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Image of Jesus Crucified: Painting in Consistory Hall, Vatican
Pope Francis’ address to Seminarians of the Dioceses of
Pamplona, Tudela, San Sebastián, and Redemptoris Mater
Consistory Hall – Saturday, 16 November 2024
“A priest can be … a living image of Jesus, the Redeemer with a capital R”.
Dear bishops,
Dear sister – there is only one,
Dear brothers,
First part of the address, read by Pope Francis
Good morning. I am happy to welcome you, seminarians from Pamplona and San Sebastián. Your Archbishop was very pleased with this audience and told me that you were counting on my affection for prisons so that I would also grant you this audience.
The seminary is not a prison, it is a place where you learn that a priest is a man, a human being who wants to redeem, like your Mercedarian Archbishop, a redeemer of prisoners; because a priest can be nothing other than a living image of Jesus, the Redeemer with a capital R.
This means many things, but one very precise one is that we must go to the prisons; certainly, to the government prisons, to offer the oil of consolation and the wine of hope to those who are imprisoned in them, but also to all those prisons which imprison the men and women of our society: ideological prisons, moral prisons, those which create exploitation, discouragement, ignorance or forgetfulness of God.
I go back to the prisons. Please, go to the prisons, make the effort.
Ever since I became a bishop, on Maundy Thursday I wash the feet in a prison.
They are the ones who most need us to wash their feet, as if to say: “Look, I wash your feet because I am worse than you, but I was lucky not to be caught”.
I remember when I was washing the feet – it was in a women’s prison – I was washing the feet of a woman and when I was about to go to the other one, she took my hand, came close to my ear and said to me: “Father, I have killed my son”.
The inner dramas of the conscience of those who live in prison!
When you become priests, go into the prisons, it’s a priority.
And we can all say what I feel: why them and not me?
You will receive the priestly anointment to set the captives free, those who are in chains without knowing it (Lk 4:18 – “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach gospel to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed,).
Or chained by many things: by culture, society, vices, hidden sins.
Good, you have this written.
I will leave it with the bishop, who will let you read it.
In this way we will not waste time because soon you will not listen anymore.
It is better for you to ask questions.
Second part of the address, given to the archbishop
In the fourth chapter of his Gospel, St. Luke offers a good meditation for the preparation of future priests, which I propose to you. (see Luke 4 – footnote below)
He speaks to us of docility to the Spirit, of making a desert to meet God, emptying ourselves of so many things that we carry as ballast.
He encourages us not to be afraid to face the temptation of an idolatrous ministry in which we are at the center, seeking material power or applause.
The chapter goes on to say that Jesus went to Nazareth, his home, aware that in the eyes of the world he was no more than the son of Joseph, one like us.
Never forget these roots, never forget that you are children of the people.
This text from Luke also teaches us that in our apostolate we cannot make distinctions between people, even if they are strangers or even enemies, because for God we are all His children.
When we look at our brother, let us recognize in him his readiness to receive the grace that the Lord offers him.
In another passage, the Lord is indignant at the hardness of heart of his contemporaries who do not understand Jesus’ concern to free a woman who has been bound by an evil spirit for many years (cf. Lk 13:16 – should this woman, a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan had bound for eighteen years, not be freed from this bondage on the Sabbath?).
You, on the other hand, should always be ready to bless, to liberate, and when you feel that the hands He anointed are paralyzed, then stretch them out with confidence like the cripple in the Gospel of Mark (cf. Mark 3:1-5 – he entered the synagogue, and a man was there who had a withered hand. 2 And they watched him, to see whether he would heal him on the sabbath, so that they might accuse him. 3 And he said to the man who had the withered hand, “Come here.” 4 And he said to them, “Is it lawful on the sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill?” But they were silent. 5 And he looked around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, and said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was restored).
This is what Jesus did on the Cross, imprinting our wound in his Heart and arm, destroying with His love our death and crossing with His Passion the abyss that separated us from God (cf. Song of Songs 8:6 – Set me as a seal upon your heart,
as a seal upon your arm; for love is strong as death, jealousy is cruel as the grave.
Its flashes are flashes of fire, a most vehement flame.).
So be courageous, selfless and tireless in bearing the divine mercy that the Lord has so generously poured out on you by choosing you for this ministry.
May He bless you and may the Blessed Virgin watch over you.
_____________________________
Footnote: Luke, Chapter 4 – ‘a good meditation for the preparation of future priests’.
4 And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan, and was led by the Spirit 2 for forty days in the wilderness, tempted by the devil. And he ate nothing in those days; and when they were ended, he was hungry.
3 The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.”
4 And Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone.’”
5 And the devil took him up, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, 6 and said to him, “To you I will give all this authority and their glory; for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will. 7 If you, then, will worship me, it shall all be yours.”
8 And Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve.’”
9 And he took him to Jerusalem, and set him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here; 10 for it is written, ‘He will give his angels charge of you, to guard you, ’11 and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’”
12 And Jesus answered him, “It is said, ‘You shall not tempt the Lord your God.’”
13 And when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from him until an opportune time.
14 And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee, and a report concerning him went out through all the surrounding country.
15 And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all. 16 And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up; and he went to the synagogue, as his custom was, on the sabbath day.
And he stood up to read; 17 and there was given to him the book of the prophet Isaiah.
He opened the book and found the place where it was written, 18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, 19 to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.”
20 And he closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant, and sat down; and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. 21 And he began to say to them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”
22 And all spoke well of him, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth; and they said, “Is not this Joseph’s son?”
23 And he said to them, “Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, ‘Physician, heal yourself; what we have heard you did at Capernaum, do here also in your own country.’” 24
And he said, “Truly, I say to you, no prophet is acceptable in his own country.
25 But in truth, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when there came a great famine over all the land; 26 and Elijah was sent to none of them but only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. 27
And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha; and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.”
28 When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with wrath.
29 And they rose up and put him out of the city, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their city was built, that they might throw him down headlong.
30 But passing through the midst of them he went away.
31 And he went down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee. And he was teaching them on the sabbath;
32 and they were astonished at his teaching, for his word was with authority.
33 And in the synagogue there was a man who had the spirit of an unclean demon; and he cried out with a loud voice,
34 “Ah![b] What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us?
I know who you are, the Holy One of God.” 35 But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be silent, and come out of him!” And when the demon had thrown him down in the midst, he came out of him, having done him no harm.
36 And they were all amazed and said to one another, “What is this word?
For with authority and power he commands the unclean spirits, and they come out.”
37 And reports of him went out into every place in the surrounding region.
38 And he arose and left the synagogue and entered Simon’s house.
Now Simon’s mother-in-law was ill with a high fever, and they besought him for her.
39 And he stood over her and rebuked the fever, and it left her; and immediately she rose and served them.
40 Now when the sun was setting, all those who had any that were sick with various diseases brought them to him; and he laid his hands on every one of them and healed them.
41 And demons also came out of many, crying, “You are the Son of God!”
But he rebuked them, and would not allow them to speak, because they knew that he was the Christ.
42 And when it was day he departed and went into a lonely place.
And the people sought him and came to him, and would have kept him from leaving them;
43 but he said to them, “I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other cities also; for I was sent for this purpose.”
44 And he was preaching in the synagogues of Judea.[c]
