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Pope Francis's Last Celebration of Mass in the United States. Aired 4-5p ET

Aired September 27, 2015 - 16:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

[16:05:38]

POPE FRANCIS: In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

UNIDENTIFED MALE: Amen.

POPE FRANCIS: Peace be with you.

UNIDENTIFED MALE: And with your spirit.

POPE FRANCIS: Brothers and sisters, let us acknowledge our sins. And so prepare ourselves to celebrate the sacred mysteries.

UNIDENTIFED MALE: I confess to almighty god, to you and my brothers and sisters, that I have gravely sinned in my thoughts and in my words. In what I have done and what I failed to do, through my faults, through my faults, through my gracious fault. Therefore I ask the blessed Mary ever virgin, all the angels and saints, and you, my brothers and sister, to pray to the lord our god.

POPE FRANCIS: May almighty God have mercy on us, forgive us our sins and bring us to everlasting life.

UNIDENTIFED MALE: Amen.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

[16:10:57]

POPE FRANCIS: Let us pray. Lord -- lord God, manifest your almighty power, pardoning and showing mercy. (INAUDIBLE) those closer to treasures of heaven. Through your Lord Jesus Christ, your son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever.

UNIDENTIFED MALE: Amen.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): A reading from the Book of Numbers. The lord came down in the cloud and spoke to Moses. Taking some of the spirit that was on Moses, the lord bestowed it on the 70 elders. And as the spirit came to rest on them, they prophesied. Now, two men, one named Eldad and the other Medad were not in the gathering but had been left in the camp.

They, too, had been on the list but had not gone out to the tent. Yet the spirit came to rest on them also and they prophesied in the camp. So when a young man quickly told Moses, Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp, then Joshua, son of Nan, who from his youth had been Moses' aide said, "Moses, my lord, stop them."

But Moses answered him, "are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the people of the lord were prophets. Would that the lord might bestow his spirit on them all.

UNIDENTIFED MALE: The precepts of the lord give joy to the heart.

UNIDENTIFED MALE: The precepts of the lord give joy to the heart.

UNIDENTIFED MALE: The law of the lord is perfect refreshing the soul. The decree of the lord is trustworthy giving wisdom to the simple.

UNIDENTIFED MALE: The precepts of the lord give joy to the heart.

[16:15:00]

UNIDENTIFED FEMALE: (SINGING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE).

UNIDENTIFED MALE: The precepts of the lord give joy to the heart.

UNIDENTIFED MALE: (SINGING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE).

UNIDENTIFED MALE: The precepts of the lord give joy to the heart.

UNIDENTIFED MALE: (SINGING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE).

UNIDENTIFED MALE: From wanton sin especially restrain your servant. Let it not rule over me. Then shall I be blameless and innocent of serious sin.

UNIDENTIFED MALE: The precepts of the lord give joy to the heart

UNIDENTIFED FEMALE: (SPEAKING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

Your clothes have become moth-eaten, your gold and silver have corroded and that corrosion will be a testimony against you. It will devour your flesh like a fire. You have stored up treasure for the last days. Behold, the wages you withheld from the workers you have harvested your fields are crying out and the cries of the harvesting have reached the ears of the lord of hosts.

You have lived on earth in luxury and pleasure. You have fattened your hearts for the day of slaughter. You have condemned. You have murdered the righteous one. He offers you no resistance.

UNIDENTIFED MALE: (SINGING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia.

Your word o Lord is truth. Make us holy in the truth, the truth.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia.

[16:20:48]

UNIDENTIFED MALE: (SPEAKING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

At that time John said to Jesus, "teacher we saw someone driving out demons in your name and we tried to prevent him because he does not follow us." Jesus replied, "do not prevent him. There is no one who performs a mighty deed in my name who can at the same time speak ill of me. For whoever is not against us is for us. Anyone who gives you a cup of water to drink because you belong to Christ, Amen, I say to you, will surely not lose his reward. Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were put around his neck and he were thrown into the sea. If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life maimed than with two hands to go into Gehenna, into the unquenchable fire. And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life crippled than with two feet to be thrown into Gehenna. And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. Better for you to enter into the kingdom of god with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into Gehenna where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.

(SPEAKING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

[16:26:25]

POPE FRANCIS (through translator): Today the word of God surprises us with a powerful and thought provoking image. Image which challenge us but stir us with enthusiasm. In the first reading, Joshua tells Moses that two members of the people are prophesying, speaking god's word without a mandate.

In the gospel, John tells Jesus that the disciples had stopped someone from casting out evil spirits in the name of Jesus. And here is the surprise. Moses and Jesus both rebuke those closest to them for being so narrow in their thinking. Would that all could be prophets of god's word? Would that everyone could work miracles in the lord's name?

Jesus instead encountered hostility from people who did not accept what he said and did. For them Jesus' openness to the honest and sincere faith of many men and women who were not part of God's chosen people seemed intolerable. The disciples, for their part, acted in good faith, but the temptation to be scandalized by the freedom of god who sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous alike, bypassing bureaucracy, officialdom and inner circles, threatens the authenticity of faith. Hence, it must be vigorously rejected.

Once we realize this, we can understand why Jesus' words about causing scandal are so harsh. For Jesus, the truly intolerable scandal consists in everything that breaks down and destroys our trust in the working of the Spirit.

Our Father will not be outdone in generosity and continues to scatter seeds.

[16:30:01]

POPE FRANCIS: He scatters the seeds of his presence in our world. For love consists in this not that we have loved God but that he loved us first, that love give us a profound certainty. We are sought by God. We are -- God waits for us. It is this confidence which makes disciples encouraged, support, and nurtures the good things happening all around them. God desires for all his children to take part in the feast of the gospel. Do not hold back anything that is good. Instead, help it grow, Jesus says. To raise doubts about the working of the spirit or to give the impression that it cannot take place in those who are not part of our group or who are not like us is a dangerous temptation.

Not only does it block conversion to the faith, but it is a perversion of faith. Faith opens a window to the presence and working of the spirit. And it shows us that like happiness, holiness is always tied to little gestures. Whoever gives you a cup of water in my name, Jesus says a small gesture will not go unrewarded. These are little gestures that we learn at home, gestures that we learn in the family and that get lost amid all the other things that we do daily, but they make each day different. These are the little gestures done by mothers, by grandmothers, fathers, and grandfathers, by children and siblings.

They're little signs of tenderness, of affection and compassion. These are the little gestures of a warm supper we look forward to at night, of an early lunch or breakfast awaiting someone who gets up early to go to work. They're the gestures of home. Like a blessing before we go to bed or the hug after we return from a hard day's work. Love is shown by little things, by attention to those small daily signs which make our life always feel like we're at home. Faith grows when it is practiced and it is shaped by love. That is why our families, our homes, are true domestic churches.

These are the right places for faith to become life and for life to grow -- for faith to grow in life. Jesus invites us to not hold back these little miracles. Instead, he wants us to encourage them, to make them grow. He asks us to go through life as our life presents itself. Encouraging all these little signs of love as signs of his own living and active presence in our world. This action that we are invited to participate in leads us to ask ourselves how are we trying to live this way in our homes, in our societies. What are we doing to live this way in our homes, in our societies?

[16:35:07] What kind of world do we want to leave to our children? This is a question that we cannot answer alone. It is the spirit who challenges us to respond as part of the great human family. Our common house can no longer tolerate sterile divisions. The urgent challenge of protecting our home includes the concern of bringing all of the human family together in the pursuit of sustainable and integral development. For we know that things can change. May our children find in us models of communion, not of division. May our children find in us men and women capable of joining others in bringing to full flower all the good seeds which the father has sown. Pointedly, yet affectionately, Jesus says, if you then who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him.

How much wisdom there is in these few words? It is true that as far as goodness and purity of heart are concerned, we human beings don't have much to show. But Jesus knows that where children are concerned we're capable of boundless generosity. And that's why he reassures us. If only we have faith, the father will give us his spirit. We Christians, the Lord's disciples, ask the families of the world to help us. Many of us are here participating at this celebration. And this is, in itself, something prophetic, a kind of miracle in today's world. This world tired of inventing new divisions, new forms of brokenness, our disasters. Would that we could all be prophets. Would that all of us could be open to miracles of love for the sake of your own family and of all the families of the world.

And I'm talking here about the miracle of love. And in this way overcome the scandal of a narrow, petty love, mistrustful, closed in on itself and impatient of others. And I leave you with a question, a question for each of you to answer because I said impatient. In my own home, do we shout or do we speak to each other in love and tenderness? That's a good way of measuring our love. How beautiful it would be if everywhere and even beyond our own borders we could appreciate and encourage this prophecy and this miracle.

[16:40:08]

Let us renew our faith in the word of the Lord, which invites our families to this openness. It invites all those who want to share the prophecy of this covenant of man and woman which generates life and reveals God, that he help us to participate in this prophecy of peace, of tenderness, and of family kindness. That he help us to participate in the prophetic gesture of caring tenderly, patiently and lovingly to care for our children and our grandparents. Anyone who wants to bring into this world a family which teaches children to be excited by every gesture which is aimed at overcoming evil, a family which shows that the spirit is alive and at work will encounter and find our gratitude and appreciation, regardless of what people, religion or region to which they belong.

May God grant all of us to be prophets of the joy of the gospel, of the gospel of family and of the love of family, to be prophets as the Lord's disciples, and may God grant us the grace to be worthy of this purity of heart which is not scandalized by the gospel, may it be so.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON COOPER, THE NEWSROOM HOST: We're going to take a short break for just a few minutes. We'll be right back with more of the celebration of mass.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Welcome back to the celebration of mass, Pope Francis's last celebration of mass in the United States, the singing of the Creed.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

POPE FRANCIS: My brothers and sisters, the world will always thirst and reminds us in other ways. Let us turn to our father in heaven and ask him to help these prayers.

[16:45:01]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: For all the members of the church assembled here in Philadelphia and throughout the world that they may come to know more fully that the law of the Lord refreshes the soul. We pray to the Lord, Lord, hear our prayers. We pray to the Lord, Lord of mercy, hear our prayer. We pray to the Lord, Lord of mercy, hear our prayer

POPE FRANCIS: Father, we come to you as your children your only begotten son. We ask you your mercy and compassion to give joy to our hearts through Christ our Lord.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Amen.

[16:50:01]

POPE FRANCIS: My brothers and sisters, accept the sacrifice. May the Lord accept the sacrifice at your hands, for the praise and glory of his name, for our good and the good of all his holy church.

Grant us, merciful God, that these are offering may find us a task with you, through you...