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Monday, February 15, 2016
ANGELUS POPE FRANCIS
Saint Peter's Square
Sunday, 7 February 2016



Dear Brothers and Sisters, Good morning!
This Sunday’s Gospel tells us — in St Luke’s narrative — of the call of Jesus’ first disciples (5:1-11). The event takes place in the context of everyday life: there are several fishermen on the shore of the lake of Galilee, who, after working all night and catching nothing, are washing and arranging their nets. Jesus gets into one of the boats, that of Simon, called Peter, whom he asks to put out a little from the shore, and he starts to preach the Word of God to the crowd of people who had gathered. When he is finished speaking, he tells them to put out into the deep and cast the nets. Simon had previously met Jesus and felt the prodigious power of his word. Therefore, he responds: “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets” (v. 5). And this faith of his did not disappoint: indeed, the nets filled with so many fish that they nearly broke (cf. v. 6). Facing this extraordinary event, the fishermen are greatly astonished. Simon Peter throws himself at Jesus’ feet, saying: “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord” (v. 8). That prodigious sign convinces him that Jesus is not only a formidable master whose word is true and powerful, but he is the Lord, he is the manifestation of God. For Peter this close presence brings about a strong sense of his own pettiness and unworthiness. From a human point of view, he thinks that there should be distance between the sinner and the Holy One. In truth, his very condition as a sinner requires that the Lord not distance Himself from him, in the same way that a doctor cannot distance himself from those who are sick.

Jesus’ response to Simon Peter is reassuring and decisive: “Do not be afraid; henceforth you will be catching men” (v. 10). Once again the fisherman of Galilee, placing his trust in this word, leaves everything and follows the one who has become his Lord and Master. Simon’s workmates, James and John, do the same. This is the logic that guides Jesus’ mission and the mission of the Church: go in search, “fish” for men and women, not to proselytize, but to restore full dignity and freedom to all, through the forgiveness of sins. This is the essential point of Christianity: to spread the free and regenerative love of God, with a welcoming and merciful attitude toward everyone, so that each person can encounter God’s tenderness and have the fullness of life. Here, in a particular way, I think of confessors: they are the first who must give the Father’s mercy, following Jesus’ example, as did the two holy Brothers, Fr Leopold and Padre Pio.

Today’s Gospel challenges us: do we know how to truly trust in the Word of the Lord? Or do we let ourselves become discouraged by our failures? In this Holy Year of Mercy we are called to comfort those who feel they are sinners, unworthy before the Lord, defeated by their mistakes, by speaking to them the very words of Jesus: “Do not be afraid. The Father’s mercy is greater than your sins! It is greater, do not be afraid!”. May the Virgin Mary help us to ever better understand that being disciples means placing our feet in the footsteps left by the Master: they are the footprints of divine grace that restore life for all.

APPEAL
With deep concern I am following the dramatic circumstances of the civilian populations involved in the violent conflicts in beloved Syria, forced to abandon everything in order to escape the horrors of war. I hope that with generous solidarity, the necessary help is given to them in order to secure their survival and dignity, while I appeal to the international community to spare no effort to urgently bring the concerned parties to the negotiating table. Only a political solution to the conflict will be able to guarantee a future of reconciliation and peace to that dear and martyred country, for which I invite fervent prayer; now let us also pray together to Our Lady for beloved Syria: Hail Mary,....


After the Angelus:
Dear brothers and sisters, today in Italy the Day for Life is being celebrated, with the theme “Mercy makes life blossom”. I join with the Italian Bishops to hope for, on the part of the various educational and social institutions, a renewed commitment in favour of human life from conception to its natural end. Our society must be helped to heal from all the attacks on life, by daring to make an inner change, which is also manifested through works of mercy. I greet and encourage the university professors in Rome and those who are committed to testify to the culture of life.

Tomorrow the Day of Prayer and Awareness against Human Trafficking will be celebrated. It will give everyone the opportunity to help the victims of today’s new forms of slavery to break the heavy chains of exploitation in order to take back their freedom and dignity. I think in particular of the many women and men, and the many children! It is important to make every effort to destroy this crime and this intolerable shame.

Again tomorrow, in the Far East and in various parts of the world, millions of men and women will celebrate the lunar new year. I wish that all may experience peace and serenity in the heart of their families, which is the first place in which we live and pass on the values of love and fraternity, of coexistence and sharing, of attention and care for others. May the new year bear the fruits of compassion, mercy and solidarity. With a round of applause from here, let us greet these brothers and sisters of the Far East, who tomorrow will be celebrating the lunar new year!

I greet all the pilgrims, parish groups and associations from Italy, Spain, Portugal, Ecuador, Slovakia and other countries. There are too many to list them all!

I greet the priestly community of the Mexican College of Rome, with other Mexicans: thank you for your commitment to accompany with prayer the apostolic journey to Mexico that I will be making in a few days, as well as the meeting that I will have in Havana with my dear brother Kirill.

I wish everyone a happy Sunday. Please, do not forget to pray for me. Enjoy your lunch! Arrivederci!


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Tuesday, February 09, 2016
GENERAL AUDIENCE POPE FRANCIS
Saint Peter's Square
Wednesday, 3 February 2016



6. Mercy and justice

Dear Brothers and Sisters, Good morning,
Sacred Scripture presents God to us as infinite mercy and as perfect justice. How do we reconcile the two? How does one reconcile the reality of mercy with the demands of justice? It might appear that the two contradict each other; but in fact it is not so, for it is the very mercy of God that brings true justice to fulfilment. But what kind of justice are we talking about?

If we think of the legal administration of justice, we see that those who consider themselves victims of injustice turn to a judge in a tribunal and ask that justice be done. It is retributive justice, which inflicts a penalty on the guilty party, according to the principle that each person must be given his or her due. As the Book of Proverbs says: “He who is steadfast in righteousness will live, but he who pursues evil will die” (11:19). Jesus, too, speaks about it in the parable of the widow who went repeatedly to the judge and asked him: “Vindicate me against my adversary” (Lk 18:3). This path however does not lead to true justice because in reality it does not conquer evil, it merely checks it. Only by responding to it with good can evil be truly overcome.

There is then another way of doing justice, which the Bible presents to us as the royal road to take. It is a process that avoids recourse to the tribunal and allows the victim to face the culprit directly and invite him or her to conversion, helping the person to understand that they are doing evil, thus appealing to their conscience. In this way, by finally repenting and acknowledging their wrong, they can open themselves to the forgiveness that the injured party is offering them. And this is beautiful: after being persuaded that what was done was wrong, the heart opens to the forgiveness being offered to it. This is the way to resolve conflicts in the family, in the relationship between spouses or between parents and children, where the offended party loves the guilty one and wishes to save the bond that unites them. Do not sever that bond, that relationship.

Certainly, this is a difficult journey. It requires that those who have been wronged be ready to forgive and desire good and salvation for their offender. Only in this way can justice triumph, because thus, if the culprit acknowledges the evil done and ceases to do it, the evil is no more; and he who was unjust becomes just, because he is forgiven and is helped to rediscover the path of goodness. And this is where forgiveness and mercy come in.

This is how God acts towards us sinners. The Lord continually offers us his pardon and helps us to accept it and to be aware of our wrong-doing so as to free us of it. For God wants not our condemnation, but our salvation. God does not want to condemn anyone! One of you might ask me: “But Father, didn’t Pilate deserve condemnation? Did God want that?” No! God wanted to save Pilate as well as Judas, everyone! He, the Lord of Mercy, wants to save everyone! The difficulty is in allowing him to enter our hearts. Every word of the prophets is a passionate appeal full of love which seeks our conversion. This is what the Lord says through the Prophet Ezekiel: “Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked... and not rather that he should turn from his way and live?” (18:23; cf. 33:11), that’s what pleases God!

This is the heart of God, the heart of a Father who loves and wants his children to live in goodness and in justice, and thus that they might live to the fullest and be happy. The heart of a Father who goes beyond our little concept of justice to open us to the limitless horizons of his mercy. His is the heart of a Father who does not treat us according to our sins nor repay us according to our faults, as the Psalm says (103[102]:9-10). His is precisely the heart of the father whom we want to encounter when we go to the confessional. Perhaps he will say something to help us better understand our sin, but we all go to find a father who helps us to change our lives; a father who gives us the strength to go on; a father who forgives us in the name of God. That is why being a confessor is such an important responsibility, because that son, that daughter who comes to you is only looking for a father. And you, priest in the confessional, you are there in the place of the Father who does justice with his mercy.

Special greetings:
I offer an affectionate greeting to all the English-speaking pilgrims and visitors present at today’s Audience, including those from the United States of America. May you open your lives to the Lord’s gift of mercy, and share this gift with everyone you know. May you be children of the Good Father, missionaries of his merciful love. May God bless you all!

A warm welcome to the Italian-speaking pilgrims! I am delighted to welcome the faithful from the Diocese of Livorno, with Bishop Simone Giusti; participants of the seminar hosted by the University of Santa Croce; students of the Swiss School of Rome and artists of the American Circus. And I thank you! I would like to repeat what I said a week ago, when there was a show like this. You create beauty, and beauty brings us ever closer to God. Thank you for this. But there is another thing that I would like to stress: this is not improvised; behind this spectacle of beauty, there are hours and hours of training that is exhausting. Training is exhausting! The Apostle Paul tells us that in order to arrive at the end and in order to overcome we must train; and this is an example for us all, that the seduction of the easy life, finding a good outcome without making any effort, is a temptation. With what you have done today, and with all the training behind it, you bear witness to us that life without continuous effort is a mediocre life. Thank you so much for your example.

I address an affectionate thought to young people, to the sick and to newlyweds. Today we remember St Blaise, the martyr of Armenia. This holy bishop reminds us of the commitment to proclaim the Gospel even in difficult conditions. Dear young people, become courageous witnesses of your faith; dear sick people, offer up your cross every day for the conversion of those far from the light of Christ; and you, dear newlyweds, be proclaimers of his love, beginning in your family.

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Monday, February 08, 2016
ANGELUS POPE FRANCIS
Saint Peter's Square Sunday, 31 January 2016



Dear Brothers and Sisters, Good morning!
Today’s Gospel account once again, like last Sunday, brings us to the synagogue of Nazareth, the village in Galilee where Jesus was brought up in a family and was known by everyone. He, who left not long before to begin his public life, now returns and for the first time presents himself to the community, gathered in the synagogue on the Sabbath. He reads the passage of the Prophet Isaiah, who speaks of the future Messiah, and he declares at the end: “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing” (Lk 4:21). Jesus’ compatriots, who were at first astonished and admired him, now begin to look sideways, to murmur among themselves and ask: why does he, who claims to be the Lord’s Consecrated, not repeat here in his homeland the wonders they say he worked in Capernaum and in nearby villages? Thus Jesus affirms: “no prophet is acceptable in his own country”, and he refers to the great prophets of the past, Elijah and Elisha, who had worked miracles in favour of the pagans in order to denounce the incredulity of their people. At this point those present are offended, rise up, indignant, and cast Jesus out and want to throw him down from the precipice. But he, with the strength of his peace, “passed through the midst of them and went away” (cf. v. 30). His time has not yet come.

This passage of Luke the Evangelist is not simply the account of an argument between compatriots, as sometimes happens even in our neighbourhoods, arising from envy and jealousy, but it highlights a temptation to which a religious man is always exposed — all of us are exposed — and from which it is important to keep his distance. What is this temptation? It is the temptation to consider religion as a human investment and, consequently, “negotiate” with God, seeking one’s own interest. Instead, true religion entails accepting the revelation of a God who is Father and who cares for each of his creatures, even the smallest and most insignificant in the eyes of man. Jesus’ prophetic ministry consists precisely in this: in declaring that no human condition can constitute a reason for exclusion — no human condition can constitute a reason for exclusion! — from the Father’s heart, and that the only privilege in the eyes of God is that of not having privileges, of not having godparents, of being abandoned in his hands.

“Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing” (Lk 4:21). The ‘today’, proclaimed by Christ that day, applies to every age; it echoes for us too in this Square, reminding us of the relevance and necessity of the salvation Jesus brought to humanity. God comes to meet the men and women of all times and places, in their real life situations. He also comes to meet us. It is always he who takes the first step: he comes to visit us with his mercy, to lift us up from the dust of our sins; he comes to extend a hand to us in order to enable us to return from the abyss into which our pride made us fall, and he invites us to receive the comforting truth of the Gospel and to walk on the paths of good. He always comes to find us, to look for us.

Let us return to the synagogue. Surely that day, in the synagogue of Nazareth, Mary, his Mother, was also there. We can imagine her heart beating, a small foreboding of what she will suffer under the Cross, seeing Jesus, there in the synagogue, first admired, then challenged, then insulted, threatened with death. In her heart, filled with faith, she kept every thing. May she help us to convert from a god of miracles to the miracle of God, who is Jesus Christ.

After the Angelus:
Dear brothers and sisters, today we celebrate World Leprosy Day. This disease, although in regression, unfortunately continues to afflict especially people who are the poorest and most marginalized. It is important to keep solidarity alive with these brothers and sisters, disabled as a result of this disease. Let us assure them of our prayers and let us assure our support to those who assist them. Good lay people, good sisters, good priests.

I affectionately greet all of you, dear pilgrims from various parishes in Italy and other countries, as well as associations and groups.

Now I greet the young people of Catholic Action of the Diocese of Rome! Now I understand why there was such a clamour in the Square! Dear young people, again this year, accompanied by the Cardinal Vicar and by your leaders, you have come in great numbers at the end of your “Caravan of Peace”.

This year your witness of peace, enlivened by faith in Jesus, shall be even more joyful and aware, because it is enriched by the gesture you have just made by passing through the Holy Door. I encourage you to be instruments of peace and mercy among your peers! Now let us listen to the message that your friends, here beside me, will read to us...

And now the young people in the Square will let loose the balloons, a sign of peace.
I wish to all a good Sunday and a good lunch. Please do not forget to pray for me. Arrivederci!

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