At noon today, His Holiness, Pope Francis appeared at the window of his study in the Vatican Apostolic Palace to recite the Angelus with the faithful and with pilgrims who had gathered in Saint Peter's Square for the usual Sunday appointment.
Dear brothers and sisters, good morning!
On this second Sunday of Advent, the liturgy invites us to the school of John the Baptist, who preached a baptism of conversion for the forgiveness of sins (Lk 3:3). We might ask ourselves: Why do we need to be converted? Conversion happens when an atheist becomes a believer, when I sinner does the right thing, but we don't need it, we are already Christians, so everything is alright. This is not true. Thinking like this, we don't realize that it is from this very presumption - that we are Christians, that everyone is good, that everything is alright - that we need to be converted: from the assumption that, all things being considered, everything is fine and we don't need any conversion. Let us try to ask ourselves: is it really true that in various situations and circumstances in life we always have within us the same sentiments as Jesus does? Is it true that we feel the same as Jesus did? For example: when we endure some kind of torture or challenge, do we manage to react without animosity and to forgive everyone who asks for forgiveness, with all our hearts? How difficult it is to forgive! How difficult! You'll pay for that! - these words come from within! When we are called to share joys and sorrows, do we really know how to sincerely cry with those who cry and to rejoice with those who are filled with joy? When we must express our faith, do we know how to do it with courage and simplicity, without being ashamed of the gospel? We can ask ourselves all kinds of questions like this. We are not perfect; there is always room for conversion, and to have within us the sentiments that Jesus has.
The voice of the Baptist still calls out over the modern-day deserts of humanity, which are - what are the deserts of our time? - closed minds and hardened hearts, and cause us to wonder if indeed we are following the right road, living our lives according to the gospel. Today, as he did then, he admonishes us with the words of the prophet Isaiah: Prepare the way of the Lord! (Lk 3:4). This is a pressing invitation for us to open our hearts, to accept the salvation that God unceasingly offers us, almost stubbornly, because it requires us all to be freed from the slavery of sin. The text of the prophet expands upon that voice, proclaiming that every man will see the salvation of God (Lk 3:6). Salvation is offered to every person and to every people, no one is excluded, every one of us. No one of us can say: I am a saint, I am perfect, I am already saved. No. We always need to welcome the gift of salvation. This is the reason for the Year of Mercy: to continue along this road of salvation, this path that Jesus taught us. God wants every person to be saved in Jesus Christ, the one mediator (cf 1 Tim 2:4-6).
Therefore, each of us is called to make Jesus known to all those who do not yet know him, but this does not mean that we must proselytize. No, we must open doors. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel (1 Cor 9:16), declared Saint Paul. If the Lord Jesus has changed our lives, and we are changed every time that we go to him, how can we not feel compelled to make him known to everyone we meet at work, at school, in our condominiums, in hospitals, in other places where we might find ourselves? If we look around , we will find people who want to begin or to re-start a journey of faith, if they should happen to meet other Christians who are in love with Jesus. Should we not and could we not ourselves be such Christians? I leave you with a question: Am I truly in love with Jesus? Am I convinced that Jesus offers me and gives me salvation? If we are in love with him, we must make him known, but for this, we must be courageous: level the mountains of pride and competition, fill in the gullies that have been dug by indifference and apathy, and straighten the paths of our laziness and compromises.
May the Virgin Mary, who is a Mother and who knows how to do this, break down the barriers and the obstacles that impede our conversions, which is our path toward the Lord. He alone, Jesus alone can fulfill every one of man's hopes.
After the recitation of the Angelus, the Holy Father continued:
Dear brothers and sisters,
I am attentively following the work of the Conference on climate change that is in progress in Paris, and a question I asked in my encyclical Laudato Si' keeps returning to my mind: What kind of world do we want to leave to those who will come after us, our children who are growing up (LS, 160)? For the good of our common home, ours and that of future generations, every effort should be made in Paris in order to mitigate the impact of climate change and, at the same time, to diminish the incidence of human poverty and to increase the dignity of all human beings. These two choices go hand in hand: stopping climate change and combatting poverty for the sake of the flowering of human dignity. Let us pray that the Holy Spirit may illuminate all those who are called to make such important decisions, and give them the courage to maintain as their criterion the choices for the greater good of the entire human family.
Tomorrow will mark the fiftieth anniversary of a memorable event between Catholics and Orthodox. On December 7, 1965, the night before the conclusion of the Second Vatican Council, in a common declaration issued by Pope Paul VI and the Ecumenical Patriarch Atenagora, the sentences of excommunication exchanged between the Church of Rome and that of Constantinople in 1054 were erased. It was truly providential that this historic gesture of reconciliation, which created the conditions for a new dialogue between Orthodox and Catholics in love and in truth, may be remembered at the very beginning of the Jubilee of Mercy. There is no genuine path toward unity without asking for God's forgiveness and that of each other for the sin of division. Let us remember in our prayer the dear Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and the other leaders of the Orthodox Churches, and let us ask the Lord to inspire relations between Catholics and Orthodox always with fraternal love.
Yesterday in Chimbote (Perù), Michele Tomaszek and Zbigniew Strazałkowski, Conventual Franciscans, as well as Alessandro Dordi, a fidei donum priest who were killed for hatred of the faith in 1991 were all declared Blessed. May the faithfulness of these martyrs who followed Jesus provide strength for all of us, but especially Christians who are persecuted in various parts of the world, to courageously bear witness to the gospel.
I greet you all, pilgrims who have come from Italy and from various other countries - there are several flags - especially the liturgical choir from Milherós de Poiares and the faithful from Casal de Cambra in Portugal. I particularly greet the participants taking part in the convention of the Movement of Educational Commitment and Catholic Action, the faithful from Biella, Milan, Cusano Milanino, Netuno, Rocca di Papa and Foggia; the recently Confirmed from Roncone and the confirmandi from Settimello, the musical band from Calangianus and the choir from Taio.
I wish you all a good Sunday and good preparations for the beginning of the Year of Mercy. Please, don't forget to pray for me. Enjoy your lunch and good bye!
Greetings of His Holiness, Pope Francis
prior to the recitation of the Angelus
Dear brothers and sisters, good morning!
On this second Sunday of Advent, the liturgy invites us to the school of John the Baptist, who preached a baptism of conversion for the forgiveness of sins (Lk 3:3). We might ask ourselves: Why do we need to be converted? Conversion happens when an atheist becomes a believer, when I sinner does the right thing, but we don't need it, we are already Christians, so everything is alright. This is not true. Thinking like this, we don't realize that it is from this very presumption - that we are Christians, that everyone is good, that everything is alright - that we need to be converted: from the assumption that, all things being considered, everything is fine and we don't need any conversion. Let us try to ask ourselves: is it really true that in various situations and circumstances in life we always have within us the same sentiments as Jesus does? Is it true that we feel the same as Jesus did? For example: when we endure some kind of torture or challenge, do we manage to react without animosity and to forgive everyone who asks for forgiveness, with all our hearts? How difficult it is to forgive! How difficult! You'll pay for that! - these words come from within! When we are called to share joys and sorrows, do we really know how to sincerely cry with those who cry and to rejoice with those who are filled with joy? When we must express our faith, do we know how to do it with courage and simplicity, without being ashamed of the gospel? We can ask ourselves all kinds of questions like this. We are not perfect; there is always room for conversion, and to have within us the sentiments that Jesus has.
The voice of the Baptist still calls out over the modern-day deserts of humanity, which are - what are the deserts of our time? - closed minds and hardened hearts, and cause us to wonder if indeed we are following the right road, living our lives according to the gospel. Today, as he did then, he admonishes us with the words of the prophet Isaiah: Prepare the way of the Lord! (Lk 3:4). This is a pressing invitation for us to open our hearts, to accept the salvation that God unceasingly offers us, almost stubbornly, because it requires us all to be freed from the slavery of sin. The text of the prophet expands upon that voice, proclaiming that every man will see the salvation of God (Lk 3:6). Salvation is offered to every person and to every people, no one is excluded, every one of us. No one of us can say: I am a saint, I am perfect, I am already saved. No. We always need to welcome the gift of salvation. This is the reason for the Year of Mercy: to continue along this road of salvation, this path that Jesus taught us. God wants every person to be saved in Jesus Christ, the one mediator (cf 1 Tim 2:4-6).
Therefore, each of us is called to make Jesus known to all those who do not yet know him, but this does not mean that we must proselytize. No, we must open doors. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel (1 Cor 9:16), declared Saint Paul. If the Lord Jesus has changed our lives, and we are changed every time that we go to him, how can we not feel compelled to make him known to everyone we meet at work, at school, in our condominiums, in hospitals, in other places where we might find ourselves? If we look around , we will find people who want to begin or to re-start a journey of faith, if they should happen to meet other Christians who are in love with Jesus. Should we not and could we not ourselves be such Christians? I leave you with a question: Am I truly in love with Jesus? Am I convinced that Jesus offers me and gives me salvation? If we are in love with him, we must make him known, but for this, we must be courageous: level the mountains of pride and competition, fill in the gullies that have been dug by indifference and apathy, and straighten the paths of our laziness and compromises.
May the Virgin Mary, who is a Mother and who knows how to do this, break down the barriers and the obstacles that impede our conversions, which is our path toward the Lord. He alone, Jesus alone can fulfill every one of man's hopes.
After the recitation of the Angelus, the Holy Father continued:
Dear brothers and sisters,
I am attentively following the work of the Conference on climate change that is in progress in Paris, and a question I asked in my encyclical Laudato Si' keeps returning to my mind: What kind of world do we want to leave to those who will come after us, our children who are growing up (LS, 160)? For the good of our common home, ours and that of future generations, every effort should be made in Paris in order to mitigate the impact of climate change and, at the same time, to diminish the incidence of human poverty and to increase the dignity of all human beings. These two choices go hand in hand: stopping climate change and combatting poverty for the sake of the flowering of human dignity. Let us pray that the Holy Spirit may illuminate all those who are called to make such important decisions, and give them the courage to maintain as their criterion the choices for the greater good of the entire human family.
Tomorrow will mark the fiftieth anniversary of a memorable event between Catholics and Orthodox. On December 7, 1965, the night before the conclusion of the Second Vatican Council, in a common declaration issued by Pope Paul VI and the Ecumenical Patriarch Atenagora, the sentences of excommunication exchanged between the Church of Rome and that of Constantinople in 1054 were erased. It was truly providential that this historic gesture of reconciliation, which created the conditions for a new dialogue between Orthodox and Catholics in love and in truth, may be remembered at the very beginning of the Jubilee of Mercy. There is no genuine path toward unity without asking for God's forgiveness and that of each other for the sin of division. Let us remember in our prayer the dear Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and the other leaders of the Orthodox Churches, and let us ask the Lord to inspire relations between Catholics and Orthodox always with fraternal love.
Yesterday in Chimbote (Perù), Michele Tomaszek and Zbigniew Strazałkowski, Conventual Franciscans, as well as Alessandro Dordi, a fidei donum priest who were killed for hatred of the faith in 1991 were all declared Blessed. May the faithfulness of these martyrs who followed Jesus provide strength for all of us, but especially Christians who are persecuted in various parts of the world, to courageously bear witness to the gospel.
I greet you all, pilgrims who have come from Italy and from various other countries - there are several flags - especially the liturgical choir from Milherós de Poiares and the faithful from Casal de Cambra in Portugal. I particularly greet the participants taking part in the convention of the Movement of Educational Commitment and Catholic Action, the faithful from Biella, Milan, Cusano Milanino, Netuno, Rocca di Papa and Foggia; the recently Confirmed from Roncone and the confirmandi from Settimello, the musical band from Calangianus and the choir from Taio.
I wish you all a good Sunday and good preparations for the beginning of the Year of Mercy. Please, don't forget to pray for me. Enjoy your lunch and good bye!
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