(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Thursday invited the faithful to rely on God even in the darkest hours, even if sometimes we do not understand how He is working, because he always walks with us in the history of Salvation.
The Pope’s words came during his homily at morning Mass in the Casa Santa Marta.
Listen to the report by Linda Bordoni :
“God’s will has been to save us in history” – the Pope said – our Salvation “is not sterile, as in a laboratory. No! It’s history. He has walked through history with his people. “Therefore – he said – “there is no salvation without history. And to get to the point: history goes back a long time”:
“And so, step by step, history is made. God makes history, we make history; and when we fail, God makes adjustments and sets history back on course, walking with us all the time. If this is not clear to us, we will never understand Christmas! We will never understand the Incarnation of the Word! Never! It’s a story that goes forward in time. ‘Father, is history over with the story of Christmas?’; ‘No! The Lord continues to save us in history. And he walks with his people. ‘”
In this story – Pope Francis continued – there are those chosen by God, those people that He chooses “to help his people to move forward,” like Abraham, Moses, Elijah. For them “there are some bad times”, “dark moments, awkward moments, bothersome moments”. Perhaps they are people who just want to live peacefully, but “the Lord inconveniences them. The Lord inconveniences us to make history! So often he puts us on roads that we don’t want to walk”. So much so that Moses and Elijah, at a certain point, would rather die, but then they trust in the Lord.
The Gospel of the day speaks of “another bad moment in the history of salvation”, that of Joseph who discovers that his betrothed, Mary, is pregnant: “He suffers, he sees the village women chatting in the market; and he suffers. ‘This is a good one, I know her! She is a woman of God. What has she done to me? It’s not possible!” If he accuses her, she will be stoned. But that is not what he wants to do, even although he does not understand. He knows that Mary “is incapable of being unfaithful.” “In difficult moments such as these” – the Pope said – “those chosen by God to make history, must take the problem on their shoulders, without understanding.” Like that – he said – “the Lord makes history.”
“That’s what Joseph does. The man who in the worst moment of his life, the most obscure, takes the problem upon himself. And he takes the blame in the eyes of others in order to protect his bride. A psychoanalyst could perhaps say that this dream of Joseph’s is the condensation of anxiety, which seeks to be expressed… let them say what they will. But what did Joseph do? After awaking from the dream he took Mary as his bride. ‘I do not understand, but the Lord spoke to me and said she will give birth to a son who will appear to be my son!'”.
“To make history with His people – the Pope said – for God means to walk and to put his chosen ones to test.” In the end He saves them: “Let us always remember, with confidence, even in the worst moments, even in times of illness, when we realize we have to ask for the Last Rites because there is no way out, to say: ‘Lord, history did not start with me and will not end with me! You go ahead, I am willing to come with you’. And to put ourselves in the hands of the Lord. “What then do those who are chosen by God teach us?
“That God walks with us, that God makes history, that God puts us to the test and that God saves us in the worst moments, because He is our Father. And according to Paul He is our daddy. May the Lord help us to understand this mystery of Him walking with His people in history, of testing His elected ones, as well as the greatness of their hearts as they take upon themselves the pains, the problems, even the blame for our sins – Let us walk forward with Jesus across history. ”
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) After more than a half-century of hostility, the United States and Cuba are to work toward the establishment of full diplomatic relations – and US President Barack Obama says that Pope Francis played an instrumental role in creating the conditions for the development.
The Secretariat of State of the Holy See issued a statement offering Pope Francis’ expressions of “warm congratulations for the historic decision taken by the Governments of the United States of America and Cuba to establish diplomatic relations, with the aim of overcoming, in the interest of the citizens of both countries, the difficulties which have marked their recent history.”
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The announcement of efforts to normalize relations came in the context of the release of US aid worker Alan Gross and an exchange of intelligence officers being detained on the island and in the US.
US President Barack Obama said that Pope Francis played a role in bringing him and Cuban leader Raul Castro together. “His Holiness Pope Francis issued a personal appeal to me, and to Cuba’s President Raul Castro, urging us to resolve Alan’s case, and to address Cuba’s interest in the release of three Cuban agents who have been jailed in the United States for over 15 years,” Obama said.
Raul Castro also welcomed the exchange and the move to normalize relations. “[President] Obama’s decision,” said Castro, “deserves the respect and acknowledgment of our people.”
Relations between Cuba and the US deteriorated rapidly and eventually disintegrated entirely in the wake of the takeover of the island by Communist revolutionaries led by current Cuban president Raul Castro’s brother, Fidel, in 1959.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Wednesday offered his congratulations to the governments of the United States and Cuba, as they announced the two countries will start talks on resuming diplomatic relations. A statement from the Vatican Secretariat of State said that in recent months the Pope had written to both Cuban President Raul Castro and U.S. President Barack Obama, inviting them to “resolve humanitarian questions of common interest”. The Holy See also met with delegations from both countries in the Vatican last October, providing what the statement calls “its good offices to facilitate a constructive dialogue”. The communiqué says the Holy See will continue to offer support for initiatives on the part of both countries to strengthen bilateral relations and promote the wellbeing of their respective citizens.
Please find below the full communiqué from the Secretariat of State
The Holy Father wishes to express his warm congratulations for the historic decision taken by the Governments of the United States of America and Cuba to establish diplomatic relations, with the aim of overcoming, in the interest of the citizens of both countries, the difficulties which have marked their recent history. In recent months, Pope Francis wrote letters to the President of the Republic of Cuba, His Excellency Mr Raúl Castro, and the President of the United States, The Honorable Barack H. Obama, and invited them to resolve humanitarian questions of common interest, including the situation of certain prisoners, in order to initiate a new phase in relations between the two Parties The Holy See received Delegations of the two countries in the Vatican last October and provided its good offices to facilitate a constructive dialogue on delicate matters, resulting in solutions acceptable to both Parties. The Holy See will continue to assure its support for initiatives which both nations will undertake to strengthen their bilateral relations and promote the wellbeing of their respective citizens.
From the Vatican, 17th December 2014
(from Vatican Radio)…
As anticipated, Pope Francis has appointed new members to the Pontifical
Commission for the Protection of Minors, chosen from various parts of the world,
so as to allow a broad representation of different
situations and cultures. The Holy See Press Office announced this on
Wednesday in a press release which indicated the complete composition of the
Commission as follows: — Cardinal Seán Patrick O’Malley, ofm
Cap., President; — Msgr Robert Oliver
(United States), Secretary; — Rev. Luis Manuel Ali
Herrera (Colombia); — Dr Catherine Bonnet
(France); — Marie Collins
(Ireland); — Dr Gabriel Dy-Liacco
(Philippines); — Baroness, Prof.
Sheila Hollins (England); — Bill Kilgallon (New
Zealand); — Sr Kayula Gertrude
Lesa, rsc (Zambia); — Sr Hermenegild
Makoro, cps (South Africa); — Kathleen McCormack, am
(Australia); — Dr Claudio Papale
(Italy); — Peter Saunders
(England); — Hon. Hanna Suchocka
(Poland); — Dr Krysten
Winter-Green (United States); — Rev. Dr. Humberto
Miguel Yáñez, sj (Argentina); — Rev. Dr. Hans
Zollner, sj (Germany). The next plenary
session of the Commission will take place in the Vatican from 6–8 February
2015, as previously announced….
Vatican City, 17 December 2014 (VIS) – The family is the “great gift that the Lord has given to the world ever since the beginning, when he entrusted to Adam and Eve the mission of multiplying and filling the earth; the gift that Jesus confirmed and sealed in His Gospel”, said the Holy Father during this Wednesday’s general audience, in the first of the new cycle of catechesis dedicated to the family, which will continue throughout the coming year. The proximity to Christmas illuminates the mystery of the incarnation of the Son of God, which opens a new chapter in the universal history of man and woman. “And this new beginning occurs within a family, in Nazareth. He could have come spectacularly, or as a warrior, an emperor… No – he came as the son of a family, in a family”, he emphasised. God chose to be born “in a human family, that He Himself had formed. He created this family in a remote village in the outer reaches of the Roman Empire. Not in Rome, the capital of the Empire, not in a great city, but in an almost invisible and somewhat notorious periphery. This is even noted in the Gospel, almost as if it were a turn of phrase: ‘Can anything good come out of Nazareth?’. Perhaps, in many parts of the world, we too still speak in this way when we hear the name of certain peripheral areas of large cities. And yet, it was precisely there, in the outskirts of the great Empire, that there began the most holy and good story of Jesus among mankind”. “Jesus chose to remain in the periphery for thirty years, during which there is no mention of miracles or healing, of preaching, of crowds who run after him. In Nazareth, everything seems to happen ‘normally’, according to the habits of a pious and hard-working family of Israelites. … The Gospels, in their sobriety, say nothing of Jesus’ adolescence and leave this task to our affectionate imaginings. Art, literature and music have followed the path of the imagination. Certainly, it is not difficult to imagine how much mothers could learn from Mary’s tender care for her Son! And how much fathers could benefit from the example of Joseph, a righteous man, who dedicated his life to supporting and defending his wife and child – is family – through difficult times. To say nothing of how much the young could be encouraged by the adolescent Jesus in understanding the necessity and beauty of cultivating their deepest vocation, and of having great dreams”, he added. “Every Christian family – as Mary and Joseph did – must first welcome Jesus, listen to Him, speak with Him, shelter Him, protect Him, grow with Him; and in this way, make the world better. Let us make space in our heart and in our days for the Lord. This is what Mary and Joseph did, and it was not easy: how many difficulties they had to overcome! It was not a false or unreal family. The family of Nazareth calls to us to rediscover the vocation and the mission of the family, of every family. And so what happened in those thirty years in Nazareth can also happen to us: making love, not hate, normal; mutual help common, instead of indifference and hostility. It is not by chance that Nazareth means ‘she who preserves’, like Mary who, as the Gospel tells us, ‘treasured all these things in her heart’. From then on, whenever there is a family that preserves this mystery, even if it should be at the outer reaches of the world, the mystery of the Son of God is at work. And He comes to save the world”….