Today's General Audience began at 10:00am in Saint Peter's Square, where the Holy Father, Pope Francis met with groups of pilgrims and the faithful from various parts of Italy and all corners of the world.
During his speech, the Pope continued the cycle of catecheses on the family, focusing on the period of engagement between a couple who intends to be married.
The teaching was then summarized in various languages and the Holy Father offered greetings to each of the groups of faithful that was present.
The General Audience concluded with the chanting of the Pater Noster and the Apostolic Blessing.
Dear brothers and sisters, good morning!
Continuing the catecheses on the family, today, I want to speak about the period of engagement. Being engaged - we hear it in the word - is about trust and confidence and reliability. Confidence in the vocation that God gives, for matrimony is above all the discovery of a call from God. Certainly, it is a good thing that today young people can choose to be married based on mutual love. But the freedom to enter into such a commitment requires a conscious harmony in the decision, not only a simple intention based on attraction or sentiment, a passing fancy based on a brief experience ... it is a part of the journey.
In other words, engagement is the time in which two people are called to work hard on love, an in-depth task that requires participation and shared commitment. As they discover one another, that is, as a man gets to know woman by getting to know this woman, his fiancée; and a woman gets to know man by getting to know this man, her fiancé. We must not underestimate the importance of this knowledge: it is a necessary obligation, and love itself requires it, because it is not only a light-hearted happiness, an enchanted emotion ... The biblical account speaks of the entire creation as the good work of the love of God; the Book of Genesis says that God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good (Genesis 1:31). Only when all was created did God rest. From this image we understand that the love of God, which brought the world into being was not an extemporaneous decision. No! It was good work. The love of God created the conditions for an irrevocable, solid alliance that is destined to last.
The covenant of love between man and woman, a covenant for life, is not improvised; it is not made from one day to another. There is no express marriage: one must work on love, one must journey. The alliance of love between man and woman is learned and refined. Permit me to say that it is a crafted alliance. To make two lives into only one life, is also almost a miracle, a miracle of freedom and of the heart, entrusted to faith. Perhaps we must make more of an effort on this point, because our sentimental coordinates have become somewhat confused. One who pretends to want everything immediately, then yields also to everything - and right away - at the first difficulty - (or on the first occasion). If this tendency prevails, there is no hope for the trust and the fidelity of the gift of self to consume love as a sort of integrator of psychic-physical wellbeing. This is not love! The period of engagement puts into focus the will to protect together something that must never be purchased or sold, betrayed or abandoned, no matter how tempting the offer might be. However God also, when he speaks of the alliance with his people, does so at times in terms of engagement. In the Book of Jeremiah, speaking of the people that had distanced themselves from him, he reminds them of a time when they were the bride of God and says: I remember the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride (Jeremiah 2:2). And God undertook this journey of engagement; then he also made a promise: we heard it at the beginning of this audience, in the Book of Hosea: I will make you my bride for ever, I will make you my bride in justice and in law, in love and in benevolence. I will make you my bride in fidelity and you will know the Lord (Hosea 2:21-22). Long is the journey that the Lord travels with his people in this course of engagement. In the end, God marries his people in Jesus Christ: he marries the Church in Jesus. The People of God is the bride of Jesus. But what a long way we have travelled! And you, Italians, in your literature have a masterpiece on the subject of engagement (I Promessi Sposi - The Spousal Promises). Young people need to know about this masterpiece; they need to know that they should read it. It is a masterpiece, which tells the story of an engaged couple who suffered so much pain; they travelled a path full of difficulties until they arrived in the end at marriage. Do not leave aside this masterpiece on engagement that Italian literature has in fact offered you. Go ahead, read it and you will see the beauty, the suffering, but also the fidelity of the engaged couple.
In her wisdom, the Church keeps the distinction between being engaged and being married – it is not the same – precisely in view of the delicacy and depth of this verification. Let’s be careful not to scorn light-heartedly this wise teaching, which is nourished also by the experience of conjugal love that is happily lived. The strong symbols of the body hold the keys of the soul: we cannot treat the bonds of the flesh with frivolity, without opening some lasting wound in the spirit (1 Corinthians 6:15-20).
Certainly today’s culture and society have become rather indifferent to the delicacy and the seriousness of this passage. And on the other hand, it cannot be said that modern-day culture is generous with young people who are seriously intending to start a home and bring children into the world! Rather, it often puts a thousand obstacles in their path, both mental and practical. The period of engagement is a stage of life that must mature like fruit, it is a path of maturation in love, until the moment when it becomes marriage.
Pre-marital courses are a special expression of this preparation, and we see so many couples who perhaps arrive at the course somewhat against their will, But these priests make us take a course! But why? We already know everything we need to know! – and they attend against their will. But afterwards they are happy and thank us, because in fact they found an occasion – often the only one! – to reflect on their experience in terms that aren't trivial. Yes, many couples are together for a long time, perhaps also in intimacy, sometimes living together, but they don’t really know one another. It seems strange, but experience shows that it is so. Because of this, the engagement period is re-evaluated as a time of getting to know one another and of sharing a plan. Preparation courses for marriage are marked by this perspective, also making use of the simple but intense testimony of Christian spouses and pointing also to the essential: the Bible, which must be rediscovered together, in a conscious way; prayer, in its liturgical dimension, but also in domestic prayer, must be lived in the family, the Sacraments, the sacramental life, Confession, ... in which the Lord comes to dwell with the engaged couple and prepares them to truly receive one another with the grace of Christ; and fraternity with the poor, with the needy, who stir us to sobriety and sharing. Engaged couples that work on these aspects grow ... and all this leads to preparing a lovely celebration of Marriage in a different way, not in a worldly but in a Christian way! We think of these words of God that we heard when he spoke to his people as the fiancé to his fiancée: I will make you my bride for ever, I will make you my bride in justice and in law, in love and in benevolence. I will make you my bride in fidelity and you will know the Lord (Hosea 2:21-22). May every engaged couple think of this and say to one another: I will make you my bride, I will make you my husband. To wait for that moment; it is a moment, it is a path that goes slowly ahead, but it is a path toward maturation. The stages of the journey must not be ignored. Maturation is done like this, step by step.
The time of engagement can truly become a time of initiation, to what end? To surprise! -- to the surprise of spiritual gifts with which the Lord, through the Church, enriches the horizon of the new family that is preparing to live in his blessing. Now I invite you to pray to the Holy Family of Nazareth: Jesus, Joseph and Mary. Pray that all families will undertake this course of preparation; pray for engaged couples. Let us pray all together to Our Lady a Hail Mary for all engaged couples, that they may understand the beauty of this journey toward Marriage. (Hail Mary ...) And to the engaged couples that are in the Square: Have a good period of engagement!
The Holy Father's catechesis was then repeated in summary in various languages, and he himself offered greetings to each of the linguistic groups present for the Audience. To English-speaking pilgrims, he said:
I greet the English-speaking pilgrims and visitors taking part in today’s Audience, including those from Great Britain, Switzerland, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Canada and the United States of America. Upon all of you, and your families, I invoke an abundance of joy and peace in the Lord Jesus. God bless you all!
During his speech, the Pope continued the cycle of catecheses on the family, focusing on the period of engagement between a couple who intends to be married.
The teaching was then summarized in various languages and the Holy Father offered greetings to each of the groups of faithful that was present.
The General Audience concluded with the chanting of the Pater Noster and the Apostolic Blessing.
Catechesis of the Holy Father, Pope Francis
for the General Audience
Dear brothers and sisters, good morning!
Continuing the catecheses on the family, today, I want to speak about the period of engagement. Being engaged - we hear it in the word - is about trust and confidence and reliability. Confidence in the vocation that God gives, for matrimony is above all the discovery of a call from God. Certainly, it is a good thing that today young people can choose to be married based on mutual love. But the freedom to enter into such a commitment requires a conscious harmony in the decision, not only a simple intention based on attraction or sentiment, a passing fancy based on a brief experience ... it is a part of the journey.
In other words, engagement is the time in which two people are called to work hard on love, an in-depth task that requires participation and shared commitment. As they discover one another, that is, as a man gets to know woman by getting to know this woman, his fiancée; and a woman gets to know man by getting to know this man, her fiancé. We must not underestimate the importance of this knowledge: it is a necessary obligation, and love itself requires it, because it is not only a light-hearted happiness, an enchanted emotion ... The biblical account speaks of the entire creation as the good work of the love of God; the Book of Genesis says that God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good (Genesis 1:31). Only when all was created did God rest. From this image we understand that the love of God, which brought the world into being was not an extemporaneous decision. No! It was good work. The love of God created the conditions for an irrevocable, solid alliance that is destined to last.
The covenant of love between man and woman, a covenant for life, is not improvised; it is not made from one day to another. There is no express marriage: one must work on love, one must journey. The alliance of love between man and woman is learned and refined. Permit me to say that it is a crafted alliance. To make two lives into only one life, is also almost a miracle, a miracle of freedom and of the heart, entrusted to faith. Perhaps we must make more of an effort on this point, because our sentimental coordinates have become somewhat confused. One who pretends to want everything immediately, then yields also to everything - and right away - at the first difficulty - (or on the first occasion). If this tendency prevails, there is no hope for the trust and the fidelity of the gift of self to consume love as a sort of integrator of psychic-physical wellbeing. This is not love! The period of engagement puts into focus the will to protect together something that must never be purchased or sold, betrayed or abandoned, no matter how tempting the offer might be. However God also, when he speaks of the alliance with his people, does so at times in terms of engagement. In the Book of Jeremiah, speaking of the people that had distanced themselves from him, he reminds them of a time when they were the bride of God and says: I remember the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride (Jeremiah 2:2). And God undertook this journey of engagement; then he also made a promise: we heard it at the beginning of this audience, in the Book of Hosea: I will make you my bride for ever, I will make you my bride in justice and in law, in love and in benevolence. I will make you my bride in fidelity and you will know the Lord (Hosea 2:21-22). Long is the journey that the Lord travels with his people in this course of engagement. In the end, God marries his people in Jesus Christ: he marries the Church in Jesus. The People of God is the bride of Jesus. But what a long way we have travelled! And you, Italians, in your literature have a masterpiece on the subject of engagement (I Promessi Sposi - The Spousal Promises). Young people need to know about this masterpiece; they need to know that they should read it. It is a masterpiece, which tells the story of an engaged couple who suffered so much pain; they travelled a path full of difficulties until they arrived in the end at marriage. Do not leave aside this masterpiece on engagement that Italian literature has in fact offered you. Go ahead, read it and you will see the beauty, the suffering, but also the fidelity of the engaged couple.
In her wisdom, the Church keeps the distinction between being engaged and being married – it is not the same – precisely in view of the delicacy and depth of this verification. Let’s be careful not to scorn light-heartedly this wise teaching, which is nourished also by the experience of conjugal love that is happily lived. The strong symbols of the body hold the keys of the soul: we cannot treat the bonds of the flesh with frivolity, without opening some lasting wound in the spirit (1 Corinthians 6:15-20).
Certainly today’s culture and society have become rather indifferent to the delicacy and the seriousness of this passage. And on the other hand, it cannot be said that modern-day culture is generous with young people who are seriously intending to start a home and bring children into the world! Rather, it often puts a thousand obstacles in their path, both mental and practical. The period of engagement is a stage of life that must mature like fruit, it is a path of maturation in love, until the moment when it becomes marriage.
Pre-marital courses are a special expression of this preparation, and we see so many couples who perhaps arrive at the course somewhat against their will, But these priests make us take a course! But why? We already know everything we need to know! – and they attend against their will. But afterwards they are happy and thank us, because in fact they found an occasion – often the only one! – to reflect on their experience in terms that aren't trivial. Yes, many couples are together for a long time, perhaps also in intimacy, sometimes living together, but they don’t really know one another. It seems strange, but experience shows that it is so. Because of this, the engagement period is re-evaluated as a time of getting to know one another and of sharing a plan. Preparation courses for marriage are marked by this perspective, also making use of the simple but intense testimony of Christian spouses and pointing also to the essential: the Bible, which must be rediscovered together, in a conscious way; prayer, in its liturgical dimension, but also in domestic prayer, must be lived in the family, the Sacraments, the sacramental life, Confession, ... in which the Lord comes to dwell with the engaged couple and prepares them to truly receive one another with the grace of Christ; and fraternity with the poor, with the needy, who stir us to sobriety and sharing. Engaged couples that work on these aspects grow ... and all this leads to preparing a lovely celebration of Marriage in a different way, not in a worldly but in a Christian way! We think of these words of God that we heard when he spoke to his people as the fiancé to his fiancée: I will make you my bride for ever, I will make you my bride in justice and in law, in love and in benevolence. I will make you my bride in fidelity and you will know the Lord (Hosea 2:21-22). May every engaged couple think of this and say to one another: I will make you my bride, I will make you my husband. To wait for that moment; it is a moment, it is a path that goes slowly ahead, but it is a path toward maturation. The stages of the journey must not be ignored. Maturation is done like this, step by step.
The time of engagement can truly become a time of initiation, to what end? To surprise! -- to the surprise of spiritual gifts with which the Lord, through the Church, enriches the horizon of the new family that is preparing to live in his blessing. Now I invite you to pray to the Holy Family of Nazareth: Jesus, Joseph and Mary. Pray that all families will undertake this course of preparation; pray for engaged couples. Let us pray all together to Our Lady a Hail Mary for all engaged couples, that they may understand the beauty of this journey toward Marriage. (Hail Mary ...) And to the engaged couples that are in the Square: Have a good period of engagement!
The Holy Father's catechesis was then repeated in summary in various languages, and he himself offered greetings to each of the linguistic groups present for the Audience. To English-speaking pilgrims, he said:
I greet the English-speaking pilgrims and visitors taking part in today’s Audience, including those from Great Britain, Switzerland, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Canada and the United States of America. Upon all of you, and your families, I invoke an abundance of joy and peace in the Lord Jesus. God bless you all!
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