Pope
Francis: Church's joy is to be a mother
(Vatican Radio) The joy of the Church is to be a mother, to go
out and seek the lost sheep. That was the message of Pope Francis during
Tuesday’s morning Mass at the Casa Santa Marta. The Pope said that the Church
does not need to have “a perfect organizational chart” if that would make her
sorrowful and closed on herself, if that would make her “not a mother.” He then
invited his listeners to be “joyful Christians,” with the “consolation of the
tenderness of Jesus.”
“Open the doors to the
consolation of the Lord.” In this passage, which served as the starting point
for the Pope’s homily, Isaiah is speaking about the end of the tribulation of
Israel after the Babylonian exile. “The people,” Pope Francis said, “have need
of consolation. The very presence of the Lord consoles [them].” It is one
consolation that is with them even in tribulation. And yet, he warned, “we
usually flee from consolation; we have no confidence; we are more comfortable
in our stuff, we are more comfortable even in our failures, in our sins.” This,
he said, “is our country.” On the other hand, the Pope continued, “when the
Spirit comes, consolation comes as well, and bears us to another state that we
cannot control: this is precisely abandonment in the consolation of the Lord.”
Pope Francis
emphasized that “the greatest consolation is that of mercy and forgiveness.” He
then turned his thoughts to Ezekiel, chapter 16, when, after so many sins of
the people, our Lord says, “I will never abandon you; I will give you more;
this will be my revenge: consolation and pardon.” This, the Pope said, is our
God.” For this reason, he said, “it is good to repeat: allow yourselves to be
consoled by the Lord; He alone can console us.” And we should do so even if “we
are used to ‘renting’ small consolations of our own making,” but that simply
“doesn’t work.”
The Holy Father then
spoke about the parable of the lost sheep, from the day’s Gospel:
“I ask myself, what is
the consolation of the Church? Just as an individual is consoled when he feels
the mercy and forgiveness of the Lord, the Church rejoices and is happy when
she goes out of herself. In the Gospel, the pastor who goes out goes to seek
the lost sheep – he could keep accounts like a good businessman. [He could
say]: ‘Ninety-nine sheep, if I lose one, it’s no problem; the balance sheet –
gains and losses. But it’s fine, we can get by.’ No, he has the heart of a
shepherd, he goes out and searches for [the lost sheep] until he finds it, and
then he rejoices, he is joyful.
“The joy of going out
to seek the brothers and sisters who are far off: This is the joy of the
Church. Here the Church becomes a mother, becomes fruitful”:
“When the Church does
not do this, then the Church stops herself, is closed in on herself, even if
she is well organized, has a perfect organizational chart, everything’s fine, everything’s
tidy – but she lacks joy, she lacks peace, and so she becomes a disheartened
Church, anxious, sad, a Church that seems more like a spinster than a mother,
and this Church doesn’t work, it is a Church in a museum. The joy of the Church
is to give birth; the joy of the Church is to go out of herself to give life;
the joy of the Church is to go out to seek the sheep that are lost; the joy of
the Church is precisely the tenderness of the shepherd, the tenderness of the
mother.”
The end of the passage
from Isaiah, he explained, again takes up this image: “Like a shepherd he feeds
his flock; in his arms he gathers the lambs.” This, the Pope said, “is the joy
of the Church, to go out of herself and to become fruitful.”
“May the Lord give us
the grace of working, of being joyful Christians in the fruitfulness of Mother
Church, and keep us from falling into the attitude of these sad Christians,
impatient, disheartened, anxious, that have all the perfection in the Church,
but do not have ‘children.’ May the Lord console us with the consolation of a
Mother Church that goes out of herself and consoles us with the consolation of
the tenderness of Jesus and His mercy in the forgiveness of our sins.”
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