Pope at Angelus: Have no fear,
for the Father cares for us
Pope Francis invites Christian disciples to “have no fear”
in the face of hostility, persecution, and even the feeling of being abandoned
by God.
By Christopher Wells
In his reflection on Sunday’s Gospel, Pope Francis said that
Jesus’s invitation to the disciples, to have no fear, resonates: Jesus, he
said, “persistently exhorts them to ‘have no fear,’ and describes three
tangible situations” they would face.
Hostility
The first is the hostility “of those who would stifle the
Word of God, by sugar-coating it or by silencing those who proclaim it.” Jesus
encourages the disciples to spread the Word “openly” and “publicly.”
Persecution
The disciples will also face direct, violent persecution,
Jesus warns. “This prophecy is realized in every age,” Pope Francis said,
noting the many Christians persecuted throughout the world, even today. “If
they suffer for the Gospel and with love, they are the martyrs of our day,” he
said. But “there is no need to be frightened of those who seek to extinguish
evangelizing power with arrogance and violence,” the Pope continued. “The only
fear that a disciple should have is to lose the divine gift, to stop living
according to the Gospel, thereby acquiring moral death, the effect of sin.”
In God's hands
Finally, Pope Francis said, sometimes disciples might
experience the sensation “that God Himself has abandoned them.” Even in this
situation, he said, we should not fear, knowing that “the life of disciples
lies firmly in the hands of God, Who loves us and looks after us… The Father
takes care of us, because our value is great in His eyes.” The Pope said, “What
is important is the frankness of our witness of faith… the condition of
salvation, of eternal life with Him in Paradise.”
The Holy Father concluded his reflection with the prayer
that “Mary Most Holy, model of trust and abandonment in God in the hour of
adversity and danger, [might] help us never to surrender to despair, but rather
always to entrust ourselves to Him and to His grace, which is more powerful
than evil.”
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