The following is the May 13, 2024, homily of Cardinal Juan José Omella, Archbishop of Barcelona, delivered at the Sanctuary of Fátima in Portugal. Due to the rain, he set aside his prepared text and delivered a spontaneous homily instead. This is an unofficial English translation his words from the original Spanish:
We are all pilgrims: bishops, priests, religious men and women, families. We are all pilgrims.
My greetings to all of you in the name of the Lord our God who gathers us here today. I see that it’s raining a bit more down there than it is here. I have a homily written out, but it would be too long. I will set it aside; you can read it online later. They will post it there.
Allow me to speak from my heart here with you today.
At the start of the procession, I was also watching the video screen and I saw many people crying. I was also deeply moved when I saw the Virgin who gathered us all here this morning. I was moved and so I will let my heart speak to you. I sense that the Virgin has called all of us here. We did not come here by chance.
She has called each one of us in a thousand ways. She has used a thousand ways to bring us here today and to say, “Listen to what my Son, the Lord, tells you.” And what does Mary tell us here today? The same thing that she said in the Gospel and the same thing she told the three shepherds — Francisco, Jacinta, and Sister Lucía — 107 years ago here in the Cova de Iría.
She tells us first of all to pray.
Christians cannot lose this great practice, this great virtue of prayer, the dialogue from heart to heart with the Lord personally and in community, as we do here today. We cannot lose prayer. And the simplest prayer is what we all know. Last night, we prayed the Rosary with emotion, the Our Father — the prayer of the children of God, and the salutation to the Virgin, asking for the world — asking for the salvation of all of us.
The second thing the Virgin asked of us — and still asks us today, and the Gospel asks us, and Jesus Christ asks us — is for peace in the world. Pray for peace. How many countries are at war? How many families are at war? How many hearts are divided and at war? Let us ask, let us ask for peace. Pope Francis often speaks of a “third world war” fought piecemeal, in stages, in parts.
Let us pray for peace in the world, in Ukraine, Russia, the Holy Land, Africa, the Americas, Asia. How many countries need and are calling for peace? This personal prayer for peace in the world — as the Virgin tells us, as the Gospel also tells us — can only be achieved with sacrifice.
This kind of demon can only be cast out with prayer and sacrifice, Jesus said. Let us not stop making sacrifices for the salvation of the world, for sinners, and for peace in the world.
Look, today the Lord who has loved us and the Virgin who has called us will now tell us at the end of this celebration: Go into the whole world, the Mass is ended, but go and live it and proclaim it wherever you are. Be missionaries in the midst of the world. The Pope calls all of us in the synod to evangelize: communion, participation, and fraternity for the mission. Maybe we are afraid of the mission, like I am. I have no preparation, I am poor, I am sick, I have no qualities.
We are afraid of the mission: how can I, who is not prepared, who is poor, who is sick, who has no qualification, evangelize? Tradition tells us that James the Apostle came to Spain and reached a city, Zaragoza, where the Virgin of the Pillar is. He became disheartened along with the eight disciples who accompanied him. The people were not listening, they were not converting. What could he do? Tradition says that the Virgin came from Ephesus and appeared to him there. She told him: “Do not be discouraged, let your faith not falter. The Lord is with you, I am with you. Keep announcing the good news of Jesus that transforms the world and reality. Move forward, and let your faith be as solid as this pillar.” And it remains today in the Basilica of the Pillar, a sign of firm faith supported by Jesus Christ and the Virgin.
Look at where the mission of evangelization has brought us from then to today, the 21st century. The Catholic Christian faith has spread throughout the world. It is in every corner of the world. What great fruit! But this is not from our life or our work, but from our dedication of love, your sacrifice of love, your acceptance of the reality for love and offering everything for love to the Lord. As the missionaries have always done in our wonderful church, let us engrave it in our heart to evangelize. The Lord counts on you and me. He only asks us for prayer, holiness. Be holy because your heavenly Father is holy, and holy is the one who trusts and has faith in the Lord.
Second, live unity, live fraternity. A divided church, a church where people are against each other, a church that is not centered around the pope, around Jesus Christ, around the sweet Christ on earth (the pope and the bishops), and around all of us.
If we are not united, capable of forgiving and helping each other, we will not evangelize. We will not evangelize. James with his eight disciples, the eight apostolic men, in unity and fraternity, sowed the seeds of the Gospel. From that holiness of prayer, from that fraternity and communion, we can be bearers of peace.
In the midst of the world, Lord, make us instruments of peace, that where there is hatred, I bring love, where there is discord, I bring communion, union. Let all of us make that beautiful prayer of St. Francis our own — today more than ever — and the world will change. “Do what he tells you,” said the Virgin at the wedding at Cana, and the water turned into wine. I do not know if it was from Porto or La Rioja or Bordeaux, but the best wine was obtained from water because of trust in the word of Jesus and the Virgin.
Let us listen to the voice of Mary, who says to us today, just as she told the Little Shepherds, that she counts on us.
Brothers and sisters, cheer up! Let us live with hope! The Pope called us together for the Jubilee of Hope. Let us be a witness to hope, through our love and our dedication.
(And do not forget to read my homily, which was much better than what I just told you. Thank you very much.)
Image and text: Creative Commons Attribution license (reuse allowed)
Mike Lewis is the founding managing editor of Where Peter Is. He and Jeannie Gaffigan co-host Field Hospital, a U.S. Catholic podcast.
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