On Friday morning, May 21, 2021, Pope Francis received in audience the members of the Lazarus Association, on their 10th anniversary, and he invited them to “be witnesses of God’s mercy and goodness”.
Lazarus is an Association that promotes shared apartments in which homeless persons and young people live together. They are solidary, collaborative, and inter-generational apartments, an answer to loneliness and the precariousness of the homeless.
Service and Fraternity
The Holy Father thanked God “for this meeting, which was canceled last year because of the health crisis,” and he highlighted the fact that it is “always a joy to see that also today many people, full of faith, goodwill and courage, commit themselves to live an experience of service and fraternity.”
The Pontiff also pointed out that the Lazarus Association “is based on simple principles, such as, for example, ‘to be oneself with others, to rediscover joy, to feel loved, to learn benevolence as in a family, to live together with great simplicity.’” These principles make sense and only forge a stable group if they spring from a solid friendship with Christ, source of your work for the good. By going out to encounter others in their situation and forming a family in which the harmony and joy of living together reigns, you take part in the mission of the Church to go to the peripheries of our society,” he continued.
For the Pope, by choosing to be “at the service of human dignity, to make yourselves neighbors of excluded people, without a fixed address, rejected, often betrayed in their rights, you serve the Lord Himself,” adding that “with your apostolate, you help us understand that every person has a sacred history, is an inestimable gift.”
Moreover, he stressed how “in these times of uncertainty, of fragility, instead of misspending your lives thinking only of yourselves, you have the experience of living together in solidarity. This gives you a way to enrich your lives, becoming a source of hope for those that no longer believe in themselves and feel humiliated.”
Christians of Word and Deed
The Holy Father also pointed out to the Association’s members that with “your commitment and dedication, you try to be Christians not only in word but in deed. Hence you bear much fruit and this can be seen in your Association’s extension in other countries and Continents.”
“Don’t be afraid to pass on the torch of hope and love. Be witnesses of God’s tenderness in the midst of the culture of egoism, of individualism, of indifference, of rejection, of contempt for the poor and the weak.” Finally, the Pontiff encouraged them all to “continue being faithful to your objectives. Today more than ever we need to build a world, a society of fraternal relations full of life”.
Here is a translation of Pope Francis’ full address.
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The Holy Father’s Address
Dear Friends:
I’m happy to welcome you, members of the Lazare Association, in this year in which you celebrate your tenth anniversary. I thank God for this meeting, which was canceled last year because of the health crisis.
It’s always a joy to see that also today many people, full of faith, goodwill, and courage, commit themselves to live an experience of service and fraternity.
Your Association is base on simple principles, such as, for example, “to be yourself with others, to rediscover joy, to feel loved, to learn benevolence as in a family, to live together with great simplicity.” These principles make sense and only forge a stable group if they spring from a solid friendship with Christ, source of your work for the good. By going out to encounter others in their situation and forming a family in which the harmony and joy of living together reigns, you take part in the mission of the Church to go out to the peripheries of our society. As I said to you in the Videoconference of May 29, 2020, “the existential peripheries are the center of God’s heart.” Jesus willed to come to our existential peripheries. He Himself made Himself existential periphery.
Dear young people, you have chosen to put yourselves at the service of human dignity, to make yourselves neighbors of excluded people, without a fixed address, rejected, often betrayed in their rights. By serving them, you serve the Lord Himself. With your apostolate, you help us understand that every person is a sacred history, an inestimable gift. In fact, “the Lord invites us to gamble generously, to overcome fear with the courage of love, to overcome passivity which becomes complicity” (Homily in the Mass of the World Day of the Poor, November 15, 2020). In these times of uncertainty, of fragility, instead of misspending your lives thinking only of yourselves, you have the experience of living together in solidarity. This gives you a way to enrich your lives, becoming a source of hope for those that no longer believe in themselves, and who feel humiliated.
You have wished to be, for the people you serve, the hand, the eyes, the ears, the smile of God. You show them the closeness of the Lord who takes care of His people, especially those that are wounded and bowed by life’s burdens, because “the love of neighbor is realistic and doesn’t waste anything that is necessary for a transformation of history that benefits the last” (Encyclical Fratelli Tutti, 165). With your commitment and dedication, you try to be Christians not only in word but in deed. Hence you bear much fruit and this can be seen in the extension of your Association in other countries and Continents.
Don’t be afraid to pass the torch of hope and love. Be witnesses of God’s tenderness in the midst of the culture of egoism, of individualism, of indifference, of rejection, of contempt for the poor and the weak.
Dear friends, benefitting from this initiative of love, you who are living this beautiful adventure with your history, sometimes full of sadness, loneliness, tears, trials, exclusion, and rejection, are a precious gift that makes us see the love of the Lord. You are not rejected, inferior, or failures, as society sometimes wants to make us believe. In God’s eyes, you are a treasure, a gift, a life, a dignity. In your faces, we see the suffering face of Christ, who invites us to an urgent love and an open heart.
Receiving so much good and so many attentions from others, you become in turn men and women capable of lifting, of consoling, of alleviating wounds and making God present at the heart of your lives. I encourage you to give the best of yourselves, to live each moment of your existence as a grace, to come out of anonymity and make of your lives an offering for what is beautiful and good. In fact, “Lazarus means offering; humanity’s offering of what it has that is best: aware of the limitations” (Videoconference with the “Lazare” Association, May 29, 2020.
I encourage you all to continue being faithful to your objectives. Today more than ever, we need to build a world, a society of fraternal relations full of life, because “actions spring from a union that inclines one increasingly towards the other, considering him valuable, worthy, pleasant and beautiful, beyond physical or moral appearances. Love of the other for what he is, moves us to seek what is best for his life. Only by cultivating this way of relating to one another will we make social friendship possible, which excludes no one, and fraternity open to all” (Encyclical Fratelli Tutti, 94). Therefore, I invite you to be witnesses, witnesses of God’s mercy and goodness. I entrust each one of you and your families, as well as the members of the Association, to the intercession of the Virgin Mary and Saint Lazarus, and I impart to you my heartfelt Apostolic Blessing. Please, don’t forget to pray for me.
© Libreria Editrice Vatican
Translation by Virginia M. Forrester
