Audience: Christian hope is learning to live in
expectation
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Wednesday invited Christians
to “wear the hope of salvation like a helmet (1 Thess 5:8), in the knowledge
that, because Christ is risen, the object of our hope is certain.”
The Holy Father was quoting from Saint Paul’s First Letter
to the Thessalonians during his weekly General Audience in the Paul VI Hall
where he continued his catechesis on Christian hope.
The Pope recalling the freshness and beauty of this first
Christian proclamation described the community of Thessalonica at the time as
one “ rooted in faith which celebrated with enthusiasm and joy the resurrection
of the Lord Jesus”, despite its difficulties and the many trials.
Pope Francis noted how this letter of St Paul is more timely
than ever because, “before the mystery of death, and the loss of our loved
ones, we Christians are challenged to hope more firmly in the Lord’s promise of
eternal life.”
Christian hope, the Pope continued, "is the
expectation of something that has already been accomplished, and that will
certainly be realized for each of us." Giving an example, he spoke of the
woman who when realizing she is pregnant, waits every day for the arrival of
her baby.
In that same hope, and in the communion of the Church, he
added, “we pray too that those who have gone before us will live forever in
Christ.”
Concluding his catechesis, Pope Francis said, St. Paul
writes: "Jesus died for us so that whether we wake or sleep, we should
live together with him". These words, he underlined, “are always a source
of great consolation and peace.”
Greeting pilgrims at the end of the audience, the Pope
thanked the delegation from the World Catholic Movement for climate for their
commitment to caring for our common home at a time of, what he called, a
“serious socio-environmental crisis.”
He also encouraged them to continue to build networks so
that 'the local churches respond with determination to the cry of the earth and
the cry of the poor. "
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