this way, the first Christians expressed the most important characteristic of the Church, which is precisely this reaching out toward heaven. Today's liturgy of the Word invites us to think "of life in the world to come", as we repeat every time we make our profession of faith with the Creed.
It is an invitaiton to spend our life in a wise and farsigted manner, considering carefully our destination, namely that which we call the last realities: death, the last judgment, eternity, hell and paradise.
May the Virgin Mary, who watches over us from heaven, help us not to forget that here on earth, we are only transients, and may she teach us to prepare ourselves to meet Jesus "who is seated at the right hand of the Almighty Father, from whence he shall coime to judge the living and the dead."
After the Angelus, he had this special message:
In the last few days, serious floods have devastated many countries in Southeast Asia, with numerous victims and causing millions to be without shelter.
In expressing my profound participation in the sorrow of the affected people, I exhort the community of the Church to pray for the victims and to support the initiatives for solidarity to alleviate the sufferings of so many people who are so sorely tried. May the international coimmunity not fail to give its timely and generous support to these our brothers and sisters in need.
In English, he said:
I offer a warm welcome to the English-speaking visitors gathered for this Angelus prayer.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus exhorts his disciples to be watchful, ever ready to greet him when he comes. During these quiet days of summer, may we welcome the Lord ever more fully into our hearts and allow his grace to transform our lives. Upon you and your families, I cordially invoke God’s blessing of joy and peace!
To the Polish pilgrims, he said:
I welcome all Poles who are present. Through you, I wish to send my greeting and my expression of spiritual union with those who these days are making a pilgrimage these days to Jasna Gora and other sanctuaries. May the efforts of the journey and their fervent prayers bring abundant fruits to the life of eveyr pilgrim, their families, and all of Polish society. God bless you.