Pope Francis: Like Abram, Christians must "hope
against hope"
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis returned to the theme of
“Christian Hope” in the catechesis during the weekly General Audience. On
Wednesday, he focused his attention on the figure of Abram, who became Abraham,
our “father in faith and in hope.”
Saint Paul himself pointed to Abram “to indicate the way of
faith and of hope.” Abram’s confidence in God’s promise to give him a son was
truly a hope “against every hope”, precisely because of his advanced age, and
the sterility of Sara, his wife. But Abram believed, and his faith gave way to
a new hope, a hope which, to all appearances was unreasonable. His hope “opens
new horizons, making him capable of dreaming what is unimaginable.” Hope, the
Holy Father said, allows us “to enter into the darkness of an uncertain future
to journey in the light.”
It is a difficult journey, though, he continued. Even Abram
had moments of crisis and discouragement. In the Gospel passage, the scene
where Abram questions God takes place at night – but, the Pope said, in the
heart of Abram there is the darkness of disappointment, of discouragement. Even
though he spoke familiarly with God, Abram in these moments felt alone, old and
tired, with death on his doorstep.
Pope Francis said that even this moment of questioning by
Abram is a form of Faith. Despite his disappointment, Abram continued to
believe in God – or else why would he complain to Him? Faith, the Pope said,
“is not only silence that accepts everything without reply, hope is not a
certainty that makes you secure from doubts and perplexity.” Faith can also be
“struggling with God, showing our bitterness without ‘pious’ fictions.” And
hope, he continued, “is also not being afraid to see reality for what it is and
to accept the contradictions.”
The sign that God gives to Abram – “Look at the heavens and
count the stars… just so will your descendants be” – is “a call to continue to
believe and to hope.” To believe, the Pope concluded, “it is necessary to know
how to see with the eyes of faith: They are only stars, which everyone can see,
but for Abram they have to become the sign of the faithfulness of God.”
And this, Pope Francis said, is the journey of hope that
each one of us must walk.
Không có nhận xét nào:
Đăng nhận xét