Pope Francis: God tells us to "Rise up!"
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Wednesday during the General Audience said God is telling everyone to “Rise up,” and that the Holy Door of the Jubilee is the door where the pain of humanity and the compassion of God meet.
The Holy Father was recounting the story of the Widow whom Jesus met at the city gate of Nain, which the Pope compared to the Holy Door. She was leaving the city in the funeral procession of her son, whom Jesus raised from the dead with the words “Rise up!”
“The passage of Luke’s Gospel we have heard presents us with a truly great miracle of Jesus, the resurrection of a young boy,” – Pope Francis said – “Yet, the heart of this story is not a miracle, but Jesus’ tenderness towards the mother of this boy. Here, mercy takes the name of great compassion towards a woman who had lost her husband and now travels to the cemetery with her only son. The great pain of this mother moves Jesus and causes the miracle of the resurrection.”
The Holy Father said “great compassion guided the actions of Jesus, [who] decides to face death, as it were, face to face. And he confronts it definitively, face to face, on the Cross.”
He said this is why he wanted this year’s Jubilee of Mercy to be celebrated in every particular Church, and not only in Rome. [This year every Diocese has established Holy Doors, in which the faithful may cross.]
“During this Jubilee Year, it would be a good thing, as they enter the Holy Door, the Gate of Mercy, that pilgrims remember this episode of the Gospel which took place at the Gate into Nain,” – Pope Francis said – “ When Jesus saw this mother in tears, she entered his heart! At the Holy Door everyone arrives bringing their life; joys and sufferings, projects and failures, doubts and fears, and presents them to the mercy of the Lord. We are confident that, at the Holy Door, the Lord is there near to us, to encounter each one of us, to bring and offer his powerful words of comfort: ‘Do not cry!’”
The Holy Father continued, saying this is “the door of where the suffering of humanity encounters the compassion of God.”
“Crossing the threshold we perform our pilgrimage in the mercy of God who, just as he said to the dead boy, tells everyone: ‘I say to you, rise up!’” – Pope Francis said – “To each of us he says: ‘Rise up’. God wants us to stand. He created us to be on our feet.”
The Holy Father said “the powerful word of Jesus can raise us and we also operate in the passage from death to life. His word revives us, gives us hope, restores tired hearts, opens us to a view of the world and of life that goes beyond suffering and death.”
The Pope went on to say that “mercy, both in Jesus and in us, is a journey that starts from the heart to goes to the hands.”
“What does this mean? Jesus looks at you, heals you with his mercy, tells you: ‘Get up!’, and your heart is new,” – Pope Francis explained – “What does it means to take a journey from the heart to the hands? It means that with this new heart, this heart healed by Jesus, he can do the works of mercy through his hands, trying to help, to heal the many that are in need. Mercy is a journey that starts in the heart and travels to the hands, that is, to works of mercy.”
At the end of his Audience, Pope Francis told the story of a bishop who established two Holy Doors: One an entrance, the other an exit.
“Why? To enter and cross the first door is to ask pardon and to receive the mercy of Jesus; and when you exit the other door, it is the outpouring of mercy, to then bring mercy to others, with the works of mercy,” he said.
“Isn’t he smart, this bishop?” the Pope Francis said.