ANGELUS
POPE FRANCIS
Saint
Peter's Square
Sunday,
11 January 2015
Dear
Brothers and Sisters, Good morning!
Today
we are celebrating the Feast of the Lord’s Baptism, which concludes the
Christmas season. The Gospel describes what happens on the bank of the Jordan.
At the time that John the Baptist baptizes Jesus, the heavens opened. “When he
came up out of the water”, St Mark writes, “immediately he saw the heavens
opened” (1:10). This brings to mind the dramatic supplication of the Prophet
Isaiah: “O that thou wouldst rend the heavens and come down” (Is 64:1). This
invocation was granted at the event of the Baptism of Jesus. Thus ended the
time that the “heavens were closed”, which had symbolized the separation
between God and man as a consequence of sin. Sin distanced us from God and
broke the bond between heaven and earth, thereby determining our misery and failures
in our lives. The opening of the heavens indicate that God granted his grace in
order that the land bear its fruit (cf. Ps 85[84]: 11-12). This is how the
earth became the dwelling place of God among men, and it is possible for each
one of us to meet the Son of God, experiencing all of his love and infinite
mercy. We are able to encounter Him truly present in the Sacraments, especially
in the Eucharist. We are able to recognize Him in the faces of our brothers and
sisters, especially in the poor, the sick, the imprisoned, the displaced: they
are the living flesh of the suffering Christ and the visible image of the
invisible God.
With
the Baptism of Jesus, not only do the heavens open, but God speaks once again
making his voice resound: “This is my beloved Son; with whom I am well pleased”
(Mk 1:11). The Father’s voice proclaims the mystery that is hidden in the Man
baptized by the Forerunner.
Then
the Holy Spirit descends, in the form of a dove: this allows Christ, the Lord’s
Consecrated One, to inaugurate his mission, which is our salvation. The Holy
Spirit: the great One forgotten in our prayers. We often pray to Jesus: we pray
to the Father, especially in the “Our Father”; but we do not often pray to the
Holy Spirit, is it true? He is the Forgotten One. And we need to ask for his
help, his strength, his inspiration. The Holy Spirit who has wholly animated
the life and mystery of Jesus, is the same Spirit who today guides Christian
existence, the existence of men and women who call themselves and want to be
Christians. To subject our Christian life and mission, which we have all
received in Baptism, to the action of the Holy Spirit means finding the
apostolic courage necessary to overcome easy worldly accommodations. Christians
and communities who are instead “deaf” to the voice of the Holy Spirit, who
urges us to bring the Gospel to the to the ends of the earth and of society,
also become “mutes” who do not speak and do not evangelize.
But
remember this: pray often to the Holy Spirit, that He help us, give us
strength, give us inspiration and enable us to go forward.
May
Mary, Mother of God and of the Church, accompany the journey of all of us
baptized; may she help us to grow in our love for God and in the joy of serving
the Gospel, in order to thereby give full meaning to our life.
After the Angelus:
Dear
brothers and sisters, I greet all of you, Romans and pilgrims!
I
am pleased to greet the group of students from the United States of America, as
well as the Lay Association of Merciful Love. There is so much need of mercy
today, and it is important that the lay faithful live it and bring it into
different social environments. Go forth! We are living in the age of mercy,
this is the age of mercy.
Tomorrow
evening I will depart on an apostolic journey to Sri Lanka and the Philippines.
Thank you for your good wishes on that banner, many thanks! And I ask you to
please accompany me in prayer and I ask the Sri Lankans and Filipinos who are
here in Rome to especially pray for me on this journey. Thank you!
I
wish everyone a happy Sunday, even though the weather is a bit bad, but a happy
Sunday. And today is also a day to joyfully remember your own Baptism. Remember
what I asked you, to look for the date of your Baptism, this way each one of us
will be able to say: I was baptized on this day. Today may there be the joy of
Baptism.
Do
not forget to pray for me. Enjoy your lunch. Arrivederci!
©
Copyright - Libreria Editrice Vaticana
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