Pope at Audience: Pray and
entrust yourself to the Lord
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| Pope Francis greets the faithful at the weekly General Audience (Vatican Media) |
At Wednesday’s General Audience, Pope Francis reflects on St
Paul’s ministry in Ephesus, and on his farewell to the leaders of the Christian
community there.
By Christopher Wells
Pope Francis continued his series of catecheses on the Acts
of the Apostle’s during his weekly General Audience in St Peter’s Square.
The Holy Father looked at St Paul’s ministry in Ephesus, and
his farewell message to the leaders of the community after he left.
St Paul's ministry in Ephesua
While he was in Ephesus, St Paul was able to work miracles
of all kinds, including healing the sick and liberating those who were
oppressed. He was able to do so, the Pope said, precisely because Paul
resembled Jesus, His Master, “and made Him present, communicating to his
brothers and sisters the same new life that he himself had received” from the
Lord.
Magic is not Christian
The Pope also noted that Paul exposed exorcists in Ephesus
who attempted to cast out demons without spiritual authority; and he exposed
the weakness of magic, which many people abandoned after Paul’s preaching. St
Luke, who wrote Acts, emphasized the incompatibility between faith in Christ
and magic; and Pope Francis underlined the point: “If you choose Christ, you
can’t turn to magicians”. But even today, he said, some Christians will go to
fortune-tellers, who use tarot cards or read palms to tell the future. But
“magic is not Christian!” the Pope insisted, saying that Christians should
remember “the grace of Christ brings you everything” and concluding, “Pray, and
entrust yourself to the Lord”.
"Watch over the flock"
Pope Francis then turned to St Paul’s final farewell to the
Christian community in Ephesus, after he had left the city. The Apostle
exhorted the elders – that is, the Pope said, the priests – to “watch over
yourselves and the whole flock”. This, the Pope said, “is the work of the
pastor: to keep watch, to be vigilant, to guard the flock; but also oneself,
examining one’s conscience.” Bishops, he continued, are called to be very close
to their flock, [which has been] redeemed by the Precious Blood of Christ, and
to be ready to defend it from the wolves”.
Then, the Pope says, “after entrusting this task” to the
leaders of the Church in Ephesus, “Paul places them in the hands of God, and
entrusts them to the word of His grace” which is “the leaven of every growth
and path of holiness in the Church.
Renew in us His love for the Church
The Holy Father concluded his homily asking us to pray that
the Lord would “renew in us His love for the Church and for the deposit of the
faith, which she preserves, and to make us all co-responsible in the custody of
the flock, supporting in prayer the shepherds so that they may manifest the
tenderness and love of the Divine Shepherd”.
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