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JUBILEE AUDIENCE 12 MARCH 2016

Gordy Afri Sunday, March 20, 2016

EXTRAORDINARY JUBILEE OF MERCY

JUBILEE AUDIENCE POPE FRANCIS

Saturday, 12 March 2016

Mercy and service

Dear Brothers and Sisters, Good morning!

We are approaching the celebration of Easter, the central mystery of our faith. The Gospel of John — which we just heard — recounts that, before dying and rising for us, Jesus made a gesture that was carved into the memory of his disciples: the washing of feet. That gesture was so unexpected and unsettling that Peter didn’t want to accept it. I would like to reflect on Christ’s concluding words: “Do you know what I have done to you? [...] If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet” (Jn 13:12, 14). In this way Jesus indicates to his disciples that service is the way to live out their faith in him and to bear witness to his love. Jesus applied to himself the “Servant of God” image used by the Prophet Isaiah. He, who is Lord, makes himself servant!

By washing the feet of the Apostles, Jesus wished to reveal God’s mode of action in regard to us, and to give an example of his “new commandment” (Jn 13:34) to love one another as He has loved us, that is, laying down his life for us. John repeats this in his First Letter: “By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. [...] Little children, let us not love in word or speech but in deed and in truth” (3:16, 18).

Love, therefore, is the practical service that we offer to others. Love is not a word, it is a deed, a service; humble service, hiddenand silent, like Jesus said himself: “do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing” (Mt 6:3). It entails putting at others’ disposal the gifts that the Holy Spirit has given us, so that the community might thrive (cf. 1 Cor 12:4-11). Furthermore, it is expressed in the sharing of material goods, so that no one be left in need. This sharing with and dedication to those in need is the lifestyle that God suggests, even to non-Christians, as the authentic path of humanity.

Finally, let us not forget that by washing the feet of his disciples and asking them to do the same, Jesus invites that we too confess our failings and pray for one another in order to learn how to forgive with the heart. In this sense, let us remember the words of Bishop St Augustine, when he wrote: “Nor should the Christian think it beneath him to do what was done by Christ. For when the body is bent at a brother’s feet, the feeling of such humility is either awakened in the heart itself, or is strengthened if already present. [...] Let us therefore forgive one another his faults, and pray for one another’s faults, and thus in a manner wash one another’s feet (In Joh 58:4-5). Love, charity is service, helping others, serving others. There are many people who go through life like this, in service to others. Last week I received a letter from a person who thanked me for the Year of Mercy; she asked me to pray for her, that she might be able to grow closer to the Lord. The life of this person is caring for her mother and her brother: her mother is bedridden, elderly, lucid but unable to move; and her brother is disabled, in a wheelchair. This person, her life, is serving, supporting. And this is love! When you can forget yourself and think of others, this is love! And with the washing of feet the Lord teaches us to be servants, and more: to serve as he has served us, each and every one of us.

Therefore, dear brothers and sisters, being merciful like the Father means following Jesus on the path of service. Thank you.

Special greetings:

I greet the English-speaking pilgrims and visitors taking part in today’s Audience, including those from Ireland, the Philippines, Canada and the United States. I thank the choirs for their praise of God in song. With prayerful good wishes that the present 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. God bless you all!

I greet young people, the sick and newlyweds. Today we celebrate the liturgical memory of St Maximilian of Tebessa, martyr for conscientious objection during the time of the Roman Empire. Dear young people, learn from him how to defend the values in which you believe; dear sick people, offer up your sufferings for those who still today suffer persecution for their faith; and you, dear newlyweds, may you be God’s collaborators in the task of raising your children.

JUBILEE AUDIENCE

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JUBILEE AUDIENCE 20 FEBRUARY 2016

Gordy Afri Sunday, February 28, 2016

EXTRAORDINARY JUBILEE OF MERCY

JUBILEE AUDIENCE POPE FRANCIS

Saturday, 20 February 2016

Mercy and commitment

Dear Brothers and Sisters, Good morning!

The Jubilee of Mercy is a true opportunity to enter deeply into the mystery of the goodness and love of God. In this Season of Lent, the Church invites us to learn to know the Lord Jesus ever better, and to live the faith in a consistent way with a lifestyle that expresses the mercy of the Father. It is a commitment that we are called to take on in order to offer to those we meet the concrete sign of God’s closeness. My life, my attitude, the way of going through life, must really be a concrete sign of the fact that God is close to us. Small gestures of love, of tenderness, of care, that make people feel that the Lord is with us, is close to us. This is how the door of mercy opens.

Today I would like to pause briefly to reflect with you on the theme of this expression I used: the theme of commitment. What is a commitment? What does it mean to be committed? When I commit myself, it means that I assume a responsibility, a task, for someone; it also means the way, the attitude of faithfulness and dedication, the particular care with which I carry out this task. Each day we are asked to put our heart and soul into what we do: prayer, work, study, but also in sport and recreation.... Committing ourselves, in other words, means making every effort to do our best in order to improve life.

God too has committed himself to us. His first commitment was that of creating the world, and despite our attempts to ruin it — and there are many — He is committed to keeping it alive. But his greatest commitment was that of giving us Jesus. This is God’s great commitment! Yes, Jesus is really the supreme commitment that God has assumed for us. St Paul also recalled this when he wrote that God “did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all” (Rom 8:32). Accordingly, together with Jesus, the Father will give us everything that we need.

How is God’s commitment to us made manifest? It is very easy to verify it in the Gospel. In Jesus, God completely committed himself in order to restore hope to the poor, to those who were deprived of dignity, to strangers, to the sick, to captives, and to sinners, whom he welcomed with kindness. In all this, Jesus was the living expression of the Father’s mercy. I would like to touch upon this: Jesus welcomed sinners with kindness. If we think in a human way, a sinner would be an enemy of Jesus, an enemy of God, but he approached them with kindness, he loved them and changed their hearts. We are all sinners: everyone! We all have some fault before God, but we must not harbour doubt. He approaches us in order to give us comfort, mercy, forgiveness. This is God’s commitment and this is why he sent Jesus: to draw close to us, to all of us, and to open the door of his love, of his heart, of his mercy. This is really beautiful. Very beautiful!

Starting with the merciful love through which Jesus expressed God’s commitment, we too can and must reciprocate his love with our commitment, and do so above all in serious situations of need, where there is a greater thirst for hope. I think, for example, of our commitment to forsaken people, to those who have severe disabilities, to the most seriously ill, to the dying, to those who are unable to express gratitude.... In all these situations we convey God’s mercy through life-giving commitment, which witnesses to our faith in Christ. We must always bring God’s tender caress — because God has caressed us with his mercy — bringing it to others, to those who are in need, to those who have anguish in their hearts or are sad: approach them with God’s caress, which is the same that he gave to us.

May this Jubilee Year help our mind and our heart to experience God’s commitment to each one of us and, thanks to this, to transform life into a commitment of mercy for all.

Special greetings:

I greet the English-speaking pilgrims present at today’s Audience, especially those from Scotland, Norway and Latvia. With fervent wishes that the current Jubilee of Mercy may be for you and for your families a time of grace and spiritual renewal. I invoke upon all of you the joy and peace of the Lord Jesus. May God bless you!

I address a special thought to young people, to the sick and to newlyweds. Monday, 22 February, will be the Feast of the Chair of the Apostle Peter, a special day of communion of believers with the Successor of St Peter and with the Holy See. This event, in this Holy Year, will be a Jubilee Day for the Roman Curia, which works daily at the service of the Christian people. I exhort you to continue to pray for my universal Ministry and I thank you for your commitment to the daily building up of the ecclesial community.

JUBILEE AUDIENCE

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JUBILEE AUDIENCE 30 JANUARY 2016

Gordy Afri Sunday, February 07, 2016

EXTRAORDINARY JUBILEE OF MERCY

JUBILEE AUDIENCE POPE FRANCIS

St Peter's Square Saturday, 30 January 2016

Mercy and mission

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Day by day we enter more deeply into the Holy Year of Mercy. By his grace, the Lord guides our footsteps as we pass through the Holy Door and he comes to meet us and stay with us always, despite our failings and contradictions. Let us never tire of feeling in need of his forgiveness. For when we are weak, being close to him strengthens us and enables us to live the faith with greater joy.

Today I wish to speak to you about the close relationship between mercy and mission. As St John Paul II reminds us: “The Church lives an authentic life when she professes and proclaims mercy... and when she brings people close to the sources of the Savior’s mercy” (Dives in Misericordia, n. 13). As Christians, we are called to be missionaries of the Gospel. When we receive good news, or when we experience beautiful moments, we naturally seek to share them with others. We feel inside that we cannot hold back the joy that we have been given; and we want to spread it. The joy that stirs within is such that it drives us to share it.

It ought to be the same when we encounter the Lord: the joy of this encounter and of his mercy, share the mercy of the Lord. Indeed, the concrete sign that we have truly encountered Jesus is the joy that we show in communicating it to others. And this is not “proselytizing”, this is giving a gift: I give you what gives me joy. Reading the Gospel we see that this was the experience of the first disciples: after their first encounter with Jesus, Andrew went immediately to tell his brother Peter (cf. Jn 1:40-42), and Philip did the same with Nathanael (cf. Jn 1:45-46). To encounter Jesus is to experience his love. This love transforms us and makes us able to transmit to others the power it gives. In a way we could say that from the day of our Baptism each one of us is given a new name in addition to the one given to us by our mom and dad; this name is “Christopher”. We are all “Christophers”. What does that mean? “Bearers of Christ”. It is the name of our attitude, the attitude of a bearer of the joy of Christ, of the mercy of Christ. Every Christian is a “Christopher”, that is, a bearer of Christ!

The mercy that we receive from the Father is not given as a private consolation, but makes us instruments that others too might receive the same gift. There is a wonderful interplay between mercy and mission. Experiencing mercy renders us missionaries of mercy, and to be missionaries allows us to grow ever more in the mercy of God. Therefore, let us take our Christian calling seriously and commit to live as believers, because only then can the Gospel touch a person’s heart and open it to receive the grace of love, to receive this great, all-welcoming mercy of God.

Special greetings:

I cordially welcome the English speaking pilgrims here at this Audience. May your stay in the Eternal City confirm you in the love of Christ, and may he make us his missionaries of mercy, especially for all those who feel distanced from God. May God bless you all!

Some of you might have wondered what the Pope’s house is like, where the Pope lives. The Pope lives behind here, in the Casa Santa Marta. It is a large home where about 40 priests and a few bishops — who work with me in the Curia — live, and there are also a few visiting guests: cardinals, bishops, laymen who come to Rome for meetings in the Dicasteries, and such things.... There is a group of men and women who carry out the housework, whether in cleaning, cooking, in the dining room. This group of men and women are a part of our family, they form a family: they are not distant employees, because we consider them part of our family. I would like to tell you that today the Pope is rather sad because yesterday a woman who has helped us so much for years passed away. Her husband also works here, with us, in this house. After a long illness, the Lord called her to him. Her name is Elvira. I ask you today, to do two works of mercy: to pray for the deceased and to comfort the suffering. I invite you to pray a Hail Mary for Elvira’s eternal peace and eternal joy, and that the Lord comfort her husband and her children.

Lastly, I address young people, the sick and newlyweds. Tomorrow we will remember St John Bosco, Apostle of Youth. Look to him, dear young people, as the exemplary educator. You, dear sick people, learn from his spiritual experience in order to always trust in Christ crucified. And you, dear newlyweds, refer to his intercession in order to take on your conjugal mission with generous commitment.

JUBILEE AUDIENCE

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