JUBILEE AUDIENCE POPE FRANCIS
St Peter's Square Saturday, 22 October 2016
EXTRAORDINARY JUBILEE OF MERCY
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| PHOTO: L'OSSERVATORE ROMANO |
Mercy and dialogue
Dear Brothers and Sisters, Good
morning!
The passage of John’s Gospel that we
heard (cf. 4:6-15) recounts Jesus’ encounter with a Samaritan woman. What is
striking about this encounter is the very succinct dialogue between the woman
and Jesus. This allows us today to underline a very important aspect of mercy,
which is dialogue.
Dialogue allows people to know and
understand one another’s needs. Above all, it is a sign of great respect,
because it puts the person into a stance of listening, and into a condition of
being receptive to the speaker’s best viewpoints. Secondly, dialogue is an
expression of charity because, while not ignoring differences, it can help us
investigate and share the common good. Moreover, dialogue invites us to place
ourselves before the other, seeing him or her as a gift of God, and as someone
who calls upon us and asks to be acknowledged.
Many times, we do not encounter our
brothers and sisters, even when living beside them, especially when we give
precedence to our position over that of the other. We do not dialogue when we
do not listen well enough, or when we tend to interrupt the other person in
order to show that we are right. However, how many times, how many times as we
are listening to a person, do we stop them and say: “No! No! It isn’t so!”, and
we do not allow the person to finish explaining what they want to say. And this
hinders dialogue: this is aggression. True dialogue, instead, requires moments
of silence in which to understand the extraordinary gift of God’s presence in a
brother or sister.
Dear brothers and sisters, dialogue
helps people to humanize relationships and to overcome misunderstandings. There
is great need for dialogue in our families, and how much more easily issues
would be resolved if we learned to listen to each other! This is how it is in
the relationship between husband and wife, between parents and children. How
much help can also come through dialogue between teachers and their pupils; or
between managers and workers, in order to identify the most important demands
of the work.
The Church, too, lives by dialoguing
with men and women of every era, in order to understand the needs that are in
the heart of every person, and to contribute to the fulfillment of the common
good. Let us think of the great gift of creation, and the responsibility we all
have of safeguarding our common home: dialogue on such a central theme is an
unavoidable necessity. Let us think of dialogue among religions in order to
discover the profound truth of their mission in the midst of men and women, and
to contribute to the building of peace and of a network of respect and
fraternity (cf. Encyclical Laudato Si’, n. 201).
To
conclude, all forms of dialogue are expressions of our great need for the love
of God, who reaches out to everyone, and places in everyone a seed of his
goodness, so that it may cooperate in his creative work. Dialogue breaks down
the walls of division and misunderstandings: it builds bridges of communication,
and it does not allow anyone to isolate themselves, or withdraw into their own
little world. Do not forget: dialogue means listening to what the other
tells me, and saying what I think, with kindness. If things proceed in this
way, the family, the neighbourhood, the workplace will be better. However, if I
do not allow the other to say everything that is in his heart, and I begin to
shout — today we shout a lot — this relationship between us will not thrive;
the relationship between husband and wife, between parents and children, will
not thrive. Listen, explain, with kindness; do not bark at the other, do not
shout, but have an open heart.
Jesus understood well what was in the
heart of the Samaritan woman, who was a great sinner: nonetheless, he did not
deny her the opportunity to explain herself; he allowed her to speak to the
end, and entered little by little into the mystery of her life. This lesson
also applies to us. Through dialogue, we can make the signs of God’s mercy
grow, and make them an instrument of welcome and respect.
Special greetings:
I greet the English-speaking pilgrims
and visitors taking part in today’s Audience, particularly those from England,
Scotland, Indonesia, Malaysia and the United States of America With prayerful
good wishes that the Jubilee of Mercy will be a moment of grace and spiritual
renewal for you and your families, I invoke upon all of you joy and peace in
our Lord Jesus Christ.
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