"The Lord is faithful and does not abandon his people," Pope Francis said. He recalled the life of St. Anthony the Great, who was accompanied by Christ amid his torments, saying: "The Lord is close. It can happen that, when faced with fresh sorrow or a difficult period, we think we are alone, even after all the time we have spent with the Lord. But in those moments, where he might not intervene immediately, he walks at our side. And if we continue to go forward, he will open up a new way for us; for the Lord specializes in doing new things; he can even open paths in the desert."
Living the Beatitudes does not require "great works", Pope Francis said, but "the imitation of Jesus in our everyday life."
The Beatitudes "invite us to keep our hearts pure, to practice meekness and justice despite everything, to be merciful to all, to live affliction in union with God," and they are "for those who face up to the challenges and trials of each day."
"Those who live out the Beatitudes according to Jesus are able to cleanse the world. They are like a tree that even in the wasteland absorbs polluted air each day and gives back oxygen. It is my hope that you will be like this, rooted in Jesus and ready to do good to those around you. May your communities be oases of peace."
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The pope singled out two of the Beatitudes: Blessed are the meek, and Blessed are the peacemakers.
Concerning meekness, he said: "Those who attack or overpower others are not blessed, but rather those that uphold Jesus' way of acting, he who saved us, and who was meek even towards his accusers."
The pope quoted from St. Francis of Assisi's Earlier Rule regarding approaches to "Saracens and non-Christians": "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".
"Neither arguments nor disagreements," the pope stressed. "At that time, as many people were setting out, heavily armed, Saint Francis pointed out that Christians set out armed only with their humble faith and concrete love. Meekness is important."
Turning to "Blessed are the peacemakers", Pope Francis said that a Christian "promotes peace, starting with the community where he or she lives."
"I ask for you the grace to preserve peace, unity, to take care of each other, with that beautiful fraternity in which there are no first or second class Christians," he told the Catholics living in the UAE.
Pope Francis concluded: "May Jesus, who calls you blessed, give you the grace to go forward without becoming discouraged, abounding in love 'to one another and to all'."
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At the conclusion of Mass, Pope Francis was addressed by Bishop Paul Hinder, Vicar Apostolic of Southern Arabia, who thanked him for his visit.
Bishop Hinder said that the pope had "come to a Muslim country with the intention to do as Saint Francis did in the year 1219," when he met in "mutual respect" with Al-Kamil, Sultan of Egypt.
"We Christians try to implement the order Saint Francis gave at his time to his brothers and to 'live spiritually among the Muslims ... not to engage in arguments and (simply) to acknowledge that (we) are Christians.'"
The bishop also thanked the Emirati authorities, especially Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, "who generously have made possible this visit and given us this space in order to have a public Mass with as many faithful as possible."