Pope at Audience: Live trials by
clinging to Christ
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| Pope Francis at the General Audience (Vatican Media) |
Pope Francis resumes his weekly General Audience on
Wednesday following the Christmas break, continuing his catechesis on the Acts
of the Apostles.
By Lydia O’Kane
A New Year but a continuing catechesis on the Acts of the
Apostles. Pilgrims and tourists joined Pope Francis in the Paul VI Hall on
Wednesday to hear him deliver another installment of this book, which sees St
Paul continue his journey not only by land but by sea.
The Pope recalled how Paul, now a prisoner, is taken by ship
to Rome into the heart of the Empire, so that the word of the Risen One may be
realized: "You will be witnesses to me ... to the ends of the earth".
The Pontiff described how on leaving Crete, the journey
becomes dangerous and they are shipwrecked; but St Paul encourages all on board
not to be afraid.
God’s providential care
Pope Francis noted that on landing on Malta, the travelers
experience a warm welcome but, he goes on to say, their time there is not
without hazards. Paul himself is bitten by a viper but is unharmed and he goes
on to heal many people on the island.
The Pope pointed out that Paul’s sea voyage can serve as a
symbol of God’s providential care for us through our passage from death to life
in the waters of baptism.
He also emphasized that, “a ‘tried’ Christian can certainly
become closer to those who suffer, making his heart open and sensitive to
solidarity with others.”
Live trials by clinging to Christ
Paul teaches us to live trials by clinging to Christ, said
Pope Francis, “in order to mature the ‘conviction that God can act in any
circumstance, even in the midst of apparent failure’ and the ‘certainty that
those who offer themselves and give themselves to God out of love will surely
be fruitful’”.
Concluding his catechesis, the Pope prayed that the Lord
would “sustain us in our own trials and open our hearts to those who today
experience shipwrecks and arrive on our shores.”
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