Volunteer Jubilee | “Shoots of new humanity”
The Jubilee of Volunteers was held on March 8 and 9. From Gemelli, the Pope did not miss his greeting and encouragement
Thirty thousand volunteers. An army of people of good will arrived from many parts of the world and gathered in St. Peter’s Square for the Jubilee of the volunteer world.
The Pope, the only justified absentee, nevertheless delivered his message. And in his homily, read by Cardinal Czerny, prefect of the Dicastery for the Service of Integral Human Development, he addressed them this way at this beginning of Lent:
“I thank you very much, beloved, because following the example of Jesus
you serve your neighbor without serving your neighbor.
On the streets and among homes, beside the sick, the suffering, the imprisoned, with the young and the elderly, your dedication instills hope in all of society.”
Emphasizing how important works of mercy are in this society, the Pope spoke of “so many small gestures of gratuitous service” that “make sprouts of new humanity flourish.”
Often, we are in fact faced with immense “deserts of poverty and loneliness” in which individuals forget to make community, where each person struggles with his or her own wounds, sufferings, shortcomings, without the help and comfort of anyone.
What happens is that family, institutions, politics fail. And this is where volunteers step in, making a difference, with the gift of their time, energy and dedication, of a love that knows how to give itself freely.
There are many areas where volunteerism becomes a lever of charity, justice, mercy, proximity, social promotion and evangelical proclamation; and it is not, as some claim, a stopgap service.
It is rather a way of being there and a way of being.
From Italy, there were nearly 15,000 volunteers who went through the Holy Door, including 5,000 from the Misericordie. A sign of a silent force that every day brings hope, joy, the gift of a smile and an outstretched hand to those in need.
Also present in Rome this weekend was spazio + spadoni, driven by the certainty that, together, we can grow “that garden that God has dreamed and continues to dream for all of us” of which Pope Francis speaks.