This morning's General Audience began at 9:20am (4:20am EDT) in Saint Peter's Square in Rome. The Holy Father, Pope Francis met there with groups of pilgrims and the faithful from Italy and from all corners of the world.
In his speech, the Holy Father continued the cycle of catechesis on the Our Father, adding a meditation on the theme: Thy will be done (1 Tim 2:1-4).
After having summarized His catechesis in various languages, the Holy Father offered particular greetings to each group of the faithful in attendance. He then issued a call for prayer for the people in various regions of Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi which have been struck by flooding in recent days.
The General Audience ended with the chanting of the Pater Noster and the Apostolic blessing.
Dear brothers and sisters, good morning!
Continuing our catechesis on the Our Father, today we focus on the third invocation: Thy will be done. This must be read in unity with the first two - may your name be held holy and may your Kingdom come - so that together, they form a triptych: hallowed be thy name, thy Kingdom come, thy will be done. Today we will talk about the third one.
Before the care of the world by man, there is the untiring care that God uses towards man and towards the world. The whole Gospel reflects this reversal of perspective. The sinner Zacchaeus climbs a tree because he wants to see Jesus, but he does not know that, much earlier, God had looked for him. Jesus, when he arrives, tells him: Zacchaeus, come down immediately, because today I must stay at your house. And in the end, Jesus declares: The Son of man has come to seek and to save what was lost (Lk 19:10). Here is the will of God, the one we pray to be done. What is the will of God incarnated in Jesus? To seek out and save what is lost. And we ask in prayer that the search for God be successful, that his universal plan of salvation be fulfilled, first, in each of us and then in the whole world. Have you ever thought about what it means that God is looking for me? Each of us can say: But, God is looking for me? - Yes! Search for yourself! Search for me: look for everyone, personally. God is great! How much love is behind all this.
God is not ambiguous, God does not hide behind enigmas, God has not planned the future of the world in an indecipherable manner. No, he is clear. If we do not understand this, we risk not understanding the meaning of the third expression of the Our Father. In fact, the Bible is full of expressions that tell us of God's positive will towards the world. And in the Catechism of the Catholic Church we find a collection of quotations that testify to this faithful and patient divine will (cf Catechism, 2821-2827). And Saint Paul, in the First Letter to Timothy, writes: God wants all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth (1 Tim 2:4). This, without a doubt, is the will of God: the salvation of man, of men, of each one of us. God knocks on the door of our hearts and offers us his love. Why? To attract us; to attract us to Him and carry us forward on the path to salvation. God is close to each of us with his love, to take us by hand, to offer us salvation. How much love there is behind this!
So, praying your will be done, we are not invited to bend our heads submissively, as if we were slaves. No! God wants us to be free; it is His love that frees us. In fact, the Our Father is the prayer of children, not slaves; but of children who know the heart of their father and who are certain of his loving plan. Woe to us if, pronouncing these words, we would shrug our shoulders in surrender before a destiny that repels us and that we cannot change. On the contrary, it is a prayer full of ardent trust in God who wants good for us, life, salvation. This is a courageous prayer, even combative, because in the world there are so many, too many realities that are not according to God's plan. We all know them. Paraphrasing the prophet Isaiah, we could say: Here, Father, there is war, abuse of power, exploitation; but we know that You want our good, therefore we beg you: your will be done! Lord, overturn the plans of the world, turn swords into plows and spears into sickles; that no one should practice more in the art of war! (cf Is 2:4). God wants peace.
The Our Father is a prayer that ignites in us the same love of Jesus for the will of the Father, a flame that drives us to transform the world with love. The Christian does not believe in an ineluctable fate. There is nothing haphazard in the faith of Christians: there is instead a salvation that waits to manifest itself in the life of every man and woman and to be fulfilled in eternity. If we pray, it is because we believe that God can do it, and that He wants to transform reality by overcoming evil with good. To this God ,it makes sense to obey and abandon oneself even in the hour of the most difficult trial.
So it was for Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, when he experienced anguish and prayed: Father, if it is your will, take this cup from me! However, not my will but yours be done (Lk 22:42). Jesus is crushed by the evil of the world, but trustingly abandons himself to the ocean of His Father's love and will. Even the martyrs, in their trials, did not seek death, they sought the resurrection after death. Out of love, God can lead us to walk on difficult paths, to experience painful wounds and thorns, but he will never abandon us. He will always be with us, next to us, within us. For a believer this, rather than a hope, is a certainty. God is with me. The same as we find in that parable in the Gospel of Luke dedicated to the need to pray always. Jesus says: Will God not do justice to his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will it make them wait long? I tell you that he will do them justice promptly (Lk 18:7-8). This is how the Lord loves us; he loves us. But, I want to invite you all together now to pray the Our Father. And those of you who don't know Italian, pray it in your own language. Let's pray together.
Our Father ....
The Holy Father's catechesis was then summarized in various languages and He offered greetings to each group of the faithful in attendance. To English-language pilgrims, he said:
I greet the English-speaking pilgrims and visitors taking part in today’s Audience, especially those from England, Belgium, Croatia, Norway, Nigeria, Indonesia, Japan, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates and the United States of America. With prayerful good wishes that this Lent will be a time of grace and spiritual renewal for you and your families, I invoke upon all of you joy and peace in our Lord Jesus Christ.
At the conclusion of the General Audience, the Holy Father issued the following call for prayer:
In recent days, great flooding has caused grief and devastation in various regions of Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi. I express my sorrow and my closeness to the beloved people of those lands. I entrust the many victims and their families to the mercy of God and I implore the gift of comfort and support for those who have been affected by this calamity.
In his speech, the Holy Father continued the cycle of catechesis on the Our Father, adding a meditation on the theme: Thy will be done (1 Tim 2:1-4).
After having summarized His catechesis in various languages, the Holy Father offered particular greetings to each group of the faithful in attendance. He then issued a call for prayer for the people in various regions of Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi which have been struck by flooding in recent days.
The General Audience ended 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 our catechesis on the Our Father, today we focus on the third invocation: Thy will be done. This must be read in unity with the first two - may your name be held holy and may your Kingdom come - so that together, they form a triptych: hallowed be thy name, thy Kingdom come, thy will be done. Today we will talk about the third one.
Before the care of the world by man, there is the untiring care that God uses towards man and towards the world. The whole Gospel reflects this reversal of perspective. The sinner Zacchaeus climbs a tree because he wants to see Jesus, but he does not know that, much earlier, God had looked for him. Jesus, when he arrives, tells him: Zacchaeus, come down immediately, because today I must stay at your house. And in the end, Jesus declares: The Son of man has come to seek and to save what was lost (Lk 19:10). Here is the will of God, the one we pray to be done. What is the will of God incarnated in Jesus? To seek out and save what is lost. And we ask in prayer that the search for God be successful, that his universal plan of salvation be fulfilled, first, in each of us and then in the whole world. Have you ever thought about what it means that God is looking for me? Each of us can say: But, God is looking for me? - Yes! Search for yourself! Search for me: look for everyone, personally. God is great! How much love is behind all this.
God is not ambiguous, God does not hide behind enigmas, God has not planned the future of the world in an indecipherable manner. No, he is clear. If we do not understand this, we risk not understanding the meaning of the third expression of the Our Father. In fact, the Bible is full of expressions that tell us of God's positive will towards the world. And in the Catechism of the Catholic Church we find a collection of quotations that testify to this faithful and patient divine will (cf Catechism, 2821-2827). And Saint Paul, in the First Letter to Timothy, writes: God wants all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth (1 Tim 2:4). This, without a doubt, is the will of God: the salvation of man, of men, of each one of us. God knocks on the door of our hearts and offers us his love. Why? To attract us; to attract us to Him and carry us forward on the path to salvation. God is close to each of us with his love, to take us by hand, to offer us salvation. How much love there is behind this!
So, praying your will be done, we are not invited to bend our heads submissively, as if we were slaves. No! God wants us to be free; it is His love that frees us. In fact, the Our Father is the prayer of children, not slaves; but of children who know the heart of their father and who are certain of his loving plan. Woe to us if, pronouncing these words, we would shrug our shoulders in surrender before a destiny that repels us and that we cannot change. On the contrary, it is a prayer full of ardent trust in God who wants good for us, life, salvation. This is a courageous prayer, even combative, because in the world there are so many, too many realities that are not according to God's plan. We all know them. Paraphrasing the prophet Isaiah, we could say: Here, Father, there is war, abuse of power, exploitation; but we know that You want our good, therefore we beg you: your will be done! Lord, overturn the plans of the world, turn swords into plows and spears into sickles; that no one should practice more in the art of war! (cf Is 2:4). God wants peace.
The Our Father is a prayer that ignites in us the same love of Jesus for the will of the Father, a flame that drives us to transform the world with love. The Christian does not believe in an ineluctable fate. There is nothing haphazard in the faith of Christians: there is instead a salvation that waits to manifest itself in the life of every man and woman and to be fulfilled in eternity. If we pray, it is because we believe that God can do it, and that He wants to transform reality by overcoming evil with good. To this God ,it makes sense to obey and abandon oneself even in the hour of the most difficult trial.
So it was for Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, when he experienced anguish and prayed: Father, if it is your will, take this cup from me! However, not my will but yours be done (Lk 22:42). Jesus is crushed by the evil of the world, but trustingly abandons himself to the ocean of His Father's love and will. Even the martyrs, in their trials, did not seek death, they sought the resurrection after death. Out of love, God can lead us to walk on difficult paths, to experience painful wounds and thorns, but he will never abandon us. He will always be with us, next to us, within us. For a believer this, rather than a hope, is a certainty. God is with me. The same as we find in that parable in the Gospel of Luke dedicated to the need to pray always. Jesus says: Will God not do justice to his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will it make them wait long? I tell you that he will do them justice promptly (Lk 18:7-8). This is how the Lord loves us; he loves us. But, I want to invite you all together now to pray the Our Father. And those of you who don't know Italian, pray it in your own language. Let's pray together.
Our Father ....
The Holy Father's catechesis was then summarized in various languages and He offered greetings to each group of the faithful in attendance. To English-language pilgrims, he said:
I greet the English-speaking pilgrims and visitors taking part in today’s Audience, especially those from England, Belgium, Croatia, Norway, Nigeria, Indonesia, Japan, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates and the United States of America. With prayerful good wishes that this Lent will be a time of grace and spiritual renewal for you and your families, I invoke upon all of you joy and peace in our Lord Jesus Christ.
At the conclusion of the General Audience, the Holy Father issued the following call for prayer:
In recent days, great flooding has caused grief and devastation in various regions of Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi. I express my sorrow and my closeness to the beloved people of those lands. I entrust the many victims and their families to the mercy of God and I implore the gift of comfort and support for those who have been affected by this calamity.
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