(Vatican Radio) The most beautiful inheritance we can leave to others is the Faith: that was Pope Francis’ message during Holy Mass on Thursday morning at the Casa Santa Marta. In his homily, he invited us to not fear death, because the course of life continues.
Thinking about death illuminates life
The day’s first reading tells the story of the death of King David. “In every life there is an ending,” the Pope said. This is a thought “that is not pleasing to us,” that we always pass over, but “it is an everyday reality.” Thinking about death is “a light that illuminates life” and “a reality that we should always have before us”:
“In one of the Wednesday audiences there was among those who were sick a very old sister, but with face of peace, a luminous countenance: ‘But how old are you, sister?’ With a smile she said, ‘Eighty-three, but I am finishing my course in this life, to begin another with the Lord, because I have pancreatic cancer.’ And so, in peace, that woman had lived her consecrated life with great intensity. She did not fear death: ‘I am finishing my course of life, to begin another.’ It is a passage. These things do us good.”
Faith, the most beautiful inheritance
David ruled over Israel for 40 years, the Pope noted. Before dying, David exhorted his son Solomon to observe the Law of the Lord. David had sinned often in life, but had learned to ask for forgiveness – and the Church calls him holy, “a sinner, but a Saint!” Now, at the point of death, David left to his son “the most beautiful and greatest inheritance a man or a woman can leave to their children: He left them the faith”:
“When a will is made, people say, ‘I leave this to one person, this to another, to another person I leave this.’ Yes, that’s fine, but the most beautiful inheritance, the greatest inheritance a man, a woman, can leave to their children is the faith. And David remembered the promises of God, he remembers his own faith in them, and he reminds his son of them, leaving the faith as an inheritance. When in the ceremony of Baptism we give the parents the lighted candle, the light of the faith, we are saying to them, ‘Preserve it, make it grow in your son and in your daughter, and leave it to them as an inheritance.’ Leaving the faith as an inheritance – this is what David teaches us. And he died, simply, like any man. But he knew well what to leave to his son, and what was the best inheritance he could leave: not the kingdom, but the faith!”
God is faithful; He is a Father who never disappoints
We would do well to ask ourselves a question, the Pope concluded: “What is the inheritance I will leave with my life?”
“Will I leave the inheritance of a man, a woman of faith? Will I leave this inheritance to my children? Let us ask two things of the Lord: to not be afraid of this final step, like the sister at the Wednesday audience (‘I am ending my course, but beginning another”), not being afraid. And the second thing, that with our life, we might all be able to leave, as the better inheritance, the faith, faith in this faithful God, this God who is always close to us, this God who is a Father, and who never disappoints.”
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Wednesday met with members of the Pontifical Foundation ‘Scholas Occurrentes’ – an international project based in Argentina that brings together schools and educational networks from different cultures and religious backgrounds.
Following an opening greeting from the Pope, participants presented the work of three projects, linking young people around the world through art, through sports and through a citizenship initiative. Among those taking part in the meeting were a number of well-known sports personalities, including the top Brazilian footballer Ronaldinho.
While he was still Archbishop of Buenos Aires, Jorge Bergoglio himself played a key role in the founding of the Scholas Occurentes’, with the goal of improving education, while empowering and integrating different communities, especially those on the margins of society. The organisation today counts over 400.000 members spread across five continents, yet linked though a shared passion for sports, science, technology and art.
During the encounter, at the Casina Pio IV in the Vatican gardens, the organisers announced they would be sponsoring another edition of the “Match for Peace” a celebrity football match to be played at Rome’s Olympic Stadium
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) On Wednesday two great saints, renowned for their holiness and for their dedication to the Sacrament of Confession, came to Rome as part of celebrations for the Jubilee of Mercy.
Listen to the report from the Basilica of San Lorenzo Outside-the-Walls by Christopher Wells:
Huge crowds greeted the arrival of the relics of Saint Pius of Pietrelcina – better known as Padre Pio – and Saint Leopold Mandic at the Basilica of San Lorenzo Outside-the-Walls in Rome. Later they will be taken to the Church of San Salvatore in Lauro, before being taken in procession to St Peter’s Basilica on Friday.
At a press conference last week, Archbishop Rino Fisichella, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting New Evangelisation, said, “Such an occasion is of great significance for it is an unprecedented event, given the stories of these two saints who spent their lives in the service of the mercy of God.”
Saint Pio and Saint Leopold were well known as confessors and spiritual guides. The two Franciscans, both of whom lived well into the twentieth century, were famous for spending many hours each day hearing confessions of people from all over the world. Pope Francis himself requested that the relics of the saints come to Rome, in part to inspire the ministry of the priests who have been chosen as Missionaries of Mercy for the Jubilee. The Missionaries of Mercy, said Archbishop Fisichella, “are a select number of priests who have received from the Pope the charge to be privileged witnesses in their respective Churches of the extraordinariness of this Jubilee event.” On Ash Wednesday, more than 1,000 Missionaries of Mercy will concelebrate Mass with Pope Francis, who will give them their mandate for the Jubilee Year, including faculties to absolve even those sins normally reserved to the Holy See.
The urns containing the relics of the two Saints will be in Rome from 3-11 February. A full schedule with all the events can be found on the official website of the Jubilee of Mercy.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Wednesday met with a group of soldiers serving as United Nations peacekeepers from Paraguay and Argentina. The group was attending the weekly general audience in St. Peter’s Square.
UN peacekeepers are identified by their blue helmets or berets, and to help countries torn by conflict create conditions for sustainable peace.
UN Peacekeepers from Latin America have been serving in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the border between Ethiopia and Eritrea, Haiti, and other countries.
During their meeting with Pope Francis, they offered him a maté which is popular in both Paraguay and the Pope’s native Argentina.
(from Vatican Radio)…
Vatican City, 3 February 2016 (VIS) – The relationship between mercy and justice, in the light of the Sacred Scriptures, was the theme of Pope Francis’ catechesis in this Wednesday’s general audience, which took place in St. Peter’s Square and was attended by more than ten thousand people. “The Sacred Scripture presents God as infinite mercy, but also as perfect justice”, he said. “How can the two be reconciled? They may appear to be contradictory, but this is not the case, as it is precisely God’s mercy that leads us to achieve true justice. In the legal administration of justice, we see that those who consider themselves to have been victims of abuse consult a judge in court and ask that justice be done. It is a retributive justice, inflicting punishment on the guilty, according to the principle that each person receives what he deserves. … But this route does not lead to true justice, as in reality it does not conquer evil, it simply limits it. Instead, only by responding with good can evil truly be conquered”. The Bible, he explained, proposes a different form of justice, in which the victim invites the guilty party to convert, helping him to understand the harm he has done and appealing to his conscience. “In this way, recognising his blame, he can open up to the forgiveness that the injured party offers. … This is the way of resolving conflicts within families, in relations between spouses and between parents and children, in which the injured party loves the guilty and does not wish to lose the bond between them. It is certainly a difficult path: it demands that the victim be disposed to forgive and wishes for the salvation and the good of the perpetrator of the damage. But only in this way can justice triumph, as if the guilty party acknowledges the harm he has done and ceases to do so, the evil no longer exists and the unjust becomes just, as he has been forgiven and helped to find the way of good”. “God treats us sinners, in the same way. He continually offers us His forgiveness, He helps us to welcome Him and to be aware of our evil so as to free ourselves of it. God does not seek our condemnation, only our salvation. God does not wish to condemn anyone! … The Lord of Mercy wishes to save everyone. … The problem is letting Him enter into our heart. All the words of the prophets are an impassioned and love-filled plea for our conversion”. God’s heart is “the heart of a Father Who loves all His children and wants them to live in goodness and justice, and therefore to live in fullness and happiness. A Father’s heart that goes beyond our meagre concept of justice so as to open up to us the immense horizons of His mercy. A Father’s heart that does not treat us or repay us according to our sins, as the Psalm says”. “It is precisely a Father’s heart that we encounter when we go to the confessional”, Francis emphasised. “Perhaps it will tell us something to better understand our evil, but at the confessional we all go in search of a father who will help us change our life; a father who gives us the strength to go on; a father who forgives us in God’s name. Therefore, to be a confessor is a great responsibility, as the son or daughter who comes to you seeks only to encounter a father. And you, the priest there in the confessional, are the place where the Father does justice with His mercy”, he concluded….