August 26: May Our Hearts Be Open

Pope Francis’s third encyclical, Fratelli tutti, was published at the height of the pandemic. In the encyclical, the Holy Father calls for a society that puts human dignity at its center. It was an important “call” in a time of “unprecedented” sickness and difficulty. Interestingly enough, since those days, many have seen the Pope’s words as a “radical blueprint” for a post-coronavirus world.

Yet, as we can see all around us, it is shameful that some political decisions which are being made negatively affect the poorest, plunging them deeper into poverty, suffering, and despair. At the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, hopes were high that greater solidarity would arise from the suffering left in its wake, but lately there has been a rush to return to politics “as normal”– one of self-interest and indifference to the plight of those left behind.

Pope Francis has offered us and the world a “vision” for real and lasting change, by calling on us to build community at all levels – personal, societal, and global, where walls of fear and distrust are replaced by a “culture of encounter,” where our solidarity with others can restore human dignity.

The Holy Father has made a special appeal in the name of justice and mercy for the orphan, the poor, the stranger, the migrant, the refugee, and all those on the “margins and the peripheries” of life and society. If you have not read the encyclical, make haste to get a copy!

Let us pray. “Lord, Father of our human family, you created all human beings equal in dignity: pour forth into our hearts a fraternal spirit and inspire in us a dream of renewed encounter, dialogue, justice, and peace. Move us to create healthier societies and a more dignified world, a world without hunger, poverty, violence, and war. May our hearts be open to all the peoples and nations of the earth. May we recognize the goodness and beauty that you have sown in each of us, and thus forge bonds of unity, common projects, and shared dreams. Amen.”

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