This morning's General Audience began at 9:45am in the Paul VI Hall, where the Holy Father, Pope Francis met with groups of pilgrims and the faithful from Italy and from every corner of the world.
In his speech, the Pope began a new cycle of catecheses on the theme of Christian hope (cf Is 40:1-2a, 3-5).
After having summarized his catechesis in various languages, the Holy Father offered particular greetings to each group of the faithful in attendance. Then, he issued a call marking the occasion of two Days organized by the United Nations against corruption (December 9) and in support of human rights (December 10).
The General Audience concluded with the chanting of the Pater Noster and the Apostolic blessing.
Dear brothers and sisters, good morning!
Today, we begin a new series of catecheses, on the theme of Christian hope. This is very important because hope does not mislead us. Optimism can delude, but hope never does! We need so much hope in our times, which seem to be so dark, in which we sometimes feel that we are lost to the evil and violence that surround us, to the suffering of many of our brothers and sisters. We want to hope! We feel lost and a little bit discouraged, because we are helpless and sometimes feel that this darkness will never end.
But we should never feel that the condition is hopeless, because God is always sharing the journey with us, accompanying us with his hope. I can hope, because God is walking beside me, all of us can say this. Every one of us can say: I hope, I have hope, because God is walking beside me. He is walking with me, leading me by the hand. God does not leave us alone. The Lord Jesus has overcome evil and has opened for us the way to eternal life.
Now, particularly in the season of Advent, which is a time of waiting, during which we prepare to once again welcome the consoling mystery of the Incarnation and the light of Christmas, it is important for us to reflect on the virtue of hope. Let us allow ourselves to be taught by the Lord what it means to hope. Let us listen now to the Sacred Scriptures, beginning with the prophet Isaiah, the great prophet of Advent, the great messenger of hope.
In the second part of his book, Isaiah addresses the people with a proclamation of consolation:
Comfort, comfort my people - says your God.
Speak to the heart of Jerusalem
and cry that her tribulation is accomplished,
her iniquity is pardoned ...
A voice cries out:
In the desert, prepare the way of the Lord,
a highway for our God.
Every valley shall be exalted,
every mountain and hill laid low;
the uneven ground will be made level
and the rough places a plain.
Then the glory of the Lord will be revealed
and all mankind together will see it,
for the mouth of the Lord has spoken (Is 40:1-2, 3-5).
God the Father consoles us and makes us able to console others; he asks us to encourage his people, his children, proclaiming to them that their time of tribulation is over, their sufferings are finished, their sins are forgiven. This good news heals distressed and frightened hearts. This is the reason why the prophet asks us to prepare the way for the Lord, opening our hearts to receive his gifts and his salvation.
Consolation, for God's people, begins with the possibility of walking in the ways of God, a new way that has been corrected and do-able, a way that is prepared in the desert, making it possible for me to pass through on my way home. Because the people to whom the prophet was speaking were experiencing the tragedy of exile in Babylon, and now they were being told that they could return to their homeland, by way of a convenient and wide path, free of valleys and mountains that would make the way tiring, a highway through the desert. To prepare this road therefore means to prepare a journey of salvation and liberation from every obstacle and stumbling block.
The exile was a dramatic moment in the history of Israel, when the people had lost everything. They had lost their country, their liberty, their dignity, and even their trust in God. They felt abandoned and hopeless. Instead, the prophet's call re-opens people's hearts to faith. The desert is a place in which it is difficult to life, but it is possible to journey through that place on the way back not only to a country, but to God, to hope and to smiling. When we are in darkness, in the midst of difficulty, it is difficult to smile; at such moments, it is hope that teaches us how to smile and to find the path that leads us back to God. One of the first things that happens to people who are detached from God is that they forget how to smile. Perhaps they are still able to laugh, again and again, at jokes ... but they have difficulty smiling! A smile alone can restore hope: smiles echo the hope of finding God.
At times, life can be a desert, a difficult interior journey, but if we entrust ourselves to God, life can become beautiful and as wide as a highway. Never lose hope, just continue to believe, despite everything else. When we find ourselves in front of a child, perhaps there are so many problems and difficulties in our lives, but a smile comes from within, because we are standing in front of hope: children are a source of hope! This is how we should learn to see our lives as journeys of hope that lead us toward discovering God, God who made himself a child for us. He will make it possible for us to smile, he will give us everything!
Isaiah's words are used by John the Baptist in his preaching, inviting others to conversion. He said it this way: The voice of one crying in the dessert: prepare the way of the Lord (Mt 3:3). This is a voice that cries in places where it seems that no one can hear it - but who can hear anything in the desert? - crying out in confusion due to a crisis of faith. We cannot negate the fact that the world today is in a crisis of faith. People say: I believe in God, I am a Christian - I belong to that religion .. But your life is far from being Christian; it is far away from God! Has religion, faith has fallen into a mere expression: I believe? - Yes! But it's a matter of returning to God, converting our hearts to God and walking along the road in order to find him. He is waiting for us. This is what John the Baptist preached: prepare. Prepare to meet this Child who will give us back our smiles. When the Baptist proclaimed the coming of Jesus, the Israelites felt as though they were still in exile, because they were under Roman occupation, a state that made them strangers in their own land, governed by powerful occupants who decided every aspect of their lives. But the true story is not the one told by the powerful, but the one that is told by God, together with his children. The true story - the one that will remain for all eternity - is the one that is written by God with his children: God with Mary, God with Jesus, God with John, God with the little ones. These little and simple ones who we find surrounding Jesus when he is born: Zachariah and Elizabeth, elderly and marked by sterility; Mary, a young virgin girl who is promised in marriage to Joseph; the shepherds, who were despised and who counted for nothing. Those who were small were made great in their faith, those who are small will know how to continue in hope. Hope is the virtue of the small. Those who are great, those who are satisfied do not know how to hope: they do not know what it is.
It is the little ones who, with God, with Jesus, transform the desert of exile, of desperate loneliness, of suffering, into a straightened, flattened road that can easily be traveled in order to encounter the glory of the Lord. And having arrived at this point, let us allow ourselves to be taught the virtue of hope. Let us wait trustingly for the coming of the Lord and whatever desert we may find ourselves in - everyone knows the desert that he or she is walking through - will become a flower garden. Hope does not disappoint!
The Holy Father's catechesis was then summarized in various languages, and His Holiness offered greetings to each group of the faithful in attendance. To English-speaking pilgrims, he said:
I greet the English-speaking pilgrims and visitors taking part in today’s Audience, particularly those from England, Denmark, Spain, Nigeria, Australia and the United States of America. I pray that each of you, and your families, may experience a blessed Advent, in preparation for the coming of the newborn Saviour at Christmas. God bless you!
At the conclusion of the General Audience, the Holy Father issued the following call for prayer:
In the coming days, there will be two important observances organized by the United Nations: a day against corruption - on December 9 - and a day for human rights - on December 10. These are two realities that are closely linked: corruption is the negative side of combat, beginning with personal conscience and keeping watch over various aspects of civilian life, especially the lives of the young and the weak who are at risk; human rights are the positive side, which should be promoted with renewed decisiveness, so that no one is ever excluded from the effective recognition of fundamental human rights. May the Lord support us in these two commitments.
In his speech, the Pope began a new cycle of catecheses on the theme of Christian hope (cf Is 40:1-2a, 3-5).
After having summarized his catechesis in various languages, the Holy Father offered particular greetings to each group of the faithful in attendance. Then, he issued a call marking the occasion of two Days organized by the United Nations against corruption (December 9) and in support of human rights (December 10).
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!
Today, we begin a new series of catecheses, on the theme of Christian hope. This is very important because hope does not mislead us. Optimism can delude, but hope never does! We need so much hope in our times, which seem to be so dark, in which we sometimes feel that we are lost to the evil and violence that surround us, to the suffering of many of our brothers and sisters. We want to hope! We feel lost and a little bit discouraged, because we are helpless and sometimes feel that this darkness will never end.
But we should never feel that the condition is hopeless, because God is always sharing the journey with us, accompanying us with his hope. I can hope, because God is walking beside me, all of us can say this. Every one of us can say: I hope, I have hope, because God is walking beside me. He is walking with me, leading me by the hand. God does not leave us alone. The Lord Jesus has overcome evil and has opened for us the way to eternal life.
Now, particularly in the season of Advent, which is a time of waiting, during which we prepare to once again welcome the consoling mystery of the Incarnation and the light of Christmas, it is important for us to reflect on the virtue of hope. Let us allow ourselves to be taught by the Lord what it means to hope. Let us listen now to the Sacred Scriptures, beginning with the prophet Isaiah, the great prophet of Advent, the great messenger of hope.
In the second part of his book, Isaiah addresses the people with a proclamation of consolation:
Comfort, comfort my people - says your God.
Speak to the heart of Jerusalem
and cry that her tribulation is accomplished,
her iniquity is pardoned ...
A voice cries out:
In the desert, prepare the way of the Lord,
a highway for our God.
Every valley shall be exalted,
every mountain and hill laid low;
the uneven ground will be made level
and the rough places a plain.
Then the glory of the Lord will be revealed
and all mankind together will see it,
for the mouth of the Lord has spoken (Is 40:1-2, 3-5).
God the Father consoles us and makes us able to console others; he asks us to encourage his people, his children, proclaiming to them that their time of tribulation is over, their sufferings are finished, their sins are forgiven. This good news heals distressed and frightened hearts. This is the reason why the prophet asks us to prepare the way for the Lord, opening our hearts to receive his gifts and his salvation.
Consolation, for God's people, begins with the possibility of walking in the ways of God, a new way that has been corrected and do-able, a way that is prepared in the desert, making it possible for me to pass through on my way home. Because the people to whom the prophet was speaking were experiencing the tragedy of exile in Babylon, and now they were being told that they could return to their homeland, by way of a convenient and wide path, free of valleys and mountains that would make the way tiring, a highway through the desert. To prepare this road therefore means to prepare a journey of salvation and liberation from every obstacle and stumbling block.
The exile was a dramatic moment in the history of Israel, when the people had lost everything. They had lost their country, their liberty, their dignity, and even their trust in God. They felt abandoned and hopeless. Instead, the prophet's call re-opens people's hearts to faith. The desert is a place in which it is difficult to life, but it is possible to journey through that place on the way back not only to a country, but to God, to hope and to smiling. When we are in darkness, in the midst of difficulty, it is difficult to smile; at such moments, it is hope that teaches us how to smile and to find the path that leads us back to God. One of the first things that happens to people who are detached from God is that they forget how to smile. Perhaps they are still able to laugh, again and again, at jokes ... but they have difficulty smiling! A smile alone can restore hope: smiles echo the hope of finding God.
At times, life can be a desert, a difficult interior journey, but if we entrust ourselves to God, life can become beautiful and as wide as a highway. Never lose hope, just continue to believe, despite everything else. When we find ourselves in front of a child, perhaps there are so many problems and difficulties in our lives, but a smile comes from within, because we are standing in front of hope: children are a source of hope! This is how we should learn to see our lives as journeys of hope that lead us toward discovering God, God who made himself a child for us. He will make it possible for us to smile, he will give us everything!
Isaiah's words are used by John the Baptist in his preaching, inviting others to conversion. He said it this way: The voice of one crying in the dessert: prepare the way of the Lord (Mt 3:3). This is a voice that cries in places where it seems that no one can hear it - but who can hear anything in the desert? - crying out in confusion due to a crisis of faith. We cannot negate the fact that the world today is in a crisis of faith. People say: I believe in God, I am a Christian - I belong to that religion .. But your life is far from being Christian; it is far away from God! Has religion, faith has fallen into a mere expression: I believe? - Yes! But it's a matter of returning to God, converting our hearts to God and walking along the road in order to find him. He is waiting for us. This is what John the Baptist preached: prepare. Prepare to meet this Child who will give us back our smiles. When the Baptist proclaimed the coming of Jesus, the Israelites felt as though they were still in exile, because they were under Roman occupation, a state that made them strangers in their own land, governed by powerful occupants who decided every aspect of their lives. But the true story is not the one told by the powerful, but the one that is told by God, together with his children. The true story - the one that will remain for all eternity - is the one that is written by God with his children: God with Mary, God with Jesus, God with John, God with the little ones. These little and simple ones who we find surrounding Jesus when he is born: Zachariah and Elizabeth, elderly and marked by sterility; Mary, a young virgin girl who is promised in marriage to Joseph; the shepherds, who were despised and who counted for nothing. Those who were small were made great in their faith, those who are small will know how to continue in hope. Hope is the virtue of the small. Those who are great, those who are satisfied do not know how to hope: they do not know what it is.
It is the little ones who, with God, with Jesus, transform the desert of exile, of desperate loneliness, of suffering, into a straightened, flattened road that can easily be traveled in order to encounter the glory of the Lord. And having arrived at this point, let us allow ourselves to be taught the virtue of hope. Let us wait trustingly for the coming of the Lord and whatever desert we may find ourselves in - everyone knows the desert that he or she is walking through - will become a flower garden. Hope does not disappoint!
The Holy Father's catechesis was then summarized in various languages, and His Holiness offered greetings to each group of the faithful in attendance. To English-speaking pilgrims, he said:
I greet the English-speaking pilgrims and visitors taking part in today’s Audience, particularly those from England, Denmark, Spain, Nigeria, Australia and the United States of America. I pray that each of you, and your families, may experience a blessed Advent, in preparation for the coming of the newborn Saviour at Christmas. God bless you!
At the conclusion of the General Audience, the Holy Father issued the following call for prayer:
In the coming days, there will be two important observances organized by the United Nations: a day against corruption - on December 9 - and a day for human rights - on December 10. These are two realities that are closely linked: corruption is the negative side of combat, beginning with personal conscience and keeping watch over various aspects of civilian life, especially the lives of the young and the weak who are at risk; human rights are the positive side, which should be promoted with renewed decisiveness, so that no one is ever excluded from the effective recognition of fundamental human rights. May the Lord support us in these two commitments.
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