Share
January 24, 2021 The death of the homeless under the Vatican walls continues to deeply sadden Pope Francis, so much so that much of the reflections that traditionally follow the Angelus are dedicated to him and to the other homeless people who suffer from the adverse conditions of the time.
"On January 20, a few meters from St. Peter's Square - he recalls at the end of the Angelus -, a 46-year-old homeless Nigerian man, named Edwin, was found dead from the cold. His story is added to that of many other homeless people recently died in Rome in the same dramatic circumstances ".
"Let us pray for Edwin - continues the pope -. Let us be warned by what Saint Gregory the Great said, who, faced with the cold death of a beggar, said that Masses would not be celebrated that day because it was like Good Friday".
"Let's think of Edwin - adds the Pontiff almost with consternation -. Let's think about what this man, 46 years old, felt in the cold, ignored by everyone, abandoned, even by us. Let's pray for him".
Also at the Angelus, "a remembrance and a prayer" of the Pope, in the time of the pandemic, also go "to the families, who struggle more in this period. Courage, let's go forward! Let's pray for these families and we are close to them as far as possible. ".
Francis then recalls that "this Sunday is dedicated to the Word of God".
"One of the great gifts of our time - he underlines - is the rediscovery of Sacred Scripture in the life of the Church at all levels. Never before has the Bible been accessible to all: in all languages and now also in audiovisual and digital formats".
The Pope also reiterates an invitation he has made several times: "we are in the habit, have the habit of always carrying a small Gospel in your pocket, in your bag, to be able to read it during the day, at least three or four verses. The Gospel always with us".
The Pontiff recites the Angelus at noon, live video from the Library of the Apostolic Palace, despite the worsening of sciatica pain that forced him to give up mass this morning in St. Peter's Basilica and tomorrow at the Second Vespers in St. Paul Outside the Walls closing of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.
But even in the homily prepared for Mass, read by Archbishop Rino Fisichella who presided over the liturgy in his stead, he invites us to "not renounce the Word of God. It is the love letter written for us by the One who knows us. like no other: reading it, we hear his voice again, we see his face, we receive his Spirit. The Word brings us close to God: let's not keep it far away. Let's always carry it with us, in our pockets, on the phone; let's give it a worthy place in our our homes. Let us put the Gospel in a place where we remember to open it every day, perhaps at the beginning and at the end of the day, so that among the many words that reach our ears some verses of the Word of God reach our hearts ".
To do this, he concludes, "let us ask the Lord for the strength to turn off the television and open the Bible; to close the mobile phone and open the Gospel".
Before the mass, in which one of the readings (from the book of Jonah) is given by the actor Pierfrancesco Savino and another by a blind person using the braille system, the Pope at Casa Santa Marta makes a gift of a particular edition of the Bible , made for the occasion, to some categories of people, "representatives of the variety of the People of God": among these, the Roma player, Lorenzo Pellegrini, with his family;
a Pakistani student from the Biblical Institute;
a catechist and a catechist from two Roman parishes;
two newly confirmed young people;
a seminarian from South Sudan;
an infectious disease professor at the University of Rome "Tor Vergata", Professor Massimo Andreoni.