The Holy Father has sent a Video Message to mark the occasion of the opening of the VII Festival of Social Doctrine which is taking place in Verona with the theme: Faithfulness and Change.
Dear brothers and sisters,
I greet all of you, participants taking part in the VII Festival of the Social Doctrine of the Church, which this year is focused on Faithfulness and Change. This expression, which intentionally evokes a certain logical surprise, leads us to consider that, in reality, being faithful means having an ability to change.
We can think of the experience of Abraham, who the Bible portrays as a model of faith. When he was already old, God said to him: Go from your lands, from your country and from the house of your father, go to the place where I will show you. I will make of you a great nation and I will bless you. I will make your name great and you will become a blessing (Gn 12:1-2). To be faithful, Abraham had to change, to leave. The Word of God helps us to distinguish the two faces of change: the first is trust, hope, openness to something new; the second is difficulty with letting go of security in order to go out to encounter that which we do not know. In fact, we are more comfortable remaining within our own limits, resting, repeating words and gestures over and over again - these things make us feel secure - rather than going out, leaving and experiencing new things.
Let us ask ourselves then, what will happen if we keep our faith in God and in mankind? In the story of Abraham, we say the effect of the Lord's call: it radically changed his life, it caused him to enter into a new phase of history, it opened unexpected horizons with new heavens and new earths. When we respond to God there is always a process that is activated: something unexpected always happens, something that brings us to a place where we would never have imagined. This is important: our response to God always begins a process, it drives us forward, it does not manage spaces, things happen.
Faithfulness to mankind means going out to meet the concrete person, his face, his needs for tenderness and mercy, to move him away from anonymity, from the periphery of existence. Faithfulness to mankind means opening our eyes and our hearts to the poor, to the sick, to those who do not have work, to the many who are wounded by indifferences and by an economy that wastes and kills, opening ourselves to refugees on the run from violence and war. Faithfulness to mankind means gaining the centripetal force of their own strengths of their own interests, egotistical interests an making room for passion for another person, rejecting the temptation to despair and keeping the flame of faith alive.
In this way, faithfulness to God and faithfulness to mankind converge in a dynamic movement that takes the form of change within ourselves and change in our realities, overcoming immobility and convenience, creating spaces and work for young people and for their future ... because change is healthy not only when things go wrong, but also when everything is functioning well and we are tempted to focus on the results that have already been achieved. Expanding our service, making others part of our plans, making space for creativity means welcoming the challenge of change precisely in order to remain faithful to God and to mankind. This seems to be a contradiction, but faithfulness is the path to other processes and it does not permit us to stop in spaces that must be defended against every act of creativity, spaces that eventually settle for the way things have always been done.
Sending you this brief message, I also sed a fraternal greeting to His Excellency, Giuseppe Zenti, Bishop of Verona, the city that is hosting the Festival of the Church's Social Doctrine, to Father Vincenzi and to all those who are working with him, all the recorders, and the volunteers. I hope that this initiative may contribute to enlivening and sustaining the Church's evangelizing mission in the world of work, economics and politics.
I bless all of you and I ask you please to pray for me. Thank you!
Video Message of the Holy Father, Pope Francis
to participants taking part in the
VII Festival of Social Doctrine (Verona)
Dear brothers and sisters,
I greet all of you, participants taking part in the VII Festival of the Social Doctrine of the Church, which this year is focused on Faithfulness and Change. This expression, which intentionally evokes a certain logical surprise, leads us to consider that, in reality, being faithful means having an ability to change.
We can think of the experience of Abraham, who the Bible portrays as a model of faith. When he was already old, God said to him: Go from your lands, from your country and from the house of your father, go to the place where I will show you. I will make of you a great nation and I will bless you. I will make your name great and you will become a blessing (Gn 12:1-2). To be faithful, Abraham had to change, to leave. The Word of God helps us to distinguish the two faces of change: the first is trust, hope, openness to something new; the second is difficulty with letting go of security in order to go out to encounter that which we do not know. In fact, we are more comfortable remaining within our own limits, resting, repeating words and gestures over and over again - these things make us feel secure - rather than going out, leaving and experiencing new things.
Let us ask ourselves then, what will happen if we keep our faith in God and in mankind? In the story of Abraham, we say the effect of the Lord's call: it radically changed his life, it caused him to enter into a new phase of history, it opened unexpected horizons with new heavens and new earths. When we respond to God there is always a process that is activated: something unexpected always happens, something that brings us to a place where we would never have imagined. This is important: our response to God always begins a process, it drives us forward, it does not manage spaces, things happen.
Faithfulness to mankind means going out to meet the concrete person, his face, his needs for tenderness and mercy, to move him away from anonymity, from the periphery of existence. Faithfulness to mankind means opening our eyes and our hearts to the poor, to the sick, to those who do not have work, to the many who are wounded by indifferences and by an economy that wastes and kills, opening ourselves to refugees on the run from violence and war. Faithfulness to mankind means gaining the centripetal force of their own strengths of their own interests, egotistical interests an making room for passion for another person, rejecting the temptation to despair and keeping the flame of faith alive.
In this way, faithfulness to God and faithfulness to mankind converge in a dynamic movement that takes the form of change within ourselves and change in our realities, overcoming immobility and convenience, creating spaces and work for young people and for their future ... because change is healthy not only when things go wrong, but also when everything is functioning well and we are tempted to focus on the results that have already been achieved. Expanding our service, making others part of our plans, making space for creativity means welcoming the challenge of change precisely in order to remain faithful to God and to mankind. This seems to be a contradiction, but faithfulness is the path to other processes and it does not permit us to stop in spaces that must be defended against every act of creativity, spaces that eventually settle for the way things have always been done.
Sending you this brief message, I also sed a fraternal greeting to His Excellency, Giuseppe Zenti, Bishop of Verona, the city that is hosting the Festival of the Church's Social Doctrine, to Father Vincenzi and to all those who are working with him, all the recorders, and the volunteers. I hope that this initiative may contribute to enlivening and sustaining the Church's evangelizing mission in the world of work, economics and politics.
I bless all of you and I ask you please to pray for me. Thank you!
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