ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates—Meeting with tens of thousands of Catholics living in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Pope Francis urged them to be meek, peaceful and express their Christian identity by loving others.
The UAE Catholic community, which numbers close to 1 million, includes foreign workers from roughly 100 nations, particularly India and the Philippines. They filled the stadium at Abu Dhabi’s Zayed Sports City and the open spaces around the complex for Pope Francis’s Mass on February 5.
Paul Matthew, his 13-year-old daughter Meldy and 4-year-old daughter Michelle, were at the stadium early, the proud bearers of some of the 42,000 special tickets allowing access inside the stadium.
“We are very happy; it’s a historic moment,” said Matthew, who came from India five years ago and is involved with the “outreach ministry” of Saint Paul’s Church, visiting the sick in local hospitals.
The UAE is officially Muslim, but allows members of other faiths to worship according to their beliefs. The Muslim dignitaries at the Mass were led by Sheik Nahyan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan, the government minister of tolerance.
In his homily, Pope Francis told the Catholics, “I like to quote Saint Francis, when he gave his brothers instructions about approaching the Saracens and non-Christians. He wrote: ‘Let them not get into arguments or disagreements, but be subject to every human creature out of love for God, and let them profess that they are Christians.’”
So “neither arguments nor disagreements” are called for, the pope said. In the 13th century “as many people were setting out, heavily armed” to fight in the Crusades, “Saint Francis pointed out that Christians set out armed only with their humble faith and concrete love.”
“Meekness is important,” the pope said. “If we live in the world according to the ways of God, we will become channels of His presence; otherwise, we will not bear fruit.”
Prayers for the faithful, also in Filipino
The prayers of the faithful for the Mass were written in six languages: Korean, French, Urdu, Filipino, Konkani and Malayalam.
The prayer in Filipino, acknowledging how many foreign workers come to the UAE without their families, asked God to accompany “all the migrants and workers who live in these lands; may their sacrifice and diligence blossom into goodness and sustenance for their families.”
The French prayer asked God to convert “the hearts of sinners and of the violent; stop the wars, defeat hatred, help us weave bonds of justice and peace.”
Blessed
In his homily, Pope Francis acknowledged the difficulties many Catholic foreign workers experience so far from their homelands, often doing very humble work for very rich families.
The Gospel reading for the Mass was the Beatitudes from the Gospel of Matthew. Pope Francis told the people the Gospel message was for them and could be summarized as: “If you are with Jesus, if you love to listen to His word as the disciples of that time did, if you try to live out this word every day, then you are blessed. Not you will be blessed, but you are blessed.”
Many people today, he said, think that being blessed means being comfortable and having wealth. But Jesus showed another way. For Him, “blessed are the poor, the meek, those who remain just even at the cost of appearing in a bad light, those who are persecuted.”
Jesus was “poor in respect to things, but wealthy in love; He healed so many lives, but did not spare His own,” the pope said. “He came to serve and not to be served; He taught us that greatness is not found in having but rather in giving.”
Through His meekness, humility and self-giving, the pope said, “Jesus brought God’s love into the world. Only in this way did He defeat death, sin, fear and even worldliness: only by the power of divine love.”
The Beatitudes, he said, are “a road map for our life: they do not require superhuman actions, but rather the imitation of Jesus in our everyday life.”
“The Beatitudes are not for supermen, but for those who face up to the challenges and trials of each day,” he said.
‘New page’ in Christian-Muslim dialogue
Pope Francis said his trip to Abu Dhabi was a step forward in Catholic-Muslim dialogue and promoting peace among religions.
Though a brief visit, the “scattered seeds” of the February 3 to 5 trip will bear fruit according to God’s will, he said during the general audience later.
The visit to the UAE, and second meeting with the Muslim Grand Imam of al-Azhar, “wrote a new page in the history of dialogue between Christianity and Islam and in the commitment to promote peace in the world on the basis of human brotherhood.”
Pope Francis first met the Grand Imam of al-Azhar, Ahmed el-Tayeb, during a 2017 apostolic visit to Egypt. The two signed a joint document on human fraternity during this week’s visit.
In the document, “we condemn all forms of violence, especially those with religious motivation, and we commit ourselves to spreading authentic values and peace throughout the world,” the pope stated.
In this era, he said, when there is a strong temptation to discord between Christian and Islamic cultures, and considering religions as sources of conflict, “we wanted to give a further, clear and decisive sign, that instead it is possible to meet, it is possible to respect and dialogue.”
He added that he recommends people read the document and try to understand it, because it has helpful points for how to carry out a dialogue on human fraternity.
“Despite the diversity of cultures and traditions, the Christian and Islamic world appreciate and protect common values: life, family, religious sense, honor for the elderly, the education of young people, and still other things,” he said.
Francis’s trip to the UAE, the first of a pope to the Arabian Peninsula, also fell 800 years after Saint Francis of Assisi visited the Sultan Malik al Kamil in Egypt.
Pope Francis said it was “providence” that a pope named Francis made the historic trip on the 800th anniversary of the saint’s visit.
“I often thought of Saint Francis during this journey: he helped me to keep the Gospel, the love of Jesus Christ in my heart, while I was living the various moments of the visit,” he said.
“In my heart there was the Gospel of Christ,” he said, “the prayer to the Father for all His children, especially for the poorest, for the victims of injustice, wars, misery; prayer because the dialogue between Christianity and Islam is a decisive factor for peace in today’s world.”
During the audience, Francis also recalled his meetings with two 90-year-old priests who have both served in the UAE for many years.
One, he said, is now blind and in a wheelchair, but a smile never left his lips. “The smile of having served the Lord and done very good.”
Another highlight of the trip, he pointed out, was the Mass he celebrated in the stadium in Abu Dhabi on February 5, which was attended by around 150,000 people.
“There were so many people!” he said. “We prayed in a special way for peace and justice, with special intention for the Middle East and Yemen.”
Catholic News Service, Catholic News Agency/CBCPNews
Image credits: Paul Haring/CNS