Pope at Audience: ‘Youthful, searching heart fans
flame of love’
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis at his Wednesday General
Audience continued his catechesis on Christian hope, reflecting on the
relationship between hope and memory and inviting all to have a youthful,
searching heart.
Pope Francis invited the faithful gathered in St. Peter’s
Square on Wednesday to have a youthful, searching heart, one full of desire for
life and happiness.
It is this restless heart, he said, which allows one to come
to Jesus.
Reflecting on the call of the first disciples, the Pope
said, “Jesus appears in the Gospels as an expert on the human heart.”
When two young men “with healthily restless” hearts come
seeking the day after Jesus’ baptism in the Jordan, Jesus inflames their
hearts.
“From here there comes that question of His that attempts to
bring out the desire for life and happiness, which every young person carries
within: ‘What are you seeking?’”, he said.
Pope Francis said young people “who seek nothing are not
young, they are pensioners, they have aged before their time.”
Turning to the theme of vocations, the Holy Father said the
first disciples found their call in meeting Jesus.
He said this encounter ignited a flame in their hearts,
which transformed them immediately into missionaries.
Their story, the Pope said, reminds us of our own vocation.
“This page of the Gospel tells us that the first indicator
is the joy of the encounter with Jesus. Marriage, consecrated life, priesthood:
every true vocation begins with an encounter with Jesus that gives us a new joy
and hope; and it leads us, even through hardships and difficulties, to an ever
fuller encounter with Him – it grows greater, that encounter –and to the
fullness of joy.”
Pope Francis advised the faithful to be like the Virgin
Mary, who “keeps the flame of her love” for Jesus.
“Certainly, there are trials in life, there are moments when
we need to keep going despite the cold and the counter winds, despite much
bitterness. But Christians know the road that carries them to that sacred fire
that has inflamed them once and for all.”
Finally, Pope Francis presented the faithful with a way to
keep the flame of love alive in their hearts.
“Here, therefore, is a fundamental dynamic of Christian
life: remembering Jesus… Remember Jesus, the fire of love with which one day we
conceived of our life as a plan for good, and to revive our hope with this
flame.”
(Devin Sean Watkins)
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