Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time (Homily)
October 04, 2015 7:00 am · Father Dan Vanyo
In the first reading we heard the definition of marriage by God. A man leaves his father and mother and clings to his wife and the two of them become one flesh. In the Gospel we hear Jesus talk about divorce and adultery. Everybody has heard these readings before. I just got back from pilgrimage to Philadelphia, for eight days, so I was there for the Pope's visit, It was excellent, perhaps we'll talk about some of those things in the future.
My question is, why are people attracted to Pope Francis? And why are people just curious about him? You know it wasn't just Catholics there, almost a million people. There were people that were curious about him. Why is that? Why does he get a million people here, anticipating five million in Krakow, how ever many, we'll see that's going to be at World Youth Day. Millions, everyone is talking about Pope Francis. One of the things, lots of people won't be aware of this, is that he has authority given to him by God, to speak on faith and morals. Authority, lots of people don't like that word. It's too bad, he's got it. And along with that is goodness, they sense that he's good. But, there is lots of good people, why are everybody getting excited about Pope Francis, and maybe there are another few good people here, are you getting crowds of millions? I'm not. Why? It's the authority to speak about the good, that he has. But again a lot of people aren't thinking that but they are attracted none the less.