In his homily, Francis recalled the words of the French priest St. Vincent de Paul, who exhorted Christians to “‘soften our hearts and make them aware of the sufferings and miseries of our neighbor. We should beg God to give us that spirit of mercy which is the very Spirit of God himself,’ to the point of recognizing that the poor are ‘our lords and masters.’”
Taking inspiration from the Gospel read at Mass, he reflected on the passage from St. Luke, in which Mary, pregnant with Jesus, goes to visit her older cousin, Elizabeth, who is pregnant with St. John the Baptist.
When Mary “enters Elizabeth’s house, the child [Elizabeth] is carrying, recognizing the arrival of the Messiah, leaps for joy and begins to dance as David had before the Ark,” Francis said.
He explained that Mary’s visit to her cousin Elizabeth teaches us to be Christians who “leap in the face of life” and whose hearts are filled with compassion and mercy for others — recognizing, too, that the Lord often works in our lives through other people.
An image of Notre Dame de la Garde, or Our Lady of the Guard, was present in Vélodrome Stadium in Marseille, France, Sept. 23, 2023, for the celebration of Mass. Pope Francis celebrated Mass for an estimated 50,000 people at the end of his Sept. 22-23, 2023, visit to Marseille to speak at an ecumenical meeting of young people and bishops called the “Rencontres Mediterraneennes,” or Mediterranean Encounter. Daniel Ibanez/CNA
The greater metropolitan area of Marseille, which lies in the Provence region of France, is almost 70% Catholic, with around 742,000 Catholics in a population of just under 1.1 million.
Francis’ 27-hour visit to the city included a Marian prayer with clergy, a moment of reflection for migrants lost at sea, and a private visit with the poor. He also spoke with France’s President Emmanuel Macron and Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne.
The immigration crisis in Europe and especially the Mediterranean region was the main theme of the pope’s speeches during his visit. According to the French government, during a 30-minute private meeting, Francis and Macron also addressed the situations in Ukraine, Africa, and Nagorno-Karabakh.
A lively crowd awaited Pope Francis for Mass in the Vélodrome Stadium on Sept. 23. Attendees in the stadium seating, including the concelebrating priests, passed the time by doing “the wave” before the pope’s arrival and the start of Mass.
In his homily, the pope explained that to leap in the face of life means “to feel that something is moving in our heart” — the opposite of “a flat, cold heart, accustomed to the quiet life, which is encased in indifference and becomes impermeable.”