Pope at Audience: ‘God's love basis of our hope’
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis continued his catechesis
on Christian hope during his Wednesday General Audience in St. Peter’s Square,
saying that God’s infinite love is the basis for all our hope.
Reflecting on the First Letter of the apostle Peter, Pope
Francis at his General Audience invited Christians to imitate the Lord’s
redemptive suffering by bearing witness to God’s infinite love as revealed on
the Cross.
He said God’s love as sealed in the resurrection is the
basis of all our hope.
“Our hope is not a concept, it is not a sentiment, it is not
a mobile phone, it is not a heap of riches! Our hope is a Person, it is the
Lord Jesus Whom we recognize as living and present in us and in our brothers,
because Christ is risen.”
The Holy Father went on to say that Christian hope is not
theoretical but must be lived and witnessed in our daily lives.
Our hope, he said, “must necessarily be released outwards,
taking the exquisite and unmistakable form of gentleness, respect and goodness
towards our neighbour, to the point of forgiving those who do us harm.”
He said this contrasts with the attitude of the Mafiosi, who
believe “evil can be defeated by evil”, because they “do not have hope”.
Pope Francis then invited all to be suffer for good in the
large and small situations of daily life and to offer a blessing instead of
evil.
This, he said, “is the proclamation of God’s love, a love
without bounds, that is inexhaustible, that never runs out and constitutes the
true basis for our hope.”
Please find below the official English translation of
the Pope’s catechesis:
Dear brothers and sisters, good morning!
The First Letter of the apostle Peter is extraordinarily
rich. We must read it once, twice, three times to understand its extraordinary
import: it succeeds in bringing great consolation and peace, showing how the
Lord is always by our side and never abandons us, especially in the most
delicate and difficult times of our lives. But what is the “secret” of this
Letter, and in particular of the passage we have just listened to (cf. 1 Pt.
3:8-17)? This is a question. I know that you will take the New Testament, look
for the First Letter of Peter and read it very slowly, to understand the secret
and the strength of this Letter. What is the secret of this Letter?
1. The secret resides in the fact that this text is rooted
directly in Easter, in the heart of the mystery we are about to celebrate, thus
allowing us to perceive all the light and joy that spring from the death and
resurrection of Christ. Christ is truly risen, and this is a beautiful greeting
we can give each other on the day of Easter: “Christ is risen! Christ is
risen!”, as many peoples do. Let us remember that Christ is risen, He lives in
our midst, and abides in each one of us. This is why St. Peter strongly urges
us to adore Him in our hearts (cf. v. 16). There the Lord made His dwelling at
the moment of our Baptism, and from there He continues to renew us and our
life, filling us with His love and with fullness of Spirit. This is why the
Apostle reminds us to acknowledge the hope that is in us (cf. v. 16): our hope
is not a concept, it is not a sentiment, it is not a mobile phone, it is not a
heap of riches! Our hope is a Person, it is the Lord Jesus Whom we recognise as
living and present in us and in our brothers, because Christ is risen. Slavic
peoples, when they greet each other, instead of saying “Good morning” or “Good
evening” on the days of Easter, they greet each other with this “Christ is
risen!”. “Christos voskrese!”, they say to each other, and they are happy to
say so! And this is the “Good morning” and “Good evening” they offer one another:
“Christ is risen!”
2. We understand, then, that we cannot give a reason for
this hope at a theoretical level, but above all through the witness of life,
both within the Christian community and outside it. If Christ is living and
abides in us, in our heart, then we must also allow Him to be made visible, not
to hide Him, and to act in us. This means that the Lord Jesus must increasingly
become our model: our model of life and that we must learn to behave as He
behaved. Do what Jesus did. The hope that abides in us, then, cannot remain
hidden inside us, in our heart: it would be a weak hope, that does not have the
courage to come out and let itself be seen; but our hope, as is clear in the
Psalm 33 cited by Peter, must necessarily be released outwards, taking the
exquisite and unmistakable form of gentleness, respect and goodness towards our
neighbour, to the point of forgiving those who do us harm. A person who does
not have hope is not able to forgive; he is not able to give the consolation of
forgiveness and to receive the consolation of forgiveness. Yes, because this is
what Jesus did, and in this way He continues to do so through those who make
space in their heart and their life for Him, in the awareness that evil is not
vanquished with evil, but with humility, mercy and gentleness. Mafiosi think
that evil can be defeated with evil, and so they seek revenge and do all those
things we know about. But they do not know what humility, mercy and gentleness
area. And why? Because Mafiosi do not have hope. Think about this.
3. This is why St. Peter affirms that “it is better to
suffer for doing good, if that should be God's will, than for doing evil” (v.
17); this does not mean that it is good to suffer, but that when we suffer for
good, we are in communion with the Lord, Who accepted to suffer and to be put
on the cross for our salvation. So when, in the smallest or the largest
situations of our life, we too accept suffering for good, it is as if we
sprinkled the seeds of resurrection, the seeds of life around us, and made the
light of Easter shine in the dark. This is why the Apostle urges us always to
respond “blessing” (v. 9): blessing is not a formality, or merely a sign of
courtesy, but rather a great gift that we are the first to have received, and
that we have the possibility of sharing with our brothers. It is the
proclamation of God’s love, a love without bounds, that is inexhaustible, that
never runs out and constitutes the true basis for our hope.
Dear friends, we understand also why the apostle Peter calls
us “blessed”, when we must suffer for justice (cf. v.13). It is not only for a
moral or ascetic reason, but it is because each time we take the side of the
last and the marginalized, or that we do not respond to evil with evil, but
instead forgive without vengeance, forgiving and blessing, every time we do
this we shine as living and luminous signs of hope, thus becoming an instrument
of consolation and peace, in accord with the heart of God. And in this way we
go ahead with sweetness and gentleness, being amiable and doing good even to
those who do not wish us well, or who harm us. Onwards!
(Devin Sean Watkins)
Không có nhận xét nào:
Đăng nhận xét