Pope Francis celebrates in field with 300,000 people

As the pontiff celebrated Mass in an area known for crime, the Holy Father spoke of temptation.

In the northern edge of Mexico City lies Ecatepec, an area known as a predator's paradise. It is in this section that Pope Francis decided to celebrate Mass on Sunday - in an open field alongside 300,000 people.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Over 1.7 million people live in Ecatepec and Vatican Radio described it as "a lawless neighborhood where organised crime, pollution and poverty reign and where most people fear to tread."

Sadly, Ecatepec is known as an area young women are kidnapped and forced into prostitution while young men are hijacked and forced into the drug trade.

It was no accident for the pontiff to celebrate Mass at this particular location. His homily focused on the dangers of temptation as opposed to a straightforward call to end the violence, drug trade and human trafficking - a move that was sure to open hearts and minds better than a harsh scolding.

Sister Angelica Garcia Barela, a member of the Servant Missionaries of the Word, believed Pope Francis would help make a difference in the area. Barela said, "He comes to show the faith and to change hearts. The Pope's faith, his enthusiasm and joy, isn't fleeting and it's contagious. Much can change."

Sister Barela joined other members of her order to spend the night at the Mass site to protect the previously consecrated hosts to be distributed during Communion the next day.

During his homily, Pope Francis recalled the story of Jesus tempted in the desert. The pontiff said, "Jesus does not respond to the devil with his own words, instead he uses the words of God, the words of Scripture. Because, brothers and sisters, ingrain this in your minds: You cannot dialogue with the devil!

"You cannot dialogue with the devil because he will always win. Only the power of the word of God can defeat him."

His Holiness continued, saying Lent is a time to acknowledge that the devil tries to divide people.

Some ways the devil divides people include "Three great temptations," which Pope Francis described to be wealth, vanity and pride.

Each can destroy society and attack man's dignity. 

"We know what it means to be seduced by money, fame and power," the pontiff explained. "For this reason, the Church gives us the gift of this Lenten season, invites us to conversion, offering but one certainty: he is waiting for us and wants to heal our hearts of all that tears us down.

"He is the God who has a name: mercy. His name is our wealth."

Following the Mass, Pope Francis spoke to Bishop Oscar Dominquez Couttolenc of Ecatepec, who told him, "like many other places, we experience poverty and violence, made flesh in the pain of those who suffer because of corruption, hunger, poverty and all the manifestations of evil that lead to the deterioration of our common home."

To handle their troubles, the faithful of Ecatepec pray, reflect and work and try to live a "spirituality of communion," which the pontiff's visit has strengthened.

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