Our Lady Queen of Angels school in East Harlem, NY

Commentary by Susan Brinkmann, OCDS

Pope Francis made the most of his short visit to New York City, bringing the love of Christ into focus for those who struggle to find Him through the everyday hardships and complexities of life.

This message was especially poignant when he visited Catholic school children at Our Lady Queen of the Angels school in the Harlem neighborhood of New York City where most of the school’s students come from migrant families.

“They tell me that one of the nice things about this school is that some of its students come from other places, even from other countries. That is nice!” he told the children.

“Even though I know that it is not easy to have to move and find a new home, new neighbors and new friends. It is not easy. At the beginning it can be hard, right? Often you have to learn a new language, adjust to a new culture, even a new climate. There is so much to learn! And not just at school.”

He went on to speak about a nearby street named after Martin Luther King

“I want to talk a little bit about him. He was the Reverend Martin Luther King. One day he said, ‘I have a dream’. His dream was that many children, many people could have equal opportunities. His dream was that many children like you could get an education. It is beautiful to have dreams and to be able to fight for them.”

With great passion, he continued: “Dear children, you have a right to dream and I am very happy that here in this school, in your friends and your teachers, you can find the support you need. Wherever there are dreams, there is joy, Jesus is always present. Because Jesus is joy, and he wants to help us to feel that joy every day of our lives.”

He ended the visit by giving the children some homework in the form of prayer.

“Please don’t forget to pray for me, so that I can share with many people the joy of Jesus.”

Later that evening, he addressed 20,000 people at Mass in Madison Square Garden and used as his theme the verse from the book of Isaiah: “A people who walk in darkness have seen a great light.”

Especially in this city which saw the most devastating terrorist attack in U.S. history, his words rang true on so many levels.

“ . . . [B]ig cities are a reminder of the hidden riches present in our world: in the diversity of its cultures, traditions and historical experiences. In the variety of its languages, costumes and cuisine. Big cities bring together all the different ways which we human beings have discovered to express the meaning of life, wherever we may be.

“But big cities also conceal the faces of all those people who don’t appear to belong, or are second-class citizens. In big cities, beneath the roar of traffic, beneath ‘the rapid pace of change’, so many faces pass by unnoticed because they have no ‘right’ to be there, no right to be part of the city. They are the foreigners, the children who go without schooling, those deprived of medical insurance, the homeless, the forgotten elderly. These people stand at the edges of our great avenues, in our streets, in deafening anonymity. They become part of an urban landscape which is more and more taken for granted, in our eyes, and especially in our hearts.”

The good news is that Jesus still walks in these streets and is part of the lives of all people, bringing light into their individual darkness. So how do we find Him in the “smog of our cities”?

As the prophet Isaiah teaches, we must “learn to see” the Jesus who is the “Wonderful Counselor”, the “Mighty God”, the “Everlasting Father”, the “Prince of Peace”.

In this way, the prophet Isaiah “introduces us to the life of the Son, so that His life can be our life,” the pope said.

And then what?

“The Gospels tell us how many people came up to Jesus to ask: ‘Master, what must we do?’ The first thing that Jesus does in response is to propose, to encourage, to motivate. He keeps telling his disciples to go, to go out. He urges them to go out and meet others where they really are, not where we think they should be. Go out, again and again, go out without fear, without hesitation. Go out and proclaim this joy which is for all the people.”

When we do this, we bring light into the darkness, we introduce our neighbor to a God who is our Father, who walks at our side, who frees us from anonymity, from a life of emptiness and selfishness, and brings us to the school of encounter.

“He removes us from the fray of competition and self-absorption, and he opens before us the path of peace. That peace which is born of accepting others, that peace which fills our hearts whenever we look upon those in need as our brothers and sisters,” Francis said.

“God is living in our cities. The Church is living in our cities, and she wants to be like yeast in the dough. She wants to relate to everyone, to stand at everyone’s side, as she proclaims the marvels of the Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the Eternal Father, the Prince of Peace.”

The pope’s message is for all of us, wherever we are, in whatever darkness our lives may be experiencing. Jesus is the light of our life and as long as we have Him, we have everything we need to make our lives – and our world – a better and a brighter place for all.

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