The celebration took place in the National Stadium before tens of thousands of faithful. Francis pointed to the image of the “great and bold architectures” of the metropolis to invite us to look at the true source of life and beauty. “The most profitable investment in the eyes of God is all of us: beloved children of the same Father.” The reference to St. Francis Xavier, who lived for a long time on the Malay peninsula, to remember that he was the first to announce the Gospel to the peoples of Asia.
Singapore () – “If anything good exists and endures in this world, it is only because, in countless and varied circumstances, love has prevailed over hatred, solidarity over indifference, generosity over selfishness. If it were not for this, no one here would have been able to build such a large metropolis, architects would not have designed projects, workers would not have worked and nothing would have been possible.”
Pope Francis delivered this message today to the Catholic community of Singapore, tens of thousands of people gathered in the futuristic National Stadium complex for the celebration of Mass, the culminating moment of the last stage of his apostolic journey that has taken him in recent days to four countries in Asia and Oceania. He referred specifically to “the great and daring architectures that contribute to making Singapore so famous and fascinating,” to transmit to the Catholic community living in the metropolis the teaching of the words of St. Paul in the First Letter to the Corinthians: “Knowledge fills with pride, but love edifies” (1 Cor 8:1).
“The origin of these imposing constructions, as of any other project that leaves a positive mark on this world – he explained – is not primarily, as many think, money or technology, or even engineering – all useful, very useful means – but ultimately there is love, “the love that builds.”
“Some people might think that this is a naive statement,” the Pope observed, “but if we think about it carefully, it is not so. In fact, there is no good work that does not include brilliant, strong, rich, creative people, but they are always fragile men and women, like us, for whom without love there is no life, no drive, no reason to act, no strength to build.”
For this reason, the great skyscrapers, and ultimately also the facades of our houses or the streets along which we walk, “are a sign, and behind each of the buildings before us there are many stories of love to be discovered. Stories of men and women united in a community; of citizens committed to their country; of mothers and fathers concerned about their families; of professionals and workers, of all kinds and degrees, sincerely involved in their various roles and tasks.” Sometimes we forget this, “and we delude ourselves into thinking that we can, on our own, be the authors of ourselves, of our wealth, of our well-being, of our happiness; but in the end – the Pontiff observed -, life always brings us back to a single reality: without love we are nothing.”
And this love takes us back to its roots, to God himself, “who with a Father’s heart desired us and called us into existence in a totally gratuitous way.” In the city of high-rise buildings and multi-million dollar businesses, Pope Francis recalled today that “the most beautiful building, the most valuable treasure, the most profitable investment in the eyes of God, is all of us: beloved children of the same Father, called in turn to spread love.”
This is what Mary, the mother of Jesus, did, whose feast the Church celebrates today with the title of the Most Holy Name and whose image was placed next to the altar of the celebration. In her, love has the face of “the tenderness of a mother, who understands everything and forgives everything, and who never abandons us.” But Pope Francis – who was a short distance from the Malay Peninsula, where the saint had visited on numerous occasions – also invited us to look at St. Francis Xavier, the great Jesuit evangelizer of Asia. He cited a letter he wrote to St. Ignatius in 1544 from Kochi, Kerala, “in which he expresses his desire to go to all the universities of his time to ‘cry out like a madman everywhere to those who have more science than charity’, so that they feel impelled to be missionaries for love of their brothers, saying from the bottom of their hearts: ‘Lord, here I am, what do you want me to do?'”
Mission as “a constant commitment to listen and respond promptly to the invitations to love and justice, invitations that continue to reach us today from the infinite charity of God” is the message that Pope Francis left for all the Catholic communities of Asia at the last Mass of this long journey through Asia and Oceania that is now coming to an end. As the Archbishop of Singapore, Cardinal William Goh, recalled in his words of thanks at the end of the celebration, today, at this great crossroads, bishops and cardinals from many different corners of the continent were also present and concelebrated. Places that even today, as in the time of St. Francis Xavier, await a word of charity, capable of building new wonders in the Asia of tomorrow.
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