Homilie inhuldiging Paus Franciscus

I offer a warm greeting to my brother cardinals and bishops,
the priests, deacons, men and women religious, and all the lay faithful. I thank
the representatives of the other Churches and ecclesial Communities, as well as
the representatives of the Jewish community and the other religious communities,
for their presence. My cordial greetings go to the Heads of State and
Government, the members of the official Delegations from many countries
throughout the world, and the Diplomatic Corps.

In the Gospel we heard
that “Joseph did as the angel of the Lord commanded him and took Mary as his
wife” (Mt 1:24). These words already point to the mission which God
entrusts to Joseph: he is to be the custos, the protector. The protector
of whom? Of Mary and Jesus; but this protection is then extended to the Church,
as Blessed John Paul II pointed out: “Just as Saint Joseph took loving care of
Mary and gladly dedicated himself to Jesus Christ’s upbringing, he likewise
watches over and protects Christ’s Mystical Body, the Church, of which the
Virgin Mary is the exemplar and model” (Redemptoris Custos,
1).

How does Joseph exercise his role as protector? Discreetly, humbly
and silently, but with an unfailing presence and utter fidelity, even when he
finds it hard to understand. From the time of his betrothal to Mary until the
finding of the twelve-year-old Jesus in the Temple of Jerusalem, he is there at
every moment with loving care. As the spouse of Mary, he is at her side in good
times and bad, on the journey to Bethlehem for the census and in the anxious and
joyful hours when she gave birth; amid the drama of the flight into Egypt and
during the frantic search for their child in the Temple; and later in the
day-to-day life of the home of Nazareth, in the workshop where he taught his
trade to Jesus.

How does Joseph respond to his calling to be the
protector of Mary, Jesus and the Church? By being constantly attentive to God,
open to the signs of God’s presence and receptive to God’s plans, and not simply
to his own. This is what God asked of David, as we heard in the first reading.
God does not want a house built by men, but faithfulness to his word, to his
plan. It is God himself who builds the house, but from living stones sealed by
his Spirit. Joseph is a “protector” because he is able to hear God’s voice and
be guided by his will; and for this reason he is all the more sensitive to the
persons entrusted to his safekeeping. He can look at things realistically, he is
in touch with his surroundings, he can make truly wise decisions. In him, dear
friends, we learn how to respond to God’s call, readily and willingly, but we
also see the core of the Christian vocation, which is Christ! Let us protect
Christ in our lives, so that we can protect others, so that we can protect
creation!

The vocation of being a “protector”, however, is not just
something involving us Christians alone; it also has a prior dimension which is
simply human, involving everyone. It means protecting all creation, the beauty
of the created world, as the Book of Genesis tells us and as Saint Francis of
Assisi showed us. It means respecting each of God’s creatures and respecting the
environment in which we live. It means protecting people, showing loving concern
for each and every person, especially children, the elderly, those in need, who
are often the last we think about. It means caring for one another in our
families: husbands and wives first protect one another, and then, as parents,
they care for their children, and children themselves, in time, protect their
parents. It means building sincere friendships in which we protect one another
in trust, respect, and goodness. In the end, everything has been entrusted to
our protection, and all of us are responsible for it. Be protectors of God’s
gifts!

Whenever human beings fail to live up to this responsibility,
whenever we fail to care for creation and for our brothers and sisters, the way
is opened to destruction and hearts are hardened. Tragically, in every period of
history there are “Herods” who plot death, wreak havoc, and mar the countenance
of men and women.

Please, I would like to ask all those who have
positions of responsibility in economic, political and social life, and all men
and women of goodwill: let us be “protectors” of creation, protectors of God’s
plan inscribed in nature, protectors of one another and of the environment. Let
us not allow omens of destruction and death to accompany the advance of this
world! But to be “protectors”, we also have to keep watch over ourselves! Let us
not forget that hatred, envy and pride defile our lives! Being protectors, then,
also means keeping watch over our emotions, over our hearts, because they are
the seat of good and evil intentions: intentions that build up and tear down! We
must not be afraid of goodness or even tenderness!

Here I would add one
more thing: caring, protecting, demands goodness, it calls for a certain
tenderness. In the Gospels, Saint Joseph appears as a strong and courageous man,
a working man, yet in his heart we see great tenderness, which is not the virtue
of the weak but rather a sign of strength of spirit and a capacity for concern,
for compassion, for genuine openness to others, for love. We must not be afraid
of goodness, of tenderness!

Today, together with the feast of Saint
Joseph, we are celebrating the beginning of the ministry of the new Bishop of
Rome, the Successor of Peter, which also involves a certain power. Certainly,
Jesus Christ conferred power upon Peter, but what sort of power was it? Jesus’
three questions to Peter about love are followed by three commands: feed my
lambs, feed my sheep. Let us never forget that authentic power is service, and
that the Pope too, when exercising power, must enter ever more fully into that
service which has its radiant culmination on the Cross. He must be inspired by
the lowly, concrete and faithful service which marked Saint Joseph and, like
him, he must open his arms to protect all of God’s people and embrace with
tender affection the whole of humanity, especially the poorest, the weakest, the
least important, those whom Matthew lists in the final judgment on love: the
hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the sick and those in prison (cf.
Mt 25:31-46). Only those who serve with love are able to
protect!

In the second reading, Saint Paul speaks of Abraham, who,
“hoping against hope, believed” (Rom 4:18). Hoping against hope! Today
too, amid so much darkness, we need to see the light of hope and to be men and
women who bring hope to others. To protect creation, to protect every man and
every woman, to look upon them with tenderness and love, is to open up a horizon
of hope; it is to let a shaft of light break through the heavy clouds; it is to
bring the warmth of hope! For believers, for us Christians, like Abraham, like
Saint Joseph, the hope that we bring is set against the horizon of God, which
has opened up before us in Christ. It is a hope built on the rock which is
God.

To protect Jesus with Mary, to protect the whole of creation, to
protect each person, especially the poorest, to protect ourselves: this is a
service that the Bishop of Rome is called to carry out, yet one to which all of
us are called, so that the star of hope will shine brightly. Let us protect with
love all that God has given us!