Pope
Francis: our effort opens the door to the Holy Spirit
(Vatican
Radio) The efforts of Christians are aimed at opening the door of the heart to
the Holy Spirit. That was the message of Pope Francis during morning Mass at
the Casa Santa Marta on Thursday. The Pope emphasized that conversion, for the
Christian, a daily task that leads us to the encounter with Jesus. As an
example of this, Francis told the story of a mother suffering from cancer, who
gives her all to overcome the illness.
For
the Christian, “conversion is a duty” a job we must work at every day. Pope
Francis commented on the reading from St Paul to the Romans to emphasize that
in order to pass from a life of iniquity to a life of sanctity, we must work at
it every day.
We
are not fakirs, our efforts lead to sanctification
Saint
Paul, the Pope said, uses the image of the athlete, the man who “trains in
order to prepare himself for game, and makes a great effort.” This is what an
athlete does to win a match; but what about us, who should be striving to win
that great victory of Heaven? What should we do? Saint Paul, the Pope said,
“exhorts us to go forward with this effort”:
“Ah,
Father, are we able to think that sanctification comes through the effort I
make, like the victory that comes to sportsmen comes through training? No. The
efforts we make, this daily work of serving the Lord with our soul, with our
heart, with our body, with our whole life only opens the door to the Holy
Spirit. It is He who enters into us and saves us! He is the gift in Jesus
Christ! Otherwise, we would make ourselves like: No, we are not fakirs. We,
with our efforts, open the door.”
Going
forward, not falling back in the face of temptation
Pope
Francis acknowledged that this is a difficult task, “because our weakness,
original sin, the devil” are always trying to get us to turn back. The author
of the Letter to the Hebrews, he said, “warns us against this temptation to
turn back”; he warns us “not to go back, not to fall.” We need to continue to
go forward, he said, “a little bit each day,” even “when there is great
difficulty”:
“A
few months ago, I met a woman. Young, the mother of a family – a beautiful
family – who had cancer. An ugly cancer. But she moved with happiness, she
acted like she was healthy. And speaking about this attitude, she told me,
“Father, I would do anything to beat the cancer!” It’s that way with the
Christian. We have received this gift in Jesus Christ and we have passed from
sin, from the life of iniquity to the life of the gift in Jesus, in the Holy
Spirit, we must do the same. Every day a step. Every day a step.”
Let
us seek the grace to be strong in training ourselves for life
Pope
Francis pointed out some temptations – such as the “desire to gossip” about
others. And in that case, he said, you need to make the effort to be silent.
Otherwise, if we don’t work to overcome temptations, “there comes a little bit
of slumber,” and we won’t have the “will to pray,” but then we try to pray a
little bit. These small efforts, the Pope said, “help us not to fall, not to go
back, not to return to iniquity but to go forward toward this gift, this
promise of Jesus Christ which is precisely the encounter with Him. Let us ask
this grace from the Lord: to be strong, to be strong in this training of life
towards the encounter, that we might receive the gift of justification, the
gift of grace, the gift of the Spirit in Christ Jesus.”
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