Pope at Mass: ‘Make room in your
lives for the Word of God’
Pope Francis says we need God’s Word so that we can hear,
amid the thousands of other words in our daily lives, that one word that speaks
to us not about things, but about life. His call to the faithful comes during
Holy Mass to celebrate the first Sunday of the World of God.
By Linda Bordoni
Pope Francis celebrated Holy Mass on ‘Sunday of the Word of
God’ urging Christians to make room in their lives for the Sacred Scriptures.
Sunday, 26 January, marks a new observance established by
the Pope in his Motu Proprio “Aperuit illis”, to be celebrated annually on the
third Sunday in Ordinary Time, and to be dedicated to the celebration, study
and spreading of the Word of God.
He began his homily with a reflection on the Gospel of
Matthew that introduces the ministry of Jesus: “The One who is the Word of God
has come to speak with us, in his own words and by his own life.”
“Let us go to the roots of his preaching,” the Pope said,
“to the very source of the word of life,” which “helps us to know how, where and to
whom Jesus began to preach.”
Noting that Jesus’ ministry began with a very simple phrase:
“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand”, he explained that this is the
main message of all Jesus’ sermons.
Telling us that God is near, the Pope said, that he has come
down to earth and become man, He tears down walls and shortens distances
through no merit of our own.
God came to visit us because he loves us
The Pope said “this is a joyful message: God came to visit
us in person, by becoming man,” and he did it not out of duty, but out of
love.
“God took our human nature because he loves us and desires
freely to give us the salvation that, alone and unaided, we cannot hope to
attain. He wants to stay with us and give us the beauty of life, peace of
heart, the joy of being forgiven and feeling loved,” he said.
This helps us, he said to understand the direct demand that
Jesus makes: “Repent”, in other words, “Change your life”.
It is an invitation to live in a new way, it is time for
living with and for God, “with and for others, with and for love,” he said.
Jesus speaks to us, Pope Francis said, asking us to allow
him to enter our lives.
He described his word as a kind of a “love letter” he has
written to each of us to help us understand He is at our side.
“His word consoles and encourages us. At the same time
it challenges us, frees us from the bondage of our selfishness and summons us
to conversion. Because his word has the power to change our lives and to
lead us out of darkness into the light,” he said.
The Word of Salvation enters the most obscure places in our
lives
Pope Francis went on to point out that Jesus started his
preaching in a places that were then thought to be “in darkness,” as was
Galilee at that time.
Here there is a message for us: the word of salvation does
not go looking for untouched, clean and safe places. Instead, it enters
the complex and obscure places in our lives,” he said.
God, he continued, “wants to visit the very places we think
he will never go. Yet how often we are the ones who close the door,
preferring to keep our confusion, our dark side and our duplicity hidden.”
He noted that so often we approach the Lord with some “rote
prayers, wary lest his truth stir our hearts,” but reminded believers that
“Jesus went about all Galilee preaching the gospel of the kingdom and healing
every disease and every infirmity.”
The Pope reiterated that Jesus is not afraid “to explore the
terrain of our hearts and to enter the roughest and most difficult corners of
our lives.”
His mercy alone can heal us, he said, his presence alone can
transform us and his word alone can renew us.
The Lord speaks to all
Finally, the Pope reflected on the fact that Jesus chose to
speak to simple people.
“The first people to be called were fishermen: not people
carefully chosen for their abilities or devout people at prayer in the temple,
but ordinary working people,” he said.
He explained that he used the language they understood and
that their lives “changed on the spot.”
“He called them where they were and as they were, in order
to make them sharers in his mission,” and they followed him, not because they
had received an order, but “because they were drawn by love,” the Pope
explained.
Good works are not enough
And he said that to follow Jesus, mere good works are not
enough: “we have to listen daily to his call.”
That is why, Pope Francis concluded, we need his word: “so
that we can hear, amid the thousands of other words in our daily lives, that
one word that speaks to us not about things, but about life.”
And he urged all Christians to make room in their lives for
the word of God.
“Each day, let us read a verse or two of the Bible.
Let us begin with the Gospel,” he said: “let us keep it open on our table,
carry it in our pocket, read it on our cell phones, and allow it to inspire us
daily. We will discover that God is close to us, that he dispels our
darkness and, with great love, leads our lives into deep waters.”
After the Mass, those present were given a free copy of the
Bible in a symbolic gesture of encouragement to make room, each day, in their
lives for the Word of God.
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