Pope to Papuans: God draws close to those who feel far away

By Joseph Tulloch

On Sunday morning, Pope Francis celebrated Mass for the faithful in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea.

It was an early start in the Papuan capital, with Mass beginning at around 8am local time. According to local authorities, around 35,000 people were in attendance, including the nation's Prime Minister, James Marade.

Distance from God

In his homily, Pope Francis reflected on the day’s Gospel reading, which describes Jesus’ healing of a deaf man with a speech impediment.

The Pope focused in particular on two elements of the story: the "nearness" of Jesus and the "distance" of the deaf man.

The deaf man was distant, the Pope said, in that he hailed from the Decapolis, a land inhabited by pagans far from the religious centre of Jerusalem. He was “cut off from the world, isolated, a prisoner of his deaf and mute condition.”

The Pope with Port Moresby's Cardinal John Ribat

Jesus’ closeness

Pope Francis stressed that God’s response to this distance – which, he noted, we have all felt at some time or another – is nearness. The Gospel shows Jesus travelling out into the peripheries and meeting with those on the margins of the society, in order to “touch [their] lives and remove every distance.”

“Through his nearness,” the Pope said, “Jesus heals human muteness and deafness.  Indeed, whenever we feel distant, or we choose to keep ourselves at a distance from God, from our brothers and sisters or from those who are different from us, we close ourselves off, barricading ourselves from the outside …  However, Jesus draws near and, as with the deaf man, says to us, “Ephphatha”, that is, “be opened” (Mk 7:34).”

The Sir John Guise stadium during the Mass

Distant yet united

The Pope drew his sermon to a close by suggesting that the day’s Gospel held a particular message for the inhabitants of Papua New Guinea:

“And you, brothers and sisters … being in the Pacific, perhaps you feel that you are separated, separated from the Lord, separated from others, but that’s not right: you are united, united in the Holy Spirit, united in the Lord, and the Lord says to each one of you: ‘Open up!’. This is the most important thing: to open ourselves to God, open ourselves to our brothers and sisters, open ourselves to the Gospel and make it a compass for our lives.”