Holy See Secretary of State Cardinal Parolin presides over at Mass in a hospital chapel in Rome, and visits the oncology ward, bringing Christmas greetings to the patients.
By Edoardo Giribaldi
Cardinal Pietro Parolin presided over Mass this morning, December 16, in the chapel at Rome’s Dermopathic Institute of the Immaculate Conception.
In his homily, the Holy See Secretary of State said that the days leading up to Christmas, “charged with hope and longing,” are sustained by the liturgy, which takes the entire ecclesial community by the hand and gradually leads it “to the mystery of the birth of the Savior”.
Advent is therefore a time of waiting, he said, also oriented toward Jesus’ second coming.
In this regard, the cardinal recalled that Christ’s comings are threefold: the first took place in Bethlehem more than two thousand years ago, the second will come at the end of time, and the third takes root each day in the hearts of the faithful and of the Christian community “through the Word and the sacraments.”
Cardinal Parolin visits patients in the oncology ward
“Powerlessness” in the face of illness
Cardinal Parolin then reflected on today’s Gospel passage from Matthew, in which Jesus tells the parable of the two sons: the first initially refuses to go and work in the vineyard but later repents and goes; the second promises to do so but does not keep his word.
It is the first, of course, who carries out the father’s will.
The Lord, Parolin explained, seeks “sincere hearts” for his mission—a mission that is lived out within the walls of the Institute, one marked by a daily confrontation with a sense of “powerlessness” in the face of illness.
Visit to the patients
“If Christ is not born every day in your heart,” Cardinal Parolin said, “His birth in Bethlehem is of no value.”
He thus invited his listeners to make the Institute a true “manger”.
At the conclusion of Mass, the cardinal placed a figure of the Baby Jesus beneath the Christmas tree set up in the entrance of the Institute. He then went to the oncology ward to convey his Christmas greetings to the patients.
