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| (Photo by Antonio Bini) |
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| (Photo by Alexandra Prandell) |
On January 19, the Second Sunday after Epiphany, also known as Omnis Terra Sunday, there was a Eucharistic celebration at the Shrine of the Holy Face of Manoppello attended by an overflowing congregation presided by the Archbishop of Chieti-Vasto, Mons. Bruno Forte with concelebrants Fr. Antonio Gentili, Rector of the Shrine and Fr. Simone Cavalrese, Capuchin Provincial. The celebration marked the tenth annual renewal of the historic Omnis Terra pilgrimage began by Pope Innocent XIII in the twelfth century to give honor to the Holy Face of Jesus miraculously imprinted on a cloth. This same cloth is now preserved at the Shrine of the Holy Face. As part of the celebration the Archbishop opened the Holy Door at the Shrine for the Jubilee Year 2025. At the end of the celebration a short procession with the Holy Face took place and the Archbishop imparted a benediction with the Holy Face. Archbishop Forte's inspiring homily follows below.
The Holy Face, a source of joy that fills the heart
Homily at the Mass at the Shrine of the Holy Face in Manoppello
Sunday, January 19, 2025
+ Bruno Forte
Archbishop of Chieti-Vasto
The theme that dominates the entire liturgy of the Word this Sunday is that of joy. This is a central motif of biblical faith, as Pope Francis makes us understand in a significant passage of Gaudete et exsultate, the Apostolic Exhortation dedicated to the call to holiness in the contemporary world (19 March 2018), where he states: "The prophets announced the time of Jesus, which we are living, as a revelation of joy: 'Sing and be glad!' (Is 12:6); "Ascend a high mountain, you who bring glad tidings to Zion! Lift up your voice with strength, you who bring good news to Jerusalem" (Is 40:9); "Cry out for joy, O mountains, for the Lord comforts his people and has mercy on their poor" (Is 49:13) ...» (no. 123). I would therefore like to reflect on the relationship between the Face of Jesus, whom we contemplate in this Shrine, and the joy of the disciple, who looks at him and allows himself to be looked at by the Son who came among us in an intense bond of faith and love.
The text taken from the prophet Isaiah (62:1-5), written to give courage and hope to the people who have returned from the long experience of exile, is first and foremost a song of love: "For the sake of Zion I will not be silent, for the sake of Jerusalem I will not rest, until her righteousness rises like dawn and her salvation shines like a lamp". The dawn announced by Isaiah is the hour when the Lord's love for His people will be manifested in righteousness and glory as the fruit of the spousal covenant established between God and Israel forever. The joy that will follow will be that of the people, who feel chosen and loved, but it will also be the joy of God, equal to that of a bridegroom before His beloved: "As the bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so will your God rejoice over you". Joy is having the experience of feeling loved and loving: when this love, then, comes from the Lord and is therefore eternal and perfect, joy can only be infinite and eternal. Such is the joy of which Jesus came to bring to the world the proclamation and the gift: therefore, contemplating His Face fills the heart with joy, making us feel the beauty of knowing that we are loved and making us capable of loving.
In the passage from Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians (12:4-11), the Apostle insists on the joy due to the abundance of gifts or charisms that the Spirit pours out on believers and that are expressed in the variety of ministries in which the one and only Lord works: "There are many activities, but one is God, who works all in all". To each one, Paul says, "a particular manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good... wisdom... knowledge... faith... Healing... Miracles... prophecy... discernment... languages... But all these things are done by the one and the same Spirit, distributing them to each one as he wills." It is a shower of graces that the Spirit pours out, and each one is suitable precisely for the recipient to whom it is given: the joy of the gift is the source of passionate and generous commitment on the part of each one, in the power of Pentecost, so that the industriousness of each one, faithful to what he has received, may be a source of truth, justice, peace, freedom and joy for all. From the Face of the beloved Lord, grace radiates to the faces of the loved and the gift of joy given to each one becomes active love for the good and full joy of all. The Holy Face radiates joy because it is the transparent image of a heart that loves and by loving transmits joy to anyone who accepts its gift with faith.
Finally, in the passage taken from the Gospel according to John (2:1-11) the miracle of the water transformed into wine by Jesus at a wedding feast celebrated in Cana in Galilee is recounted, where the Mother of the Lord is also present and intervenes with caring love. The atmosphere is one of festive joy, until the moment when the wine fails and fear creeps in that sadness may take the place of the feast. The miracle of the water transformed into excellent wine by Jesus, in response to his mother's caring request, shows how much he cares about the joy of spouses and their loved ones together with them. The particularly beautiful message is that the eternal Son has the joy of creatures at heart and will give it through all the signs that He will work in the days of His flesh, as the conclusion of the story assures us: "This, at Cana in Galilee, was the beginning of the signs performed by Jesus; he manifested his glory and his disciples believed in him." The glory of God is the living man, as Saint Irenaeus of Lyons says, and the life of man is the vision of God: and all this is accomplished in a most pure, intense joy.
The joy that Jesus gives to anyone who believes in him is born from the acceptance of the good news of divine love that forgives, reconciles, transfigures and saves in time and for eternity. It is the joy that fills the heart of those who believe, as Jesus himself declared: "I have spoken these things to you so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be full" (Jn 15:11). It is the joy that the disciples offer by proclaiming the Gospel and transmitting new life in Christ, that joy by which they know that they must be - according to an expression of the Apostle Paul - the "co-workers of the joy" of all (cf. 2 Cor 1:24). Meditating, then, on the gift of joy in relation to the encounter with the Holy Face, who looks at us, loves us and fills us with joy, we can recognize a threefold message: the source of joy is Christ, the Son of God who came among us to flood us with love from on high and thus make us feel rich in the joy of being loved and of being able to love; the model of joy is always Jesus, who with His Face makes us understand that joy must be welcomed and given, in a direct and personal relationship with the other, analogous to the one that His gaze and His Face establish with each one of us; the destination of joy is in ourselves and in those whom God entrusts to us and to whom he sends us, because joy is not a good to be jealously guarded, but an overflowing river to be shared and spread with the choices and gestures of lived charity. Anyone who presumes to stop joy in his heart will lose it immediately, and he who does not know how to draw it ever anew from the inexhaustible source would risk being deprived of it.
The Holy Face is therefore the source, model and goal of joy, and contemplating it makes us not only joyful because it makes us feel loved in the Beloved, but sent as missionaries in love with the joy that only true love can give, that love that comes from God and returns to Him through the necessary and precious passage of others to be loved, especially if they are small, poor and in need of justice and love. Turning to the Holy Face of Jesus we can then praise thus:
Lord Jesus, You are the Face of eternal love and You wanted to look at us with eyes of mercy, pouring out the Holy Spirit as the perfume of Your grace and diffuser of the joy that You alone can give to our hearts and to the whole universe. You wanted to touch us in order to be touched by us, and you let yourself be tasted in the bread of life, capable of nourishing our weakness and making us collaborators in the joy of all. Speak to us again, envelop us with your presence, and grant that the encounter with you in this holy place may be the new beginning of the history of salvation, charity and joy, to which you call our hearts and all your people, pilgrims in time. And Mary, who first contemplated your Face and kissed it with the tenderness of a Mother, feeling full of love and joy, she who saw him close his eyes on the arms of the cross in an offering of total love, a source of forgiveness, salvation and joy for us, she who contemplated him risen as the giver of true and full life and now contemplates him in glory, living to intercede for us with the Father, help us to be faithful and joyful disciples of Your Truth that enlightens and saves. Grant that by welcoming you through the grace of the Jubilee indulgence, offered by Mother Church in the sacraments, in works of charity and in faith as a merciful care of our frailties, we may be credible witnesses of the joy that your Face, revelation and gift of infinite love, transmits to the hearts of the humble, who love you by letting themselves be loved by you. Lord of joy, may Your Face help us to be convinced and contagious spreaders of the joy that will never disappoint us. Amen!
