Pope Francis –There is a contagion of hope

As night fell, Pope Francis, a solitary figure in white, walked through a rain-dappled St. Peter’s Square. In the gathering darkness, he looked out on an empty square and prayed. The Holy Father, leader of a billion believers, was utterly alone.

We realized we were watching more than a man at prayer; we were glimpsing history in the making: his and ours. “For weeks now it has been evening,” he said. “Thick darkness has gathered over our squares, our streets and our cities; it has taken over our lives, filling everything with a deafening silence and a distressing void that stops everything as it passes by; we feel it in the air, we notice in people’s gestures, their glances give them away. We find ourselves afraid and lost.”

The world has changed

In the days before this event, the Holy See had described it as a moment of prayer that would be “extraordinary.” It was — in every sense. But so is this moment we are living in now. Months later, we are confronting a world far different from the one we knew. Some cities remain in lockdown. We have changed the way we live, work, teach, pray. The death toll continues to climb and we live now with “social distancing” — grieving alone, worshiping from afar, watching Mass on a computer or a phone.

The world has changed. And that includes the world of CNEWA (Catholic Near East Welfare Association). In March, ... (w)e began working remotely, most from our homes. Our regional offices around the world also had to close. For the first time in decades, we found ourselves cut off from the people we serve — disconnected from those most in need of connection: the homebound, the orphaned, the isolated, the sick.

But soon, our partners in the field, defying every known risk, were venturing out. They visited the homes of the elderly, the sick or the poor. Wearing masks and gloves, sisters and priests and volunteers were bringing supplies to those in need, everything from medicine to food to simply a loving glance or a tender touch. We realized, with a humbling clarity, that while the world was trying to contain the coronavirus, nothing could contain the Gospel. Love could not be stopped...

It is also, we found, a time of unvarnished hope. This is the hope that is bound inextricably to love — the love that, St. Paul told us, bears all things, believes all things. It is a love that cares for others, even in the most difficult of circumstances. It never fails.

Pope Francis: “There is a different contagion... There is the contagion of hope”

In April, Pope Francis called on the world to remember those most vulnerable to the ravages of the COVID-19 pandemic. In his Easter “Urbi et Orbi” message, delivered “to the city and the world,” the Holy Father said:

“This is not a time for indifference, because the whole world is suffering and needs to be united in facing the pandemic. May the risen Jesus grant hope to all the poor, to those living on the peripheries, to refugees and the homeless. May these, the most vulnerable of our brothers and sisters living in the cities and peripheries of every part of the world, not be abandoned.”

And he followed suit by establishing a COVID campaign. ...All funds raised through this effort are going directly to COVID-19 relief — helping, in a particular way, families living in poverty, children and the elderly, as well as people with special needs, refugees and the displaced...

Two weeks after his historic prayer service in an empty St. Peter’s Square, Pope Francis spoke to the world again at Easter, recalling the message of the Resurrection of Jesus... “This is a different ‘contagion,’ ” he said, “a message transmitted from heart to heart — for every human heart awaits this Good News. “It is the contagion of hope.”

(Republished with permission from CNEWA: ONE Magazine)