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| from left Fr. Carmine Cucinelli, O.F.M., Cap., Archbishop Edmond Y. Farhat, Mons. Americo Ciani (photo by Paul Badde) |
Homily
of His Excellency The Most Reverend
Edmond
Y. Farhat
Apostolic
Nuncio Emeritus to Austria
The
Second Sunday in Ordinary Time – Cycle C
"Omnis Terra"
17
January 2016
Pilgrimage
of the Holy Face from Manoppello to Rome
Church
of Santo Spirito in Sassia
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| from left Fr. Ted Lopez, Fr. Carmine Cucinelli, OFM, Cap., Archbishop Edmond Y. Farhat, Mons. Americo Ciani, Fr. Heinrich Pfeiffer, S.J., Fr. Jess Marano and (behind) Mons. Jozef Bart, Rector of Santo Spirito (photo by Antonio Bini) |
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| photo by Antonio Bini |
In
the Face of Christ, impressed on the veil of Veronica, preserved in
the sudarium of Manoppello, we venerate the Lord God of mercy, Savior
of the world.
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| Archbishop Farhat gives a blessing with the Holy Face (photo by Paul Badde) |
Today,
brothers and sisters, right now, we return to the temple of the Holy
Spirit to venerate the Holy Face and all it means. We celebrate the
Eucharist, we confess our sins, and we announce the Good News.
The
Good News of today is the invitation to the wedding at Cana. Jesus
was invited, invited by his Mother because the guests were friends of
his mom. She invited her Son, and at a certain point, said, “They
have no wine.” “My hour,” responded the Son, “has not yet
arrived.” “Do that which he says,” said his mom. Jesus,
obedient to his Mother, saved face for the groom and his family.
The
feast was beautiful and the joy was great. They drank and sang. The
feast was transformed into a unique occasion. It was the occasion of
the first sign of his manifestation, of the manifestation of his
divinity. It was the beginning of the signs carried out by Jesus,
because of which they believed in him. Better still, it is the first
sign that reveals his personality. He came that they might have life,
and have it in abundance. At Cana, Jesus manifested his authority.
“Fill the jars,” and they filled them. Cana was the very first
sign of the divine authority of Jesus, this authority that developed
during his mission until it became known in the passion and in a true
image, living, in the hands of Veronica.
Cana
was the first visible sign of the divinity of Jesus. It is a
provocative sign now, the icon of Manoppello that is a definitive
sign. Cana was the first, and the face of the sudarium is the
definitive sign. It is a provocative sign and insignificant, discrete
and quiet, but most eloquent, always old and always new. Discussed
and venerated, look at it with your eyes, accompany it, follow it, and
let it guide your gaze. It is a concrete sign, but it is not made by man; it
is created, but no one knows its origin, its formation.
It
is not an object of another time; it is the icon of the eternal face,
the face of goodness and of friendship, of mercy and of peace. The
face that speaks, that examines, that asks, that awaits a response.
It seems to say: “Look at me, you who are tired. Come to me and I
will give you rest.” They have not seen, they did not have to
suffer humiliation, the men of our time, as the friends of Mary did
not have to suffer humiliation at Cana. He had to reach out.
They
do not have faith, the men of our time, but, as at the wedding at
Cana: “Have mercy on them,” Mary says [to her Son], “and
contemplate the face bequeathed to you” [to the men of our time].
And we contemplate the face of Jesus. It speaks to us and nods to us,
it is good, it is merciful. Therefore, we have brought it from
Manoppello to here, because his expression [word missing] a wider
goodness and mercy in this year of grace in which God reveals himself
with the name of mercy, as the Holy Father Francis teaches.
Therefore, we display it in the church of the Holy Spirit so that the
Spirit may speak to the heart, and suggest intentions of wisdom and
hope. Therefore we place it in the church looked after by Saint
Faustina because she has been able to perceive the dimensions of his
face.
There
are moments in which, in an even stronger way, we are called to keep
our look fixed on mercy to become effectively inserted into the
action of the Father, as Pope Francis says in his exhortation.
This,
dear brothers and sisters, is a privileged moment. We fix our gaze on
the Holy Face and we will be transformed by God’s mercy. The sign
is not an end in itself; the sign is a pointer on the way of the
return, the return to the Father. The sudarium [word missing] of
Christ. Christ is Jesus that has transformed the water into wine to
participate in the joy of his friends and relations. The
transformation requires a change. Our transformation and our
conversion from pointless spectators to collaborators in the work of
Jesus and Mary, who kept all these things in her heart, and no one
knows the son and Lord like her. She guides us on the journey to
encounter her Son, through his face that we can physically
contemplate.
Yesterday
we took it and venerated it to give thanks for so many benefits;
today we greet it and honor it, asking him to accompany us on our new
journey, the journey to the wedding of the Lamb, full of grace and
mercy.
We
hold impressed in our minds and in our heart his image that speaks to
us and examines us. It is the image of the Word become Incarnate so
that we might have life. It accompanies us on our way so that we
might always remember that God is mercy. His mercy accompanies us. We
remember that the people of God, going up to Jerusalem, in the Old
Testament, always repeated during their pilgrimages: “God is good,
he has given us goodness; he has given us faith because his mercy is
eternal, because his mercy is eternal.”
We
from this Eternal City, city of saints, of Faustina; city of John
Paul II, of Paul VI, of John XXIII, of popes and saints; we turn our
thoughts to the Jerusalem of Jesus, to the Jerusalem of Mary; and we
ask peace for Jerusalem, peace to all the people of Palestine and of
Jerusalem, of the Middle East and of the Mediterranean. There is room
for everyone; mercy has no limits. ** Eternal is
the mercy of God, because he is good; he is great, may his face guide
us, accompany us, and we will not be lost.
**The final appeal for peace was repeated by Archbishop Edmond Y. Farhat also in Hebrew and Arabic
thanks to Paul Badde and Fr. Carmine Cucinelli, O.F.M,, Cap. for the transcript, Paul Badde and Antonio Bini for the photos and Fr. Daren J. Zehnle for the translation of Archbishop Farhat's homily
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