(Vatican Radio) Christians always feel the need to be forgiven and are on their way to an encounter with God. Those were the words of Pope Francis Thursday morning at Mass at the Casa Santa Marta. The Pope painted a portrait of the good Christian who, he said, must always feel the blessing of the Lord and go on to do good.
Listen to Lydia O’Kane’s report
“The Christian is blessed by the Father, who is God” , Pope Francis said in his homily from St Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians, contained in the first reading on Thursday. Focusing on the “traits of this blessing”, he noted that “the Christian is a” person chosen.
The Father chose us one by one, he loves us and gave us a name
God calls us one by one, “not as an oceanic crowd.” The Holy Father reiterated, “we have been chosen, expected by the Father:”
“Think of a couple, when expecting a baby: ‘How will it be? And how will he or she smile? And talk? ‘But I dare say that we, each of us, has been dreamed of by the Father as a father and a mother dreams of their awaited baby. And this gives you great security. The Father wanted you, not the mass of people, no, you, you, you. Each of us. And ‘the foundation, is the basis of our relationship with God. We speak of a Father who loves us, who chose us, who gave us a name. ”
It can also be noted, the Pope continued, when a Christian “does not feel chosen by the Father.” But when they feel they belong to a community, “it is like a fan of a football club.” “The fan – Pope Francis commented – is choosing the team and belongs to the football team.”
The true Christian always feels the need of God’s forgiveness
The Christian, therefore, “is chosen, he or she is a dream from God.” And when we live like this, the Pope added, “our hearts are filled with great consolation,” we do not feel “abandoned”. “The second part of the Christian blessing is feeling forgiven. “A man or woman who does not feel forgiven,” the Holy Father cautioned, is not fully “Christian”:
“We have all been forgiven with the price of the blood of Christ. But what I have been forgiven of ? It’s a memory and a reminder of the bad things you have done, not your friend, your neighbor, you. ‘What bad things have I done in life?’ The Lord has forgiven these things. Here, I am blessed, I am a Christian. That is, the first part: I am chosen, dreamed by God, with a name that God gave me, loved by God. Second part: forgiven by God. ”
The Christian is never still, but always on the way to do good
The third part, continued Pope Francis: the Christian “is a man and a woman walking towards fullness, towards an encounter with Christ who redeemed us”:
“A Christian cannot stand still. The Christian must always move forward, he must walk. The Christian who stands still is the Christian who received the talent and for fear of life, fear of losing, fear of their boss, out of fear or convenience, buried it. He is calm and spends his life going nowhere. The Christian is a man on a journey, a woman walking, who are always doing good, trying to do good and going forward. ”
This, summed up the Pope, is the Christian identity: “blessed, because they are chosen because they are forgiven and forging a path.” We, he concluded, ” are not anonymous, we are not proud”, so as not to have “need of forgiveness. “We are not still.” “May the Lord – in his invocation – be with us through the grace of the blessing he has given us, that is the blessing of our Christian identity.”
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) After reflecting on the mystery of God’s mercy, from the actions of the Father in the Old Testament to those of Jesus, Who in the Gospels demonstrates by His words and gestures that He is the very incarnation of mercy, the Pope announced in this Wednesday’s general audience that he will dedicate a new cycle of catechesis to the corporal and spiritual works of mercy.
“It is not enough to experience God’s mercy in our lives”, the Pope observed. “It is necessary for those who receive it also to be a sign and instrument for others. … It is not a question of making great efforts or superhuman gestures. The Lord shows us a far easier path, made up of little gestures but which, in His eyes, have great value, to the point of saying that it is on these that we will be judged. … Jesus says that every time we give something to eat to a hungry person and give something to drink to one who thirsts, we dress the naked and welcome the stranger, or we visit the sick or imprisoned, we do this also to Him. The Church calls these gestures ‘corporal works of mercy’, as they assist people in their material needs”.
However there are also, as Francis recalled, another seven spiritual works of mercy, that respond to other equally important needs, “especially nowadays, as they affect the most intimate aspect of the person and often make them suffer more. We all surely remember one which has entered into common parlance: to bear patiently those who wrong us. … It may seem to be of little importance, or indeed make us smile, but instead it contains a sentiment of profound charity; and it is the same also for the other six, which are good to remember: to counsel the doubtful, to instruct the ignorant, to admonish sinners, to console the afflicted, to forgive offenses, and to pray for the living and the dead”.
“It is better to start with the simplest ones, that the Lord shows us as the most urgent. In a world that is unfortunately afflicted by the virus of indifference, works of mercy are the best antidote. They educate us, indeed, in attention towards the most elementary needs of ‘the least of our brothers’, in whom Jesus is present. … This enables us always to be vigilant, avoiding that Christ may pass by us without us recognising Him. St. Augustine’s phrase returns to mind: ‘I fear Jesus will go by’, and I will not recognise Him, that the Lord will pass by my side in one of these little people, in need, and I will not realise that it is Jesus”.
The works of mercy “reawaken in us the need and the capacity to make faith live and work through charity. I am convinced that through these simple daily gestures we can effect a true cultural revolution. … If each one of us, every day, did one of these, this would be a revolution in the world! But all of us, every one of us. How many saints are still remembered today not for the great works they performed but for the love they knew how to transmit! Mother Teresa, for example, recently canonised: we do not remember her for the many houses that she opened throughout the world, but because she stooped to all the people she met in the street to restore their dignity to them. How many abandoned children she held in her arms; how many dying people she accompanied on the threshold to eternity, holding their hands!”
“These works of mercy are the features of the countenance of Jesus Christ, Who cares for the least of His brothers to bring God’s tenderness and closeness to every one. May the Holy Spirit help us; may the Holy Spirit kindle in us the desire to live in this way. Do at least one of them a day, at least! Let us learn again by heart the corporal and spiritual works of mercy, and ask the Lord to help us to put them into practice every day and at the moment in which we see Jesus in a person in need”.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Wednesday remembered the Feast Day of Pope St. John XXIII, which was celebrated on Tuesday, during his special remarks to the young, the sick and newlyweds before his final blessing during his General Audience.
“Yesterday we celebrated the memory of St. John XXIII,” – Pope Francis said – “Invoke his heavenly intercession, dear young people, to imitate the gentleness of his paternal love; pray to him in moments of the cross and in suffering, dear infirm, to face difficulties with the same meekness; and learn from him, dear newlyweds, the art of educating children with tenderness and by example.”
Pope Francis canonized John XXIII – along with Pope John Paul II – on 27 April 2014. Saint John XXIII was Pope from 28 October 1958 until his death on 3 June 1963.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis said Christians are already united when they are persecuted by terrorists or world powers in what he called an ecumenism of the “blood.” He was speaking in an off-the-cuff address on Wednesday to participants at the Conference for Secretaries of the Christian World Communions, an international ecumenical organization.
The Pope began his remarks by noting that ecumenism is about journeying alongside others with Christ: it can be a simple journey together, done with prayers and helping others or it can be “a working ecumenism for the many men and women who nowadays suffer injustices, wars.” He urged his listeners to show charity towards their neighbours, saying this is ecumenism, being united on our journey with Jesus.
Pope Francis also spoke about how it is necessary to recognize a particular type of ecumenism that especially applies to our present world, a so-called ecumenism of the “blood” whereby all Christians regardless of their denomination are viewed and treated in the same way by those who persecute them.
“When terrorists or world powers persecute Christian minorities or Christians, when they do this, they don’t ask: ‘But are you Lutheran? Are you Orthodox? Are you Catholic? Are you a Reformed Christian? Are you a Pentecostal?’ No! ‘You are a Christian!’ They only recognize one of them: the Christian. The enemy never makes a mistake and knows very well how to recognize where Jesus is. This is ecumenism of the blood.”
The Pope said Coptic Orthodox friars murdered on the beaches of Libya are “our brothers” as they too gave witness to Jesus in their lives and when they met their death.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis during his weekly General Audience made an appeal on the eve of the International Day for Natural Disaster Reduction , which this year features the theme: “Reducing mortality.”
The Holy Father said that “natural disasters could be avoided or at least limited, since their effects are often due to a lack of environmental care by man. The Pope added, “therefore I encourage you to join far-sighted efforts in the protection of our common home, promoting a culture of prevention, also with the help of new advances, in order to reduce the risk to the most vulnerable populations.
(from Vatican Radio)…