ANGELUS 14 DECEMBER 2014
REDISCOVER THE TRUE JOY OF JESUS CHRIST
ANGELUS POPE FRANCIS
THE THIRD
SUNDAY OF ADVENT, 14 DECEMBER 2014
Vatican City, 14
December 2014 (VIS) – Today, the third Sunday of Advent, known as the “Sunday
of Joy” (Gaudete), Pope Francis appeared at the window of his study to pray the
Angelus with the faithful gathered in St. Peter's Square, including many
children who had brought their figurines of the baby Jesus from their Nativity
displays, to be blessed by the Holy Father.
Francis remarked that the time of Advent, which began two weeks ago,
invites us to spiritual vigilance to prepare the way for the Lord who is on his
way. “On this third Sunday the liturgy proposes to us another inner attitude
with which to await the Lord: joy. Man's heart desires joy. We all wish for
joy, every family, every population aspires to happiness. But what is the joy
that the Christian is required to live and to bear witness to? It is that which
comes from closeness to God, from His presence in our life. Ever since Jesus
entered into history, with his birth in Bethlehem, humanity has received the
germ of the Kingdom of God, like the terrain that receives the seed, the
promise of a future harvest. There is no need to search elsewhere! Jesus has
come to bring joy to all for ever. It is not merely a hoped-for joy, or a joy
postponed to paradise: here on earth we are sad but in paradise we will be
joyful. No! It is not this, but rather it is a joy that is already real and
that can be experienced now, because Jesus Himself is our joy, and with Jesus
our home is joyful”.
“We baptised sons and daughters of the Church, all of us, are called
upon to always welcome newly the presence of God among us and to help others to
discover this presence, or to rediscover it if they have forgotten. It is a
beautiful mission, similar to that of John the Baptist: guiding people towards
Jesus – not to ourselves! – because it is towards Him that the human heart
tends when it seeks joy and happiness”.
“St. Paul, in today's liturgy, indicates the conditions for being
missionaries of joy: pray diligently, always give thanks to God, follow His
Spirit, seek that which is good and avoid evil”, continued the Pope. “If this
is our way of life, then the Good News will be able to enter into many homes
and to help people and families rediscover that in Jesus, there is salvation.
In Him it is possible to find inner peace and the strength to face each day the
different situations of life, even the most onerous and difficult. We never
hear about a sad saint or a saint with a gloomy appearance. It would be
contradictory. A Christian is a person whose heart is filled with peace because
he or she knows to place joy in the Lord even when experiencing difficult
moments in life. To have faith does not mean not having difficult moments, but
rather having the strength to face them knowing that we are not alone. And this
is the peace God gives to His sons and daughters”.
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