ANGELUS POPE FRANCIS
Saint
Peter's Square
Sunday, 6 December 2015
Sunday, 6 December 2015
Dear Brothers and Sisters, Good morning!
On this second Sunday of Advent, the
Liturgy places us in the school of John the Baptist, who preached “a baptism of
repentance for the forgiveness of sins”. Perhaps we ask ourselves, “Why do we
have to convert? Conversion is about an atheist who becomes a believer or a
sinner who becomes just. But we don’t need it. We are already Christians. So we
are okay”. But this isn’t true. In thinking like this, we don’t realize that it
is precisely because of this presumption — that we are Christians, that
everyone is good, that we’re okay — that we must convert: from the supposition
that, all things considered, things are fine as they are and we don’t need any
kind of conversion. But let us ask ourselves: is it true that in the various
situations and circumstances of life, we have within us the same feelings that
Jesus has? Is it true that we feel as Christ feels? For example, when we suffer
some wrongdoing or some insult, do we manage to react without animosity and to
forgive from the heart those who apologize to us? How difficult it is to
forgive! How difficult! “You’re going to pay for this” — that phrase comes from
inside! When we are called to share joys or sorrows, do we know how to
sincerely weep with those who weep and rejoice with those who rejoice? When we
should express our faith, do we know how to do it with courage and simplicity,
without being ashamed of the Gospel? Thus we can ask ourselves so many
questions. We’re not all right. We must always convert and have the sentiments
that Jesus had.
The voice of the Baptist still cries in
the deserts of humanity today, which are — what are today’s deserts? — closed
minds and hardened hearts. And [his voice] causes us to ask ourselves if we are
actually following the right path, living a life according to the Gospel.
Today, as then, he admonishes us with the words of the Prophet Isaiah: “Prepare
the way of the Lord!” (v. 4). It is a pressing invitation to open one’s heart
and receive the salvation that God offers ceaselessly, almost obstinately,
because he wants us all to be free from the slavery of sin. But the text of the
prophet amplifies this voice, portending that “all flesh shall see the
salvation of God” (v. 6). And salvation is offered to every man, and every
people, without exclusion, to each one of us. None of us can say, “I’m a saint;
I’m perfect; I’m already saved”. No. We must always accept this offer of
salvation. This is the reason for the Year of Mercy: to go farther on this
journey of salvation, this path that Jesus taught us. God wants all of mankind
to be saved through Jesus, the one mediator (cf. 1 Tim 2:4-6).
Therefore, each one of us is called to
make Jesus known to those who do not yet know him. But this is not to
proselytize. No, it is to open a door. “Woe to me if I do not preach the
gospel!” (1 Cor 9:16), St Paul declared. If Our Lord Jesus has changed our
lives, and he changes it every time we go to him, how can we not feel the
passion to make him known to those we encounter at work, at school, in our
apartment building, in the hospital, in meeting places? If we look around us,
we find people who would be willing to begin — or begin again — a journey of
faith were they to encounter Christians in love with Jesus. Shouldn’t we and
couldn’t we be these Christians? I leave you this question: “Am I truly in love
with Jesus? Am I convinced that Jesus offers me and gives me salvation?” And,
if I am in love, I have to make him known! But we must be courageous: lay low
the mountains of pride and rivalry; fill in the ravines dug by indifference and
apathy; make straight the paths of our laziness and our compromises.
May the Virgin Mary, who is Mother and
knows how to do so, help us to tear down the walls and the obstacles that
impede our conversion, that is, our journey toward the encounter with the Lord.
He alone, Jesus alone can fulfil all the hopes of man!
After the Angelus:
Dear brothers and sisters, I am closely
following the work of the climate conference underway in Paris, and a question
I asked in Laudato Si’ comes
again to my mind: “What kind of world do we want to leave to those who come
after us, to children who are now growing up?” (n. 160). For the good of
our common home, of all of us and of the future generations, in Paris every
effort should be directed toward mitigating the impacts of climate change and,
at the same time, opposing poverty and leading human dignity to flourish. The
two choices go together. Stopping climate change and curbing poverty so that
human dignity may flourish. Let us pray that the Holy Spirit enlighten those
who are called to make such important decisions and give them the courage to
always have as the prime criterion the greater good of the human family.
Tomorrow, we mark the 50th anniversary of
a memorable event between Catholics and Orthodox. On 7 December 1965, the vigil
of the conclusion of the Second Vatican Council, a joint declaration of Paul VI
and Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras eliminated the sentences of
excommunication exchanged between the Churches of Rome and Constantinople in
1054. It is truly providential that this historic gesture of reconciliation,
which created the conditions for a new dialogue between Orthodox and Catholics
in love and truth, would be commemorated precisely at the beginning of the
Jubilee of Mercy. There is no authentic path toward unity without a petition
for forgiveness, to God and among ourselves, for the sin of division. Let us
recall in our prayer the dear Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and the other
leaders of the Orthodox Churches and let us ask the Lord that relations between
Catholics and Orthodox be always inspired by fraternal love.
Yesterday in Chimbote, Peru, Michał Tomaszek and Zbigniew Strzałkowski, Conventual Franciscans, and
Alessandro Dordi, a fidei donum priest, who were assassinated
in hatred of the faith in 1991, were beatified. May these martyrs’ fidelity in
following Jesus give all of us, especially Christians persecuted in different
parts of the world, the strength to bear witness to the Gospel with courage.
I wish you all a happy Sunday and a good
preparation for the beginning of the Year of Mercy. Please don’t forget to pray
for me. Have a good lunch. Arrivederci!
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