(Vatican Radio) The most important thing is not the grace of a physical healing, but the fact that Jesus saves us and intercedes for us: this was the focus of Pope Francis’ remarks following the readings of the day at Mass on Thursday morning in the chapel of the Santa Marta residence in the Vatican.
Click below to hear our report
Commenting on the Gospel of the day (Mark 3:7-12), which tells of great crowds rushing to Jesus from every region, Pope Francis said that the people of God see in the Lord “a hope, because His way of acting, teaching, touches their heart, reaches the heart, because it has the power of the Word of God”:
“The people feel this, and see that promises are fulfilled in Jesus, that in Jesus there is hope. The people were a bit bored by the way of teaching the faith, by the teachers of the Law of that time, who burdened the shoulders of the people with so many commandments, so many precepts, but did not come to people’s hearts. And when the people see Jesus and hear Jesus – His proposals, the Beatitudes – they feel something moving inside – it is the Holy Spirit that is causing people to stir – and they go to see Jesus.”
Purity of intention in seeking God
The crowd goes to Jesus to be healed: that is, they seek their own good. “Never,” said Pope Francis, “can we follow God with purity of intention right from the start: it is always a search undertaken a little for us, and a little for God – and the journey itself purifies this intention.” The Pope went on to say, “People go, yes, they look for God, but they also look for health, for healing – and they threw themselves upon Him to touch Him, that some power might go out of Him and heal them.”
Jesus saves
The most important thing, however, is not that Jesus healed. Those healings were a sign of another healing, the Holy Father explained. Nor is the fact that Jesus says words that reach the heart the most important thing – though that certainly helps to meet God. The most important thing is in the Letter to the Hebrews (7:25), where it is written, “Jesus is always able to save those who approach God through him, since he lives forever to make intercession for them.”:
“Jesus saves!” said Pope Francis. “These healings, these words that reach the heart, are the sign and the beginning of salvation – the path of salvation for many who begin to go to hear Jesus or to ask for a healing and then come back to Him and feel salvation.” He went on to ask, “What, though, is most important? That Jesus heals? No, that is not the most important thing. That He teaches us? That is not the most important thing [either]. [The most important thing] is that He saves! He is the Savior and we are saved by him: this is the most important thing, and this is the strength of our faith.”
Jesus intercedes
Jesus ascended to the Father, “and from thence He continues to intercede, every day, every moment for us.”:
“This is relevant today. Jesus stands before the Father, offering His life – the redemption – He shows His wounds to the Father, the price of salvation – and so it is that every day, Jesus intercedes. When we, for one thing or the other, are feeling a little down, let us remember that it is He who prays for us, intercedes for us continually. So many times we forget this: ‘Jesus … but yes, it’s finished, he’s gone to heaven, sent us the Holy Spirit, the story’s over.’ No! Even now, in every moment, Jesus intercedes. In this prayer: ‘Lord Jesus, only have mercy on me,’ He intercedes for me. Turn to the Lord, asking for this intercession.”
The “sensitivity” of the people of God
That Jesus is savior and intercessor is the central point, and we do well to remember this. “Thus, the crowd seeks Jesus with that instinctive sense of hope that is proper to the people of God, which was at that time awaiting the Messiah, and they look to find in Him health, truth, salvation, for He is the Savior and as Savior even now, at this moment, intercedes for us. That our Christian life might be ever more convinced that we are saved, that we have a Savior, Jesus at the right hand of the Father, interceding. May the Lord, the Holy Spirit, make us understand these things.”
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis, in an audience with Vatican security personnel Thursday, thanked officers and agents for their service, saying the new year brings many expectations and hopes. Speaking to officers and agents of the Inspectorate of Public Security, State Police and chaplains for the security services, Pope Francis observed the new year also brings “darkness and dangers that worry humanity.” The Pope also said he wished in particular, to recall in prayer one of their Italian colleagues who recently passed away and offered a fond embrace to the man’s wife and son, also present at the audience.
Listen to our report:
As Christians, the Pope said, “we are called not to lose heart and not to be discouraged.”
He reminded security officials of the human and Christian values they represent in “guarding and monitoring places that have great importance for the faith and the life of millions of pilgrims.” The Pope recalled the many people who come to visit the “heart of Christian Rome” and the times they turn to security personnel for assistance. “May each of them feel helped and guarded by your presence and your thoughtfulness,” he said, adding that the Lord holds us all accountable for the good and bad we have done towards others while carrying out our duties.
Below, please find Vatican Radio’s unofficial translation of the original text in Italian:
Mr. Chief of Police,
Mr. Prefect,
Mr Commissioner,
Dear Officers and Agents,
I am pleased to welcome you on the occasion of the exchange of good wishes for the new year, which marks the 70th anniversary of your activity. This traditional meeting gives me the opportunity to extend a personal greeting to you and to express my grateful appreciation for the work you carry out daily with professionalism and dedication.
My greeting and my wishes go first to Dr. Maria Rosaria Maiorino, whom I thank for the kind words addressed to me on behalf of all. I cordially greet the members of the Inspectorate of Public Security at the Vatican, as well as other managers and officials of the State Police and Chaplains led by the National Coordinator. I assure a special remembrance in prayer for your colleague Alessandro, who recently passed away, fondly embracing his wife and son who are here.
We have just started a new year, and many are our expectations and our hopes. On the horizon we also see darkness and dangers that worry humanity. As Christians we are called not to lose heart and not to be discouraged. Our hope rests on an unshakable rock: the love of God, revealed and given to us in Christ Jesus, our Lord. We remember the comforting words of the apostle Paul: “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or the sword? … But in all these things we are more than conquerors thanks to Him who loved us “(Rom 8,35.37).
Dear officers and agents, in the light of this firm hope, your work takes on a different meaning, which involves human and Christian values. For you, in fact, have the task of guarding and monitoring places that have great importance for the faith and the life of millions of pilgrims. Many people who come to visit the heart of Christian Rome often turn [to you for assistance]. May each of them feel helped and guarded by your presence and your thoughtfulness. Yes, dear brothers and sisters, we are all called to be stewards of our neighbor. The Lord will call us to account for the responsibilities entrusted to us, for the good or bad that we have done towards our neighbor.
We entreat the maternal protection of the Virgin Mother at the beginning of this new year. We entrust to her every concern and hope, so that in all circumstances of life we can love, rejoice and live in the faith of the Son of God who became man for us.
I ask you to please pray for me and offer you my heartfelt blessing.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis, in an audience with Vatican security personnel Friday, thanked officers and agents for their service, saying the new year brings many expectations and hopes. Speaking to officers and agents of the Inspectorate of Public Security, State Police and chaplains for the security services, Pope Francis observed the new year also brings…
Read more
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis told an ecumenical delegation from Finland Thursday that Catholics and Lutherans can do much together “to bear witness to God’s mercy.” The delegation’s visit to Rome coincides with the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity and the Feast of St. Henry, the patron saint of Finland. In his discourse to the…
Read more
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis told an ecumenical delegation from Finland Thursday that Catholics and Lutherans can do much together “to bear witness to God’s mercy.” The delegation’s visit to Rome coincides with the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity and the Feast of St. Henry, the patron saint of Finland.
Click below to hear our report
In his discourse to the Finnish delegates, Pope Francis applauded the progress achieved in ecumenical dialogue between the two Churches over the last thirty years and said, “a shared Christian witness is very much needed in the face of the mistrust, insecurity, persecution, pain and suffering experienced so widely in today’s world.”
Below, please find the text of Pope Francis’ discourse to the ecumenical delegation from Finland:
Dear Bishop Vikström,
Dear Bishop Sippo,
Dear Friends,
It is with joy that I welcome you, on the occasion of your annual ecumenical pilgrimage to Rome to celebrate the feast of Saint Henrik, the patron of your country. This annual event has proven to be a truly spiritual and ecumenical meeting between Catholics and Lutherans, a tradition dating back thirty years.
Saint Pope John Paul II addressed the members of the first Finnish ecumenical delegation which had come to Rome thirty years ago in these words: “The fact that you come here together is itself a witness to the importance of efforts for unity. The fact that you pray together is a witness to our belief that only through the grace of God can that unity be achieved. The fact that you recite the Creed together is a witness to the one common faith of the whole of Christianity”. At that time, the first important steps had already been taken on a common ecumenical journey towards full, visible unity of the Christians. In these intervening years much has been done and, I am certain, will continue to be done in Finland to make “the partial communion existing between Christians grow toward full communion in truth and charity” (John Paul II, Ut Unum Sint , 14).
Your visit comes within the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. This year our reflection is based on Christ’s words to the Samaritan woman at the well: «Give me to drink» ( Jn 4:1-42). We are reminded that the source of all grace is the Lord himself, and that his gifts transform those who receive them, making them witnesses to the true life that is in him alone (cf. Jn 4:39). As the Gospel tells us, many Samaritans believed in Jesus because of the woman’s testimony. As you, Bishop Vikstrom, have said, there is so much that Catholics and Lutherans can do together to bear witness to God’s mercy in our societies. A shared Christian witness is very much needed in the face of the mistrust, insecurity, persecution, pain and suffering experienced so widely in today’s world.
This common witness can be sustained and encouraged by progress in theological dialogue between the Churches. The Joint Declaration on the Doctrine on Justification, which was solemnly signed some fifteen years ago between the Lutheran World Federation and the Catholic Church, can produce further fruits of reconciliation and cooperation between us. The Nordic Lutheran–Catholic dialogue in Finland and Sweden, under the related theme Justification in the Life of the Church , has been reflecting on important questions deriving from the Joint Declaration. Let us hope that further convergence will emerge from that dialogue on the concept of the Church, the sign and instrument of the salvation brought to us in Jesus Christ.
It is my prayer that your visit to Rome will contribute to strengthening further the ecumenical relations between Lutherans and Catholics in Finland, which have been so positive for many years. May the Lord send upon us the Spirit of truth, to guide us towards ever greater love and unity.
(from Vatican Radio)…