Then Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer greatly at the hands of the elders, chief priests, and scribes. He would be killed and rise on the third day. Taking him aside, Peter began to rebuke him, saying, "God forbid, Lord, this will never happen to you." But he turned and said to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan, you are a stumbling block to me. For you do not have in mind the things of God, but those of men."

Then he said to his disciples, "If anyone wants to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world if he loses his life? Or what can a man give in exchange for his life? For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of his Father with his angels, and then he will repay everyone according to his works."

Just as the first sin that was committed, which was that of the angels, and likewise the second sin, committed by the first man, as always happens in every sin, are the work and result of lack of love, so God determined that the redemption of man would be accomplished through love. To the lack of love, an abundance of love. Therefore, the redemption of man had to be carried out by the way of the cross, of suffering, and of death; that is, through the giving of one's own life, because no one shows greater love than the one who gives his life for his friends.

The mystery of suffering, of the cross, and of death is, at its core, as you know, my children, and as I have told you so many times, nothing other than the mystery of love. Jesus began to reveal to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer greatly at the hands of the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and die and rise again on the third day. We hardly understand this, just as Saint Peter could not comprehend it either.

Taking him aside, Peter began to rebuke him: "Far be it from you, Lord, this shall not happen to you." And the Lord rebuked Saint Peter: "Get behind me, Satan, for you do not understand the things of God, but those of men." I tell you again, my children, that God had determined that the redemption of man, the destruction of sin, should happen by the path opposite to that of sin, that is, by the way of love. And love is to give everything, to give it all and to surrender everything. And of course, this means giving all that one has and all that one is. And this is the mystery of the cross, of suffering, and ultimately of redemption.

We should ask the Lord every day of our lives to take away our fear and suspicion of the cross. Because the path of redemption and the path of glory, and even the path of perfect joy, is none other than the path of the cross. "Beatius est dare quam accipere," as the Lord said, are the words that Saint Paul has passed on to us in the book of Acts. There is more joy in giving than in receiving. God is love, as you know, my children.

And in God, the Father gives everything to the Son, and the Son gives everything to the Father. And that mutual self-giving is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is called Gift, with a capital G, because it is giving of oneself and total surrender. And that is love.

Let it not be said, my children, that we have no other way to do good for people and to redeem people except to die and to give ourselves. In the letter to the Galatians, speaking of Jesus Christ, Saint Paul said: "Jesus Christ, who loved me and gave himself up for me." In the sermon of the Good Shepherd, the Lord said that the good shepherd gives his life for his sheep. And certainly, my children, there is no other way.

In today's Gospel pericope, there are some words of the Lord that I have never fully understood, but which, as always, must have a profound meaning. After the rebuke that the Lord gives to Saint Peter when He says: "Get behind me, Satan, because you are a stumbling block to me, because you do not understand the things of God but those of men," immediately the Lord says, as you have heard before: "If anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me." It is an essential condition for following the Lord: to surrender everything, to give up everything.

Like with the rich young man: "But you still lack one thing, go and sell everything you have and give it to the poor, and come, follow me." That is the indispensable condition. Whoever does not renounce all that he possesses cannot be my disciple. The secret is not in receiving, but in giving. That is what love is. I have told you many times, countless times, and you have also read it in Tagore, the story of the beggar who, at the side of the road, held out his hand to ask alms from the great king as he approached. And the great king, in turn, asked something from him, and he, searching in his sack, gave him a grain of wheat, which the great king kept in his hand and then returned to him. At night in his hut, the beggar saw that it had been turned into a grain of gold, and the beggar wept, as you recall the story: "If only I had given the great king my entire sack. Everything would have turned into gold." If instead of giving him a part, he had given him everything. There it is, whoever does not renounce all he possesses cannot be my disciple.

But I was saying that there are some words from the Lord here that we never fully understand. Right after this, he says: "For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it." Again, we see the idea that the only way to find one's own life is to lose it, to give it up out of love. And then the Lord says: "What does it profit a man to gain the whole world if he loses his life? What will a man give in exchange for his life?" For has not the Lord just told us, has he not just said that only the one who loses his life for love of him is the one who finds it?

As he tells us now, immediately, right after, "What good is it for a man to gain the whole world if he loses his life?" or "What will a man give in exchange for his life?" So, should one lose it or not? What good is it for a man, even if he gains the whole world, if he loses his life? What exactly do these words of the Lord mean in this context?

It seems to me that what these words of the Lord mean in this context, and precisely the context is what gives them their true meaning, is that if a man were to lose the only opportunity he has, because no other will be given to him, to give up his life... If he were to waste the only opportunity he has to lose his life, then what could he receive in exchange? What else could he do? Or what other path would be left to him?

What good would it do a man, even if he gained the whole world, if he lost his life? That is, if he lost the opportunity to lose his life. If he did not lose his life, if he did not give his life out of love, if we do not interpret it this way, what the Lord says before does not make sense: "Only the one who seeks his own life loses it, and only the one who loses his life for my sake is the one who finds it."

These words explain the following: what would a man give, what good would it do a man, even if he gained the whole world, if he lost his life? If he lost the opportunity to have given his life, if he missed the chance to have lost his life, what could he give in exchange? If I have not given everything, what else could I give that would make up for it? Never will the part make up for the whole.

And this is very important because it contains the secret of our holiness or our mediocrity. Even if we give part of what we have, or even if we give many of the things we possess, and even if we were to give everything except one thing, what good would that do us? Nothing. What would man give in exchange for that? Nothing. None of that would be enough. What is sought is totality. That nothing would remain for us. That we would have given everything. And only that is perfect love. Perfect love gives what it is, what it has, its life, its person, everything, and keeps nothing for itself.

Otherwise, what would a man give in exchange? If he does not give his life, what else could he give? If someone tried to exchange all his possessions for love, as the Song of Songs says, he would be despised. In the sermon of the Good Shepherd, when the Lord is speaking about the good shepherd giving his life for his sheep, there are some words in that sermon, in that context, that are also mysterious. When we read them, we usually go a bit quickly because we do not dare to stop and go deeper. The Lord says: "For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life and I can take it up again". For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life. The Lord gives a reason that explains why he, personally he, is the object of the Father's love. "Because I lay down my life. That is why the Father loves me."

It is love, it is self-giving, it is making a gift of oneself. The son is the object of the father's delight and affection because he freely, voluntarily, and completely, simply because he wants to, gives his life, lays down his life, even though he can take it up again. My children, and that is why he is the object of the Father's love, that is why the Father loves me, because I lay down my life, although I can take it up again. My children, there is no other way to obtain the love of God, to be the object of divine delight. We want what we have, and there is no other way, children. And in order for us to be holy, and for us to do good in our lives, and for us to make others happy, and for our life to have meaning, the way is to give everything, to give our life, to give all that we have.

If someone bears fruit, my Father will prune him, so that then… Fruit is still the path of suffering, my children. When I see the work of your brothers in America, over there, and I see the prospects… And I see what is coming, and I see the fruit, and I see the boys. That which I talked about yesterday afternoon, which Juan Andrés told me, and so many things that I do not tell because I forget them.

For example, this morning I was telling the Acherontes about Antonio’s case. Antonio, well, he gives the impression—no one knows, you never know, but... He gives the impression that perhaps for his whole life he may never fully regain his health. He wants to, in a way, but he is somehow hindered, although one can’t be sure, but anyway. His moments of psychological depression... If you have, for example, the bishop, do not worry, let him do what he can, let him study what he is able, you yourselves prepare him, and when you tell me, I will ordain him a priest. Because that young man has a true vocation, his dreams are great, his goodness is great, and he can be, and in fact will be, a good—a great priest. Why should we deprive him, and why should we deprive the Church of that possibility?

And there again, it’s with me, it's just that the kids, and how the kids are willing to do anything, even to stand up to their father and mother. Yesterday, for example, someone told me so... I actually felt a certain admiration, even though I put on a stern face, because I had to look strict, but I admired it when Diego told me, for example, how he had come despite his pride and especially despite the opposition at home. When I see the kids, kids who are 10, 11, 12, or 13 years old, facing the foolishness of their parents and the selfishness of their own homes. And they do all this out of love for the Lord and for us, because of an excitement that the Lord has instilled in them through us. Well, my children, these are nothing more than the first fruits of a very abundant harvest. I had already written down a few texts from the New Testament, and almost all of them are words of the Lord, where this issue is mentioned. And since everything is nothing but giving yourself completely, and that is perfect love, my children.

But I am going to step aside, because I do not feel like reciting the texts this morning. I would rather, my children, speak directly, with my own words, to the door of your heart. And with the simplicity of telling you and telling myself, my children, that the great secret of our existence consists of nothing else but giving everything, giving what we have, that the Lord would grant us the grace truly to die to ourselves in the offering of what we possess. This is nothing other than what we have spoken of so many times, perfect poverty and total poverty.

That is the path of our own holiness and the path to obtaining the holiness and happiness of others, my children. Those kids who say they are ready to face their families because of the dream the Lord has put in their hearts through us. Those young people who will one day belong entirely to the Lord, and that revolution among the youth that you must organize, my children. And so many people whom you must make happy. And then he said, friends... The very happiness of your own lives.

There is nothing else to do but to give the little we have. What we have, my children: our miseries, our weaknesses, our sufferings, our sorrows, our triumphs, our failures. And what we have, my children, and that is pastoral ministry, and that is the path of a holy priesthood, and of a fruitful, productive priesthood.

Do not be afraid, my children, to one day give to the Lord, through your superior or your bishop, your great ideas, your brilliant ideas, your brilliant projects. For me, whenever any brilliant project of mine has been shattered, it has always been for the good. It has happened so that God might bring much better things out of it. Perhaps what God needed was only to see that I was willing to surrender that brilliant project, or that bright idea, or simply the pleasure of doing my own will, or of following my own judgment.

When I have accepted out of love that all my plans have been destroyed and all my paths have been closed, and I have realized that the world does not collapse because of that. And that fruitfulness in Christian life does not lie in triumph, but in the cross and in the death of oneself. When I have accepted this out of love, without thinking that, well, I don’t know, that I was experiencing the greatest of catastrophes, that is when God has brought out, has brought out, my children, good things. When I was thrown out of the seminary, there in Cuenca, I ended up in the street begging, when I had to take refuge in that big old house because I had to go somewhere, where I was quite afraid at night, because it was a big old house, some three or four times the size of Peregar, all made of wood, with no service, no water, no electricity, and in short, when I found myself completely alone and abandoned, when they reproached me, threw so many things in my face, prohibited me from saying Mass or hearing confessions or guiding people or prevented me from preaching, and so on

And I did not feel like a failure, I did not feel miserable, nor did I think the world was falling apart. And that is truly the good hand of God, God's kindness and the ways of God. And how then the Lord, my children, brought good out of all that.

I remember... I will never forget my interview with my bishop, the bishop who ordained me. He has already passed away, that bishop—the one who ordained me—he was also the one who sent me to America. I went to see him, giving it everything I had, to speak to him about my budding project and to tell him that I already had a few young men involved, and that everything would fall apart and those young men would be left alone and the project could not be carried out. How I asked the Lord to help me convince the bishop, and how I made use of all my oratory, of all my eloquence, to see if I could persuade him. The bishop was not convinced at all; besides, he was a rather thick-headed man. He was a very good man, really good—not that he was foolish, but he was a very closed-minded man. And clearly, he was not swayed in the least; he told me that in spite of everything, I should leave everything behind and go to America.

And I did not feel unhappy nor did I feel any resentment at all toward the bishop himself. On the contrary, I loved him very much, and I continued loving him the same or even more, and I have always loved him. He died many years ago and I still love him, I keep praying for him. I did not feel unhappy. I left everything, broke every tie, and we went to America. Oh, how many tears I shed during the 20 days that the journey lasted, sitting alone at the stern of the ship, watching the trail of foam left by the ship disappear on the distant line of the horizon, thinking that behind me remained my homeland, my plans, my Tagalogs; all was left behind and that I might never be able to set all that in motion again. I had already been told that probably, after being in Ecuador for five years, I would end up in Peru for the rest of my life, in the mountains, in the Andean range, with the indigenous people. That was probably how it would be.

And I accepted it with much love, with much pleasure, without feeling miserable or feeling like a victim. It is true, I did not understand the ways of God, but I accepted them. And not only did I accept them, but I loved them. My children, that is the only way, the only way to live a life that is apostolically fruitful, a life of children.

Abraham, as you know, had only one son. He was the son of the promise. He had him when he was already very old, and when his wife was so old, so old, that she could no longer have children. That is why his wife's maternity was a true physiological miracle, because she was already extremely old, and women after a certain age can no longer have children, much less in old age. God had promised him that this son would be the son of his descendants, the son of the promise. And he could not have any more. Then God tells him to sacrifice his son. Abraham does not think twice. Now he goes to the mountain to sacrifice his son.

And so all the promises of God were collapsing and there was no solution. But Abraham did not hesitate, even though he did not understand. God would know His own matters, and without a doubt, they would be better than anything Abraham could imagine. And God then said to him: "Look, because you have given up your only son and all the plans and promises I had made to you, and you have followed my commands even though you did not understand them nor could you understand them, now, instead of one son, you will be the father of a multitude of peoples, and you will have as many children as the sands of the sea and the stars in the sky, which no one can count. That is how your descendants will be."

Notice, it is no longer a hundredfold or even a millionfold. That is what God does; it is totality. But it was necessary for Abraham to show that he was capable of loving, meaning that he was capable of giving everything, of surrendering everything. This is what Saint Peter did not understand. That is why he wanted to remove that idea from the Lord’s mind, thinking with very human and not very supernatural thoughts, as the Lord told him.

And this is, my children, what can happen to us. That is why I say, from a very young age I was a great admirer—I do not say follower unfortunately—but an admirer of Saint Francis of Assisi. And one of the things that has most impressed me about the saint was his love for suffering and for the cross, and his conviction that only through that path was it possible to achieve fruitfulness in the apostolate and in one's own life.

That is why I tell you, do not be sad or anxious when things apparently go badly for you, when everything around you seems like the failure of your plans, the failure of your life. And not only should you not be sad, but you should be glad. Not only is that not the time to be sad, but it is the time to be joyful. Because that is the moment when you are bearing fruit, the moment of fruitfulness. It is the moment when the Lord is at your side; it is the moment of the cross; it is the moment when you are dying to yourself. And it is the moment when you can be sure that you will bear fruit.

Well, that is all, my children. I am very sorry, I am not in a condition this morning to talk much, nor to say what I would have liked to tell you, but that is all. The Lord is wonderful, my children. He gives us everything in exchange for nothing. Because you can see what we can give Him, apart from trouble. With us, it is like with the lady. Yesterday, while we were making lunch, the lady was making a list for us of what she gave and what she had given. “Well, throughout my life, with you and with the Lord, I have given this, I have given that, I have given this other thing, I have given that other thing.” And I, since I am such a rascal and a joker, at some point added, “Yes, and you have also, abundantly, given trouble.” I said it very affectionately and as a joke, right? But applied to us, it is true. The only thing we give the Lord is a headache. And it is trouble.

Because we are always telling Him that we have failed, that we are going to start over, and that He should not worry, and that this time, yes, now it is serious, and all those things. But look, the Lord is content with that. It is enough for Him to see that every day we are willing to begin again the task of giving everything. And in exchange for that, He gives us His heart, He gives us His intimacy, He gives us His affection, and He gives us... Well, look, in the farewell sermon, on the night of the Last Supper, I do not hesitate to read you some words regarding this stage.

In which the Lord says, so that you may see, children, so that you may see how everything lies in this and everything consists in this, and not in anything else. Not in giving much; we will never have much; but in giving the little we have. I, addressing the Father, and already in the final words of the farewell sermon, the Lord says, addressing the Father: "I, Father, have given them, your disciples, that is, us, the glory that you gave me, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, so that they may be perfected in unity. And so the world will know that you have sent me and that you have loved them as you loved me."

Notice that the Lord says, addressing his Father, that he has given us nothing less than the glory that he himself has received from the Father. He has given everything, his very glory. All that glory that he has received from the Father, he has given to us, and this is so that we may be one as he and the Father are also one and the same. The Lord has given us his glory. He has given us his heart, his intimacy, his affection, his most hidden secrets. "I no longer call you servants, but friends, because everything I heard from my Father I have made known to you." Everything. And his very glory. And all of this is so that we may be one.

That is to say, so that we may love one another in the same way that the Father and He are also one, and so that the love that they have for each other may be the same love that we have for one another, as well as the love we profess to Him and to the Father. "So that the love with which you have loved me may be in them. I in them... I in them and you in me, so that they may be perfected in unity, and the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them as you loved me." If we have been flooded by what the Lord has given us, He has given us even His own... His own glory, His heart, His life, His person, His everything, everything, everything, everything, after we are submerged and immersed in an ocean of love everywhere. How could we not love one another? How could we not be one?

As you and I are one, then the world will know, and the world will know that they are my disciples and that you have sent me. The world will know that we are his witnesses and that we are his disciples when it sees that we know nothing except how to give and that we are completely love, that we have given everything to him and have surrendered everything to him. That is the point. Then the world will recognize that we are his disciples, and then is when the world will recognize him.

So, my children, the world will not need our wonderful speeches or our pastoral techniques, but rather that we are able to give what we have, that little coin from the widow in the Gospel, the obol, that tiny offering, those two small coins, if we have nothing else, but we give that. And that’s it. And then it is when we will love one another, and then it is when we will teach others to love each other, and then it is when we will teach young people to give everything and to find excitement in their youth and in their lives—not to seek themselves, not to try to be themselves, but to be willing to lose themselves, to lose themselves by giving their own life in order to find the Lord.

My children, I must tell you that I am too holy. Forgive me, children. I thank you, Lord, and you as well, our Mother, for the good thoughts and affections you have inspired in us during this moment of prayer, and we ask for your help to put them into practice. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you. Blessed are you among all women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

Nor are you failures when, as I have told you before, you have to obey and your plans are brought down. Because it is a beautiful opportunity that God gives you to show your love. And the smallest act of love is more valuable than all the cleverness and wonder of your gathered projects. The smallest act of love is worth more than all that. When God gives you this opportunity, whether small or great opportunities to die to yourselves—sometimes they are little things, other times they are bigger things—rejoice, children, because there lies the secret of affection, and it is also the secret of fruitfulness in the apostolate.

Not your own plans, not your own projects, not your own ideas; for this reason, never consider yourselves unfortunate. When you have to obey, when your plans and projects are not understood, when it seems that everything is falling apart, do not consider yourselves unfortunate. And not only that, consider yourselves happy, very happy. The Lord will take care of making your life fruitful. Through this, which is the only way—not the other, not the way of doing your own will—the one who seeks his own life will lose it.

Many times I have laughed at myself, at those things that... Well, as I have told you many times, I obeyed my first parish priest every day in the most ridiculous things, because my parish priest was not very intelligent at all. And he would come up with all sorts of things. And I would obey him in the most ridiculous things, but I was convinced that by doing so, I was loving the Lord, and I did love Him, fulfilling the will of the Lord, following my path, and loving my parish priest. Sometimes the Lord punished my parish priest, like what I have told you before, about my famous coat, because there my parish priest should have been more understanding. But that is also something to laugh about.

The thing is that the Lord wanted me to obey and to ruin the coat. My parish priest sent me to the orchard to give communion after several days of heavy rainstorms, and I was going to be left without a coat, which is what happened. But look, the Lord then... punished my parish priest. I made a mistake; instead of taking my own coat, I took his. And the coat that was ruined was his. And I did it with the best intentions in the world. How could I have done that on purpose? It was the Lord who did it on purpose. And the one who lost his coat was him; he could never use it again in his life. He had to throw it away.

But look, aside from the funny story, the Lord must have been very pleased with that, with my absolute obedience. There was a moment, in the orchard, I remember that scene, it doesn’t rain like that anymore, the climate is changing, the cold back then, and the rain back then. Well, there was a moment when I got stuck in the middle of a path, in the middle of a field, I couldn’t move forward, and three or four women helped me... They pulled me out of the mud, holding hands to make a chain. Notice how much it used to rain back then and how cold it was in those days. That’s how the shoes turned out, and that’s how the coats turned out, and that’s what happened to a coat that was worth a fortune. And those coats that we priests used to wear back then were extremely expensive, and in those days there was no money, while now there is more money, back then there wasn’t.

And finally, but I cover myself, because in this case it was not my path, but that of my parish priest, without me knowing it. But he said, mine, that is the only way. Otherwise, it is not worth it, it is not worth becoming a priest, and not just a priest, but a Christian, a disciple of the Lord. The world does not understand this, because the world sees everything through statistics, technique, sociology, and results according to purely human rules, just as it happened to Saint Peter, the Lord who... about that mindset, do not think that way because your path has to be successful.

Sometimes I get the impression that the Vatican trusts its nuncios, its envoys, and its political experts more than prayer and dying to oneself. Anyway, that's it. That is the world, that is the human side of the Church, that is the human side of the Church. But you must always think with supernatural criteria and do not be foolish. The true path is that, and nothing else. And that is why today the Church is discredited and declining. Because today, let's see who loves the cross, let's see who seeks to die to himself, let's see who lives a life of prayer, let's see who... And one of the worldly criteria... Yesterday Father Paulino was laughing himself silly on the phone with me, talking about these things. How worldly criteria get into us without us noticing.

And he would say to him, "Look, Paulino, what they want me to put in, which I am not going to do, of course. I would rather remove myself first. In the constitutions, this is that all the superiors should be rotated, every three years we change people. So, it would be like what happens with the friars, where you have lay brothers becoming provincial superiors. Everyone is in charge, that's why democracy and consulting the base, everyone has to be in charge. 'You have already had three years, now it's my turn.' Thank you."

But man, not everyone has the qualities to lead. The quality of governing is a charism, and not everyone has it. It is, by the way, a very painful charism, because it is not pleasant. So not everyone is suited to lead, and we should not take it badly, because to whom God gives it, may Saint Peter bless him.

Then, laughing heartily, Paulino was telling me, or he reminded me, because I already knew that, and he says to me: "This is like when," Father Paulino said, "like when they tried to internationalize the curia in the Vatican." I remembered this because of the Vatican, internationalizing the curia. So they filled the curia with black people, because there has to be black people, because if there are no black people, the curia is not international.

But man, as Paulino used to say, "I don't know where we left our common sense." He said, "I think what matters in the curia are good curia officials. There are people who understand the curia, whether they are black, yellow, or white. Suppose right now there isn't a single black person who understands the curia. Why should we force black people in there? Even if they don't understand the curia, right? Just because there have to be black people."

Man, I have nothing against black people or white people. I appoint the person I have to appoint. If he's black, then black. If he's white, white. But appointing someone just because he is black, well, I think that would be the same as appointing someone just because he is white. I would appoint the efficient man, the man capable of doing that job. "No, no, there have to be black cardinals, we have to appoint them, if you choose five cardinals, two and a half have to be black, half and half."

But listen, if right now there is not a single black man suitable to be a cardinal, or on the contrary, not a single white man suitable to be a cardinal... No, no, there has to be a mix of everything. But listen, of course, it’s because we are influenced by the world’s criteria, like democracy, like consulting the base. And then, of course, we get to truly absurd things. People have even told me: "Well, you are absolutely right, not everyone is fit to govern, some people are even incompetent to govern. You can play a trick. If you have to change your superior every three years, well, don’t change your superior, just say there won’t be a change, because a change should happen when the one with understanding decides a change is necessary. So every three or four years, hold a consultation with the base and then ignore the results." Consult the base. And I am left astonished.

It seems unbelievable that you think deceiving the base, because that is deceiving the base, and cheating the base is more honorable and makes more sense than telling the man, "The superior will be whoever I say, because I am the one who understands." Look, you are not going to be the head of the place, someone else will be in charge as it is decided. And when you see that there is someone better, then put the other one in charge. And that's it.

No, no, you consult the base and then you ignore it. You just dismiss it... But that is deceiving the base. So you think that trickery is good and honest. Well, in that case, I do what that man in the theater did, that magician, that conjurer, a famous magician who needed an assistant. And he would say, "I'm going to get an assistant, but if I choose someone from there, from the audience, from the row of seats, you will say that I had already arranged it with him in advance. So, to avoid that, let's see, Pepe, come out there from the stage." And that way, you have nothing to say.

So, the consultation with the base, and then you ignore the consultation with the base. You just don't pay attention to it. For me, to do that kind of trick, I would simply not consult the base at all. I would just say, well, the one who is going to be in charge in the United States is Juan Andrés, the one who is going to be in charge somewhere else is someone else, and there is no deception. So, consulting the base just for the sake of it doesn't make any sense, it has no explanation, it is not common sense.

And that is it. The standards of the world get into us, and we have to please the world, and we have to please the current moment, and we have to keep up with the times. Well, look, if the spirit of the times is good, we will accept it. If it is bad, we will not. Do not come to me with lies and tall tales and all sorts of things, and putting inept and useless people in place. "We have to internationalize the curia," all right, so then we bring in a bunch of black people to the curia. And then things happen, then it happens.

I don’t care if he is black or white. What matters to me is that it works. If it works, I don’t pay attention to color. What do you want me to say? I, for example, am very fond of our Charlie. But I’m not fond of Charlie because he is black. I like him because I think he is a guy who is worth a lot, who is very valuable. Why should I care if he is black or white? I’m not fond of Tino because he is white, either. I care about Tino because... because I have reasons to care about him, but not precisely because he is white. And that’s it. I don’t know, but I think these things are just common sense. On the one hand, we’re always saying we aren’t racist, for example, but on the other hand, we are racists. Putting some people there because they’re white, or because they’re black, that is racism.

Yesterday I was telling my nephew Miguel, I don’t know if he understood or not, I suppose he did. I said to him: "Look, Miguelico, to me you are a son and I don’t love you as a nephew, not even a bit. For me, as a nephew, you are my nephew, but that, for me, is a criterion that is zero, it doesn't exist. I love you because I love you, you are a son to me. Besides, you seem like an excellent boy to me and so I love you. The fact that you are my nephew neither adds nor takes away anything, not even a milligram, not an atom from the affection I have for you. That honestly doesn’t matter to me. With that, I remove the danger of ever being a nepotist. But actually, I don’t even have to remove that danger, because it just doesn’t exist for me. And in that, the Lord has given me great freedom of judgment, a very great and total freedom of spirit."

The other day Juan Andrés said to me on the phone, "You have to understand that Americans, despite what they say, are a bit racist." And I said to Juan Andrés, "Juan, Americans are more racist than you think. If we were already convinced of that, they are more racist than you imagine, even more than you suspect. I mean, so what? That's just one of many things we have to teach them to overcome. Just as we have to teach them not to eat between meals. Well, we also have to teach them to overcome their racism and to look at all people with a universalist outlook, free of prejudice."

As for me, I love Charlie, but not because he is black. The fact that he is black neither adds nor takes anything away from the affection I have for him. It adds nothing. And it is not that because he is black, I love him more. And as for myself, because I am black, I do not love myself more. Nor less. Or the matter of my nephew. And I would tell him: "Look, just as we have to teach the Americans to have this vision, a vision of people and the world free from prejudice, which will not be easy, because I already know them and I know how they are. In the same way, you have to teach them, well, to study. Do Americans like to study? Very little, just like Spanish youth. They should, but let us see who actually studies. Or not to eat between meals, or you have to get into their heads that sports is not a god. It is not the main thing in life nor the only thing in life, but rather it is just one more thing and certainly not among the most important. There are so many things that you will have to teach the Americans, that is just one of many. Keep that in mind, my son. Of course they are racist, I know that. It is one of the flaws that we have to teach them to overcome. But there are more racists than you think."

Because there are some in the Vatican as well, because, look, that's the example I have given you, if they bring in black people because the curia has to be international, we are racists, and above all, we are complete fools, because I would think it was just fine if the entire curia were black if those men were the best curial officials available. Very well, then. Why do you have the entire curia filled with black men? Because they are the best men I had available at this time. That's the only reason, nothing more than that.

And so it’s not because of what people say or don’t say, not at all, I couldn’t care less about what they say or what they don’t say. That’s it, as if one day, in the event that I had lived, I would have had to appoint my nephew to a position of responsibility among you, I would do it without hesitation. But not because he was my nephew. And besides, I wouldn’t care at all if someone thought that I was giving him that position because he was my nephew. You see, if someone is going to think that, that’s nonsense, because the only thing I would show by that is that the person who thinks it is an idiot. In other words, that’s their problem, not mine. I don’t care about that at all.

So this serenity of spirit and this lack of prejudice is more rare, at least than it seems, and that's why I find it very amusing when I see many people talking about things they don't experience. The Church in particular, the official Church, is always talking about things it doesn't live. Like, for example, the idea of committing to the marginalized, or talking about racism, or the third world, and this and that, and it's all nonsense.

In short. Now, this serenity of spirit and this absence of prejudice, my children, and this total freedom of spirit, this freedom is given by poverty. And poverty and love are the same thing. And when one marries things or people, one has poverty and therefore has freedom of spirit. And that's it. Little children. This is very important, children. Well, we are... Saying that I was not going to tire you too much, that I am tiring you too much. Are you ready?

Padre Alfonso Gálvez