Every instance of the Holy Name of Jesus in the Pope's US addresses

[Seven77]

MEETING WITH THE BISHOPS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
ADDRESS OF THE HOLY FATHER
Cathedral of Saint Matthew, Washington, D.C. Wednesday, 23 September 2015

Wherever the name of Jesus is spoken, may the Pope’s voice also be heard to affirm that: “He is the Savior”! From your great coastal cities to the plains of the Midwest, from the deep South to the far reaches of the West, wherever your people gather in the Eucharistic assembly, may the Pope be not simply a name but a felt presence, sustaining the fervent plea of the Bride: “Come, Lord!”

We need to let the Lord’s words echo constantly in our hearts: “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, who am meek and humble of heart, and you will find refreshment for your souls” (Mt 11:28-30). Jesus’ yoke is a yoke of love and thus a pledge of refreshment.

We need to learn from Jesus, or better to learn Jesus, meek and humble; to enter into his meekness and his humility by contemplating his way of acting; to lead our Churches and our people – not infrequently burdened by the stress of everyday life – to the ease of the Lord’s yoke. And to remember that Jesus’ Church is kept whole not by “consuming fire from heaven” (Lk 9:54), but by the secret warmth of the Spirit, who “heals what is wounded, bends what is rigid, straightens what is crooked”.

HOLY MASS AND CANONIZATION OF BLESSED FR. JUNÍPERO SERRA
HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS
National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, Washington, D.C. Wednesday, 23 September 2015

How do we make the joy of the Gospel increase and take deeper root in our lives?

Jesus gives the answer. He said to his disciples then and he says it to us now: Go forth! Proclaim! The joy of the Gospel is something to be experienced, something to be known and lived only through giving it away, through giving ourselves away.

The spirit of the world tells us to be like everyone else, to settle for what comes easy. Faced with this human way of thinking, “we must regain the conviction that we need one another, that we have a shared responsibility for others and for the world” (Laudato Si’, 229). It is the responsibility to proclaim the message of Jesus. For the source of our joy is “an endless desire to show mercy, the fruit of our own experience of the power of the Father’s infinite mercy” (Evangelii Gaudium, 24). Go out to all, proclaim by anointing and anoint by proclaiming. This is what the Lord tells us today.

Jesus sends his disciples out to all nations. To every people. We too were part of all those people of two thousand years ago. Jesus did not provide a short list of who is, or is not, worthy of receiving his message and his presence. Instead, he always embraced life as he saw it. In faces of pain, hunger, sickness and sin. In faces of wounds, of thirst, of weariness, doubt and pity. Far from expecting a pretty life, smartly-dressed and neatly groomed, he embraced life as he found it. It made no difference whether it was dirty, unkempt, broken. Jesus said: Go out and tell the good news to everyone. Go out and in my name embrace life as it is, and not as you think it should be. Go out to the highways and byways, go out to tell the good news fearlessly, without prejudice, without superiority, without condescension, to all those who have lost the joy of living. Go out to proclaim the merciful embrace of the Father. Go out to those who are burdened by pain and failure, who feel that their lives are empty, and proclaim the folly of a loving Father who wants to anoint them with the oil of hope, the oil of salvation. Go out to proclaim the good news that error, deceitful illusions and falsehoods do not have the last word in a person’s life. Go out with the ointment which soothes wounds and heals hearts.

So let us go out, let us go forth to offer everyone the life of Jesus Christ (Evangelii Gaudium, 49). The People of God can embrace everyone because we are the disciples of the One who knelt before his own to wash their feet (ibid., 24).

 

VISIT TO THE CHARITABLE CENTER OF ST PATRICK PARISH AND MEETING WITH THE HOMELESS
GREETING OF THE HOLY FATHER
St Patrick in the City, Washington, D.C. Thursday, 24 September 2015

Joseph had to face some difficult situations in his life. One of them was the time when Mary was about to give birth, to have Jesus. The Bible tells us that, “while they were [in Bethlehem], the time came for her to deliver her child. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn” (Lk 2:6-7).

Jesus not only wanted to show solidarity with every person. He not only wanted everyone to experience his companionship, his help, his love. He identified with all those who suffer, who weep, who suffer any kind of injustice. He says this clearly: “I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink; I was a stranger and you welcomed me” (Mt25:35).

Jesus keeps knocking on our doors, the doors of our lives. He doesn’t do this by magic, with special effects, with flashing lights and fireworks. Jesus keeps knocking on our door in the faces of our brothers and sisters, in the faces of our neighbors, in the faces of those at our side.

How good it is for us to pray together. How good it is to encounter one another in this place where we see one another as brothers and sisters, where we realize that we need one another. Today I want to pray with you, I want to join with you, because I need your support, your closeness. I would like to invite you to pray together, for one another, with one another. That way we can keep helping one another to experience with joy that Jesus is in our midst, and that Jesus helps us to find solutions to the injustices which he himself already experienced. Not having a home.

 

VESPERS WITH PRIESTS AND RELIGIOUS
HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS
St Patrick's Cathedral, New York Thursday, 24 September 2015

This evening, my brothers and sisters, I have come to join you – priests and men and women of consecrated life – in praying that our vocations will continue to build up the great edifice of God’s Kingdom in this country. I know that, as a presbyterate in the midst of God’s people, you suffered greatly in the not distant past by having to bear the shame of some of your brothers who harmed and scandalized the Church in the most vulnerable of her members… In the words of the Book of Revelation, I say that you “have come forth from the great tribulation” (Rev 7:14). I accompany you at this moment of pain and difficulty, and I thank God for your faithful service to his people. In the hope of helping you to persevere on the path of fidelity to Jesus Christ, I would like to offer two brief reflections.

The first concerns the spirit of gratitude. The joy of men and women who love God attracts others to him; priests and religious are called to find and radiate lasting satisfaction in their vocation. Joy springs from a grateful heart. Truly, we have received much, so many graces, so many blessings, and we rejoice in this. It will do us good to think back on our lives with the grace of remembrance. Remembrance of when we were first called, remembrance of the road travelled, remembrance of graces received… and, above all, remembrance of our encounter with Jesus Christ so often along the way. Remembrance of the amazement which our encounter with Jesus Christ awakens in our hearts. My brothers and sisters, men and women of consecrated life, and priests! Let us seek the grace of remembrance so as to grow in the spirit of gratitude. Let us ask ourselves: are we good at counting our blessings, or have we forgotten them?

We can get caught up measuring the value of our apostolic works by the standards of efficiency, good management and outward success which govern the business world. Not that these things are unimportant! We have been entrusted with a great responsibility, and God’s people rightly expect accountability from us. But the true worth of our apostolate is measured by the value it has in God’s eyes. To see and evaluate things from God’s perspective calls for constant conversion in the first days and years of our vocation and, need I say, it calls for great humility. The cross shows us a different way of measuring success. Ours is to plant the seeds: God sees to the fruits of our labors. And if at times our efforts and works seem to fail and produce no fruit, we need to remember that we are followers of Jesus… and his life, humanly speaking, ended in failure, in the failure of the cross.

MEETING WITH CHILDREN AND IMMIGRANT FAMILIES
ADDRESS OF THE HOLY FATHER
Our Lady, Queen of Angels School, Harlem, New York Friday, 25 September 2015

All of you here, children and adults, have a right to dream and I am very happy that here in school, in your friends and your teachers, in all who are here to help, you can find the support you need. Wherever there are dreams, wherever there is joy, Jesus is always present. Always. But who is it that sows sadness, that sows mistrust, envy, evil desires? What is his name? The devil. The devil always sows sadness, because he doesn’t want us to be happy; he doesn’t want us to dream. Wherever there is joy, Jesus is always present. Because Jesus is joy, and he wants to help us to feel that joy every day of our lives.

Before going, I would like to give you some homework. Can I? It is just a little request, but a very important one. Please don’t forget to pray for me, so that I can share with many people the joy of Jesus. And let us also pray that many other people can share joy like your own, whenever you feel supported, helped and counseled, even when there are problems. Even the, we still feel peace in our hearts, because Jesus never abandons us.

 

HOLY MASS
HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS
Madison Square Garden, New York Friday, 25 September 2015

Knowing that Jesus still walks our streets, that he is part of the lives of his people, that he is involved with us in one vast history of salvation, fills us with hope. A hope which liberates us from the forces pushing us to isolation and lack of concern for the lives of others, for the life of our city. A hope which frees us from empty “connections”, from abstract analyses, or sensationalist routines. A hope which is unafraid of involvement, which acts as a leaven wherever we happen to live and work. A hope which makes us see, even in the midst of smog, the presence of God as he continues to walk the streets of our city. Because God is in the city.
What is it like, this light traveling through our streets? How do we encounter God, who lives with us amid the smog of our cities? How do we encounter Jesus, alive and at work in the daily life of our multicultural cities?

The prophet Isaiah can guide us in this process of “learning to see”. He speaks of the light which is Jesus. And now he presents Jesus to us as “Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace”. In this way, he introduces us to the life of the Son, so that his life can be our life.
Wonderful Counselor. The Gospels tell us how many people came up to Jesus to ask: “Master, what must we do?” The first thing that Jesus does in response is to propose, to encourage, to motivate. He keeps telling his disciples to go, to go out. He urges them to go out and meet others where they really are, not where we think they should be. Go out, again and again, go out without fear, go out without hesitation. Go out and proclaim this joy which is for all the people.
The Mighty God. In Jesus, God himself became Emmanuel, God-with-us, the God who walks alongside us, who gets involved in our lives, in our homes, in the midst of our “pots and pans”, as Saint Teresa of Jesus liked to say.

 

HOLY MASS WITH BISHOPS, CLERGY AND RELIGIOUS OF PENNSYLVANIA
HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS
Cathedral of Sts. Peter and Paul, Philadelphia Saturday, 26 September 2015

Dear brothers and sisters, I thank you for the way in which each of you has answered Jesus’ question which inspired your own vocation: “What about you?”. I encourage you to be renewed in the joy and wonder of that first encounter with Jesus, and to draw from that joy renewed fidelity and strength. I look forward to being with you in these days and I ask you to bring my affectionate greetings to those who could not be with us, especially the many elderly priests and men and women religious who join us in spirit.

 

PRAYER VIGIL FOR THE FESTIVAL OF FAMILIES
ADDRESS OF THE HOLY FATHER
B. Franklin Parkway, Philadelphia Saturday, 26 September 2015

Jesus was not a confirmed bachelor, far from it! He took the Church as his bride, and made her a people of his own. He laid down his life for those he loved, so that his bride, the Church, could always know that he is God with us, his people, his family. We cannot understand Christ without his Church, just as we cannot understand the Church without her spouse, Christ Jesus, who gave his life out of love, and who makes us see that it is worth the price.

 

MEETING WITH VICTIMS OF SEXUAL ABUSE
ADDRESS OF THE HOLY FATHER
St. Charles Borromeo Seminary, Philadelphia Sunday, 27 September 2015

When the disciples who walked with Jesus on the road to Emmaus recognized that He was the Risen Lord, they asked Jesus to stay with them. Like those disciples, I humbly beg you and all survivors of abuse to stay with us, to stay with the Church, and that together, as pilgrims on the journey of faith, we might find our way to the Father.

 

MEETING WITH BISHOPS TAKING PART IN THE WORLD MEETING OF FAMILIES
ADDRESS OF THE HOLY FATHER
St. Charles Borromeo Seminary, Chapel of Saint Martin, Philadelphia Sunday, 27 September 2015

By our own humble Christian apprenticeship in the familial virtues of God’s people, we will become more and more like fathers and mothers (as did Saint Paul: cf. 1 Th 2:7,11), and less like people who have simply learned to live without a family. Lack of contact with families makes us people who learn to live without a family, and this is not good. Our ideal is not to live without love! A good pastor renounces the love of a family precisely in order to focus all his energies, and the grace of his particular vocation, on the evangelical blessing of the love of men and women who carry forward God’s plan of creation, beginning with those who are lost, abandoned, wounded, broken, downtrodden and deprived of their dignity. This total surrender to God’s agape is certainly not a vocation lacking in tenderness and affection! We need but look to Jesus to understand this (cf. Mt 19:12). The mission of a good pastor, in the style of God – and only God can authorize this, not our own presumption! – imitates in every way and for all people the Son’s love for the Father. This is reflected in the tenderness with which a pastor devotes himself to the loving care of the men and women of our human family.

VISIT TO DETAINEES AT CURRAN-FROMHOLD CORRECTIONAL FACILITY
ADDRESS OF THE HOLY FATHER
Philadelphia Sunday, 27 September 2015

I think of the Gospel scene where Jesus washes the feet of his disciples at the Last Supper. This was something his disciples found hard to accept. Even Peter refused, and told him: “You will never wash my feet” (Jn 13:8).

In those days, it was the custom to wash someone’s feet when they came to your home. That was how they welcomed people. The roads were not paved, they were covered with dust, and little stones would get stuck in your sandals. Everyone walked those roads, which left their feet dusty, bruised or cut from those stones. That is why we see Jesus washing feet, our feet, the feet of his disciples, then and now.

We all know that life is a journey, along different roads, different paths, which leave their mark on us.

We also know in faith that Jesus seeks us out. He wants to heal our wounds, to soothe our feet which hurt from travelling alone, to wash each of us clean of the dust from our journey. He doesn’t ask us where we have been, he doesn’t question us what about we have done. Rather, he tells us: “Unless I wash your feet, you have no share with me” (Jn 13:8). Unless I wash your feet, I will not be able to give you the life which the Father always dreamed of, the life for which he created you. Jesus comes to meet us, so that he can restore our dignity as children of God. He wants to help us to set out again, to resume our journey, to recover our hope, to restore our faith and trust. He wants us to keep walking along the paths of life, to realize that we have a mission, and that confinement is never the same thing as exclusion.

Let us look to Jesus, who washes our feet. He is “the way, and the truth, and the life”. He comes to save us from the lie that says no one can change, the lie of thinking that no one can change. Jesus helps us to journey along the paths of life and fulfillment. May the power of his love and his resurrection always be a path leading you to new life.

 

CLOSING MASS OF THE EIGHTH WORLD MEETING OF FAMILIES
HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS
B. Franklin Parkway, Philadelphia Sunday, 27 September 2015

In the first reading, Joshua tells Moses that two members of the people are prophesying, speaking God’s word, without a mandate. In the Gospel, John tells Jesus that the disciples had stopped someone from casting out evil spirits in the name of Jesus. Here is the surprise: Moses and Jesus both rebuke those closest to them for being so narrow! Would that all could be prophets of God’s word! Would that everyone could work miracles in the Lord’s name!

Jesus encountered hostility from people who did not accept what he said and did. For them, his openness to the honest and sincere faith of many men and women who were not part of God’s chosen people seemed intolerable. The disciples, for their part, acted in good faith. But the temptation to be scandalized by the freedom of God, who sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous alike (Mt 5:45), bypassing bureaucracy, officialdom and inner circles, threatens the authenticity of faith. Hence it must be vigorously rejected.

Once we realize this, we can understand why Jesus’ words about causing “scandal” are so harsh. For Jesus, the truly “intolerable” scandal is everything that breaks down and destroys our trust in the working of the Spirit!

Our Father will not be outdone in generosity and he continues to scatter seeds. He scatters the seeds of his presence in our world, for “love consists in this, not that we have loved God but that he loved us” first (1 Jn 4:10). That love gives us the profound certainty that we are sought by God; he waits for us. It is this confidence which makes disciples encourage, support and nurture the good things happening all around them. God wants all his children to take part in the feast of the Gospel. Jesus says, “Do not hold back anything that is good, instead help it to grow!” To raise doubts about the working of the Spirit, to give the impression that it cannot take place in those who are not “part of our group”, who are not “like us”, is a dangerous temptation. Not only does it block conversion to the faith; it is a perversion of faith!

Faith opens a “window” to the presence and working of the Spirit. It shows us that, like happiness, holiness is always tied to little gestures. “Whoever gives you a cup of water in my name will not go unrewarded”, says Jesus (cf. Mk 9:41). These little gestures are those we learn at home, in the family; they get lost amid all the other things we do, yet they do make each day different. They are the quiet things done by mothers and grandmothers, by fathers and grandfathers, by children, by brothers and sisters. They are little signs of tenderness, affection and compassion. Like the warm supper we look forward to at night, the early lunch awaiting someone who gets up early to go to work. Homely gestures. Like a blessing before we go to bed, or a hug after we return from a hard day’s work. Love is shown by little things, by attention to small daily signs which make us feel at home. Faith grows when it is lived and shaped by love. That is why our families, our homes, are true domestic churches. They are the right place for faith to become life, and life to grow in faith.

Jesus tells us not to hold back these little miracles. Instead, he wants us to encourage them, to spread them. He asks us to go through life, our everyday life, encouraging all these little signs of love as signs of his own living and active presence in our world.

Pointedly, yet affectionately, Jesus tells us: “If you, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” (Lk 11:13). How much wisdom there is in these few words! It is true that, as far as goodness and purity of heart are concerned, we human beings don’t have much to show! But Jesus knows that, where children are concerned, we are capable of boundless generosity. So he reassures us: if only we have faith, the Father will give us his Spirit.

GREETING TO THE ORGANIZERS, VOLUNTEERS AND BENEFACTORS OF THE WORLD MEETING OF FAMILIES
ADDRESS OF THE HOLY FATHER
Philadelphia International Airport Sunday, 27 September 2015

I thank the Lord that I was able to witness the faith of God’s people in this country, as manifested in our moments of prayer together and evidenced in so many works of charity. Jesus says in the Scriptures: “Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me”. Your care for me and your generous welcome are a sign of your love for Jesus and your faithfulness to him. So too is your care for the poor, the sick, the homeless and the immigrant, your defense of life at every stage, and your concern for family life. In all of this, you recognize that Jesus is in your midst and that your care for one another is care for Jesus himself.

[Peace]

Like every other sentence.

[dominicansoul]

Maybe he didn't mention Jesus' name at the UN or in his address to Congress because that would be like throwing pearls amongst swine?

 

 

 

[dUSt]

EXCELLENT response regarding the "Pope didn't say Jesus" criticisms:

"Perhaps the heaviest criticism of the Pope voiced by some stalwarts of the American Right is that he never once invoked the name of Jesus Christ. This accusation is misleading on a number of levels. First, as a matter of Biblical exegesis, we ought to recall the instances when Christ Himself, usually following on the heels of a miracle or when those closest to Him happened to guess that He was the Messiah, explicitly forbade others telling anyone about His Divine nature and His miraculous acts. His followers seldom heeded His commands and spread the forbidden word. Pope Francis may well have concluded that there was merit in Christ’s approach to the method by which He wished to reveal Himself to the pagan world, that the Lord at times saw fit to prohibit His zealous pupils the righteous luxury of being direct. Instead of invoking the name of Jesus Christ, the Pope invoked His words:

“Our world is facing a refugee crisis of a magnitude not seen since the Second World War. This presents us with great challenges and many hard decisions. On this continent, too, thousands of persons are led to travel north in search of a better life for themselves and for their loved ones, in search of greater opportunities. Is this not what we want for our own children? We must not be taken aback by their numbers, but rather view them as persons, seeing their faces and listening to their stories, trying to respond as best we can to their situation. To respond in a way which is always humane, just and fraternal. We need to avoid a common temptation nowadays: to discard whatever proves troublesome. Let us remember the Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you (Mt 7:12).”

It is uncharitable for the American Right to accuse the Pope of not invoking the name of Christ when the American Right is presumably aware of Who it is that the Pope is quoting. Being more explicit may have actually deflected the importance of Christ’s teaching in favor of Christ’s ego. It may just be that some have grown accustomed to Beltway culture that they presume that Jesus Christ lacks name recognition. This is not exactly how the Vatican conducts politics. The Pope is not up for re-election, and he tends to take the long view of things. It is not unreasonable to think that the Pope, whose mandate is rather longer than that of an average Congressman, was not aiming to win a vote on the Senate floor, but to deliver an address that would endure beyond its time."

Full article: http://www.theimaginativeconservative.org/2015/10/the-popes-address-to-congress-what-the-critics-missed.html

 

[dominicansoul]

I was never aware of how the "American Right" was so Anti-Catholic until the Pope came visiting... Some of the comments under posts about the Pope on Facebook were just terrible!  It's like we truly do not have many friends, do we?  The Left hates us, the Right hates us...

 

The  Church is hated just as Christ was (and is.)

[KnightofChrist]

Lumping massive amounts of people together into a group is bad politics. Many of those who wished the Pope would have said Christ' name before Congress and the UN were aware that the Pope did say Christ' name when in front of Christian gatherings. The souls in Congress and the UN needed to hear the name above all names just as much if not more than those souls that know and believe in Christ. It was a mistake and it doesn't have to be anything more than that.

[Oremus Pro Invicem]

I don't see how arguing over this is helpful for either side.  What's done is done.  Let's move on. 

[dUSt]

It was a mistake and it doesn't have to be anything more than that.

Does your humility allow you to consider that you are the one mistaken, rather than your pope?

I don't see how arguing over this is helpful for either side.  What's done is done.  Let's move on.

Sorry, when someone says the pope made a mistake, as if it is fact, based on nothing except their personal opinion, I feel obligated to address it. Maybe it's just the ultramontane in me.

[MIKolbe]

Sorry, when someone says that the pope made a mistake, as if it is fact, based on nothing except their personal opinion, I feel obligated to adddress it. Maybe it's just the ultramontane in me.

The Pope is Dope, yo!!

[KnightofChrist]

We disagree and for me that's ok. I believe it was a unintended mistake others are free to believe otherwise.

[Nihil Obstat]

Sorry, when someone says that the pope made a mistake, as if it is fact, based on nothing except their personal opinion, I feel obligated to adddress it. Maybe it's just the ultramontane in me.

If you are considering yourself an ultramontanist, do you then not admit that the pope even could be wrong? Like, put this issue aside. Put Pope Francis aside even. Could a pope be wrong about something like this in some hypothetical future situation?

[dominicansoul]

Lumping massive amounts of people together into a group is bad politics. Many of those who wished the Pope would have said Christ' name before Congress and the UN were aware that the Pope did say Christ' name when in front of Christian gatherings. The souls in Congress and the UN needed to hear the name above all names just as much if not more than those souls that know and believe in Christ. It was a mistake and it doesn't have to be anything more than that.

Heck, I was hoping Pope Francis would perform an exorcism!

[KnightofChrist]

Heck, I was hoping Pope Francis would perform an exorcism!

Hahaha if he had done that people on both sides of the aisle may have levitated and spun their heads around. Ahhh!

[dUSt]

If you are considering yourself an ultramontanist, do you then not admit that the pope even could be wrong? Like, put this issue aside. Put Pope Francis aside even. Could a pope be wrong about something like this in some hypothetical future situation?

How can the method in which a person delivers a message be right or wrong? It's subjective.

What if not mentioning Jesus made more people look at the church in a different light, which may eventually lead them to Jesus--but mentioning Jesus may have turned just as many people off to the Church--leading them away from Jesus?

How can someone even know this to the point of saying one method was a mistake? It's a viewpoint based on one assuming their opinion is superior.

Edited October 2, 2015 by dUSt

[franciscanheart]

We disagree and for me that's ok. I believe it was a unintended mistake others are free to believe otherwise.

So the Pope meant to mention Jesus but didn't? I don't follow.