Pope at Mass: ‘God gives humble heart the grace to rise
with dignity’
(Vatican Radio) God
always gives His grace and dignity to the hardened heart which choses to open
itself with meekness to God’s Spirit. That was Pope Francis’ message during his
Friday morning Mass at the Casa Santa Marta.
Pope Francis commented on the
biblical passage of the day which recounts the conversion of St. Paul, saying
zeal for holy things does not mean one’s heart is open to God.
Pope Francis gave the example
of a man extreme in his fidelity to the principles of his faith, Paul of
Tarsus, but whose heart was totally deaf to Christ, so much so that he even
agreed to persecute Jesus’ followers who lived in Damascus.
Humility which opens the
heart
All Paul’s plans and zeal
take a sudden turn on the road to Damascus, the Pope affirmed, so that his
story becomes “the story of a man who allows God to change his heart.” Paul is
wrapped in a powerful light, hears a voice calling him, falls down, and is momentarily
blinded.
“Saul the strong, the
confident, was on the ground,” the Holy Father said. In that condition, “he
understood his truth, that he was not the man whom God wanted him to be,
because God has created all of us to stand on our feet, to hold our head high.”
The voice from heaven not only asked him, ‘why are you persecuting me?’ but
also invited Paul to rise.
“Get up and you will be told.
You have yet much to learn,” the Pope said. “And when he started to get up, he
was not able because he recognized his blindness. In that moment he lost his
sight. ‘And he let himself be led.’ His heart, began to open itself. Thus,
taking him by the hand, the men with him led him to Damascus and for three days
he stayed there, blind, and took neither food nor drink. This man had hit his
low-point but he realized immediately that he must accept this humiliation. And
the true path towards opening one’s heart is humiliation. When the Lord sends
us humiliations or allows them to visit us, it is exactly for this reason: that
the heart be open, docile; that the heart convert itself to the Lord Jesus.”
Protagonist is the Holy
Spirit
Paul’s heart is opened. In
those days of loneliness and blindness, his interior vision is changed. Then
God sends him Ananias, who lays his hands on Saul and his eyes are opened. But
there is an aspect to this dynamic which, Pope Francis said, must be taken into
consideration: the action of the Holy Spirit.
“We must remember that the
protagonist in these stories is neither the doctors of the law, nor Stephen,
nor Phillip, nor the eunuch, not even Saul… The real protagonist is the Holy
Spirit. The protagonist of the Church is the Holy Spirit who guides the people
of God. And immediately scales fell from his eyes and he recovered his sight.
He got up and was baptized. The hardness of Paul’s heart becomes docility to
the Holy Spirit.”
The Dignity to Rise
The Holy Father concluded his
reflection, saying “It is beautiful to see how the Lord is capable of changing
hearts, turning a hardened, stubborn heart into one docile to the Holy Spirit.
All of us have a hardened heart. All of us. Let us ask the Lord that He make us
see that hardness of heart leaves us on the ground. Let us ask Him to give us
the grace and – if necessary – the humiliations not to remain on the ground but
to rise, with the dignity with which God created us, that is, the grace of a
heart open and docile to the Holy Spirit.”
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