ANGELUS POPE FRANCIS 17 JANUARY 2016
ANGELUS POPE
FRANCIS
Saint Peter's Square
Sunday, 17 January 2016
Sunday, 17 January 2016
Dear
Brothers and Sisters, Good morning!
This Sunday’s Gospel presents
the prodigious event that occurred at Cana, a village in Galilee, during a
wedding feast also attended by Mary and Jesus, with his first disciples (cf. Jn
2:1-11). The Mother points out to her Son that the wine has run out, and, after
responding that his hour had not yet come, Jesus nevertheless accepts her
request and gives to the bride and groom the best wine of the entire feast. The
Evangelist underlines that this was the first of the signs Jesus performed; it
“manifested his glory; and his disciples believed in him” (v. 11).
Miracles, thus, are
extraordinary signs that accompany the Good News and have the purpose of
causing or strengthening faith in Jesus. In the miracle performed at Cana, we
are able to glimpse an act of benevolence on the part of Jesus toward the bride
and groom, a sign of God’s blessing on the marriage. The love between a man and
a woman is therefore a good path through which to live the Gospel, that is, to
set out with joy on the path of holiness.
Yet the miracle at Cana does
not pertain only to spouses. Every human person is called to encounter the Lord
in his or her life. Christian faith is a gift which we receive in Baptism and
which allows us to encounter God. Faith intersects times of joy and pain, of
light and darkness, as in every authentic experience of love. The narrative of
the wedding at Cana invites us to rediscover that Jesus does not present
himself to us as a judge ready to condemn our faults, nor as a commander who
imposes upon us to blindly follow his orders; he is manifest as Saviour of
mankind, as brother, as our elder brother, Son of the Father: he presents
himself as he who responds to the expectations and promises of joy that dwell
in the heart of each one of us.
Thus we can ask ourselves: do
I really know the Lord like this? Do I feel him close to me, to my life? Am I
responding to him on the wavelength of that spousal love which he manifests
each day to everyone, to every human being? It is about realizing that Jesus
looks for us and invites us to make room in the inner reaches of our heart. In
this walk of faith with him we are not left alone: we have received the gift of
the Blood of Christ. The large stone jars that Jesus had filled with water in
order to transform it into wine (v. 7) are a sign of the passage from the old
to the new covenant: in place of the water used for the rites of purification,
we have received the Blood of Jesus, poured out in a sacramental way in the
Eucharist and in the bloodstained way of the Passion and of the Cross. The
Sacraments, which originate from the Pascal Mystery, instill in us supernatural
strength and enable us to experience the infinite mercy of God.
May the Virgin Mary, model of
meditation of the words and acts of the Lord, help us to rediscover with faith
the beauty and richness of the Eucharist and of the other Sacraments, which
render present God’s faithful love for us. In this way we fall ever more in
love with the Lord Jesus, our Bridegroom, and we go to meet him with our lamps
alight with our joyous faith, thus becoming his witnesses in the world.
After the Angelus:
Dear brothers and sisters,
today the World Day of Migrants and Refugees, taking place in the context of
the Holy Year of Mercy,
is also celebrated as the Jubilee of Migrants. Therefore, I am pleased to greet
with great affection the ethnic communities present here, all of you, from
various regions of Italy, especially Lazio. Dear migrants and refugees, each of
you carries within you a story, a culture, precious values; and often, sadly,
also experiences of misery, oppression, fear. Your presence in this Square is a
sign of hope in God. Do not let them rob you of the hope and joy of living,
which springs from the experience of divine mercy, thanks also to the people
who welcome you and help you. May your passing through the Holy Door and the
Mass which you will experience shortly, fill your heart with peace. In this
Mass I would like to thank — and you too, thank them with me — the detainees of
the prison in Opera [Italy], for the gift of the hosts which they packaged
themselves and which will be used in this celebration. Let us greet them with a
round of applause from here, all together....
I affectionately greet all of
you, pilgrims from Italy and other countries.
Now I invite everyone together
to convey to God a prayer for the victims of the attacks that occurred in
recent days in Indonesia and Burkina Faso. May the Lord welcome them in his
house, and sustain the international community’s efforts to build peace. Let us
pray to Our Lady: Hail Mary...
I wish you all a happy Sunday.
Please do not forget to pray for me. Enjoy your lunch. Arrivederci!
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