Pope: Be humble and young at heart

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis celebrated his first Palm Sunday Mass in St. Peter’s Square, encouraging people to be humble and young at heart, as tens of thousands joyfully waved olive branches and palm fronds.

The square overflowed with some 250,000 pilgrims, tourists and Romans eager to join the new pope at the start of solemn Holy Week ceremonies, which lead up to Easter, Christianity’s most important day.

Keeping with his spontaneous style, the first pope from Latin America broke away several times from the text of his prepared homily to encourage the faithful to lead simple lives.

Palm Sunday recalls Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem but its Gospel also recounts how he was betrayed by one of his apostles and ultimately sentenced to death on a cross.

Recalling the triumphant welcome into Jerusalem, Francis said Jesus “awakened so many hopes in the heart, above all among humble, simple, poor, forgotten people, those who don’t matter in the eyes of the world.”

Francis then told an off-the-cuff story from his childhood in Argentina. “My grandmother used to say, ‘children, burial shrouds don’t have’ pockets’” the pope said, in a variation of “you can’t take it with you.”

Since his election on March 13, Francis has put the downtrodden and poor at the center of his mission as pope, keeping with the priorities of his Jesuit tradition. His name - the first time a pope has called himself ‘Francis’ - is inspired by St. Francis of Assisi, who renounced a life of high-living for austere poverty and simplicity to preach Jesus’ message to the poor.

Francis wore bright red robes over a white cassock as he presided over the Mass at an altar sheltered by a white canopy on the steps of St. Peter’s Basilica.

In his homily, Francis said Christian joy “isn’t born from possessing a lot of things but from having met” Jesus. That same joy should keep people young, he said.

“From 7 to 70, the heart doesn’t age” if one is inspired by Christian joy, said the 76-year-old pontiff.

Meanwhile, thousands of people flocked to the Pilgrim Center of the Basilica Minore del Sto.  Niño in Cebu City to celebrate Palm Sunday and have their palm fronds blessed.

Fr. Jonas Mejares, the new rector of the Basilica, said that as the celebration of Palm Sunday is remembering the people of Jerusalem who carried palm fronds as they excitedly welcomed Jesus in their city.

“With the upcoming election, I hope and I pray that our Filipino people could not be swayed or manipulated by money or black propaganda much like what happened to Christ,” Mejares said.

“Let our loyalty to God and to our country stand firm so as not to imitate the enthusiasm of the fickle-minded crowd on the first Palm Sunday,” he added.—  AP with Marigold P. Lebumfacil/MIT