Pope Francis concluded his apostolic journey to Marseille by celebrating Mass in the Stade Vélodrome, a multipurpose stadium.
During his homily, the Pontiff reflected on the Blessed Virgin Mary’s visitation to St. Elizabeth.
“The experience of faith, first and foremost, elicits a certain leaping in the face of life,” he preached. “Besides enabling us to leap in the face of life, the experience of faith also compels us to leap toward our neighbor.”
Pope Francis added, “We want to be Christians who encounter God in prayer, and our brothers and sisters in love; Christians who leap, pulsate, and receive the fire of the Holy Spirit and then allow ourselves to be set afire by the questions of our day, by the challenges of the Mediterranean, by the cry of the poor – and by the ‘holy utopias’ of fraternity and peace that wait to be realized.”