This morning'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 from all corners of the world.
During his address, the Pope continued the cycle of teachings on the family, focusing today on children.
After having presented resumes of His catechesis in various languages, the Holy Father addressed greetings to each of the groups of the faithful who were present.
The General Audience concluded with the chanting of the Pater Noster and the imparting of the Apostolic Blessing.
Dear brothers and sisters, good morning!
Having looked at the various figures important for family life - mothers, fathers, sons (and daughters), brothers (and sisters), grandparents - I want to finish this first group of catecheses on the family by speaking today about children. In will do this in two parts: today, I will focus on the great gift that children are for humanity - they truly are a great gift for humanity, but many of them are excluded because they are not even allowed to be born - and later I will focus on a few wounds that unfortunately wound childhood. I am mindful of the many children who I have encountered during my recent visit to Asia; full of life, of enthusiasm, and yet I know that many of them in our world live in undignified conditions ... In fact, a society can be judged by the manner in which it treats its children, not only from a moral standpoint, but also sociologically: whether it is a free society or a society that is controlled by international interests.
First, children remind us that all of us, in the first years of our lives, were totally dependent on the care and the kindness of others. The Son of God was not spared from this experience. This is the mystery we contemplate every year, at Christmas. The crib is the icon which communicates this reality to the world in the most simple and direct way. It's curious: God has no difficulty making himself understood by children, and children have no difficulty understanding God. It is not by coincidence that in the gospels, there are some beautiful and strong words spoken by Jesus about the little ones. This term, the little ones, points out all the people who depend on others, especially children. For example, Jesus says: I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned, and have revealed them to little ones (Matthew 11:25). And again: Take care not to despise even one of these little ones, for I tell you that their angels in heaven constantly see the face of my Father who is in heaven (Matthew 18:10).
Therefore, children are in and of themselves already a treasure for humanity and also for the Church, for they constantly remind us of the conditions necessary for us to enter into the Kingdom of God: to never consider ourselves as self-sufficient, but rather to realize that we need help, love and forgiveness. We all need help, love and forgiveness!
Children remind us of another beautiful thing: they remind us that we ourselves are still children: even when we become adults, elderly, even if we are parents, if we have a position of responsibility, at the base of all of this, we are still children. We are all children. And this brings us back to the fact that life is not something that we have given ourselves; we have received it. The great gift of life is the first gift that we have ever received. Sometimes, we live as though we have forgotten this truth, as though we ourselves were the masters of our own existence, but we are radically dependent. In truth, it is a great joy to know that in every stage of life, in every situation, in every social condition, we are and we will always be children. This is the main message that children provide for us, by their presence among us: just by their mere presence, they remind us that we are all, each and every one of us, children.
There are so many gifts, so many riches that children bring to humanity. I can only mention a few of them.
They have their own way of seeing things, with trust and purity. A child has a spontaneous trust in its father and its mother; and a spontaneous trust in God, in Jesus, in the Virgin Mary. At the same time, its interior gaze is pure, not yet tainted by malice, by duplicity, by the callousness of life that harden its hearts. We know that even babies bear original sin, that they each have their own ideas, but they also have a purity, an interior wisdom. However, babies are not diplomats: they say what's on their minds, they say what they see, quite openly. Many times, they get their parents in trouble with other people: I don't like that person, he's ugly. Children tell it as it is, they cannot hide truths, they have not yet learned the science of duplicity that we adults unfortunately have learned.
Also, children - in their interior simplicity - bear within them the capacity to receive and to display tenderness. The tenderness that comes with having a heart of flesh and not of stone, as the bible says (cf Ezekiel 36:36). Tenderness is also poetic: it is the capacity to feel things and events, not to treat them merely as objects, which are to be used, because they can be useful ...
Children have the capacity to smile and to cry. Some of them, when you take them in your arms and hug them, they smile; others see me dressed in white and believe that I am a doctor and that I have come to vaccinate them, and they start to cry ... spontaneously! Children are like that: they smile and they cry, two things that grownups often can't do, we are no longer able ... Many times our smile has become a false smile, lifeless, a smile that is not true, even artificial, like a clown. Children smile spontaneously and they cry spontaneously. They are always dependent on their hearts while our hearts become hardened and lose the ability to smile, to cry. So it is that children can teach us once again to smile and to cry. But we ourselves need to ask ourselves: do I smile spontaneously, with life, with love ... or is my smile artificial? Do I still cry, or have I lost the ability to cry? These are two very human questions that children can teach us.
For all of these reasons, Jesus invites his disciples to become like little children, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these (cf. Matthew 18:3, Mark 10:14).
Dear brothers and sisters, children bear within them life, happiness, hope and trouble too. But life is like that. They certainly have their share of preoccupations and sometimes even problems: but a society with such preoccupations and problems is better than a society that is sad and grey because there are no more children! When we see that the birthrates in a given society are barely at 1%, we might say that such a society is sad and grey because soon there will be no more children.
Syntheses of this catechesis were then presented in various languages, and the Holy Father addressed greetings to each group of pilgrims that was present. 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, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Philippines, 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 address, the Pope continued the cycle of teachings on the family, focusing today on children.
After having presented resumes of His catechesis in various languages, the Holy Father addressed greetings to each of the groups of the faithful who were present.
The General Audience concluded with the chanting of the Pater Noster and the imparting of the Apostolic Blessing.
Catechesis of the Holy Father, Pope Francis
for the General Audience
Dear brothers and sisters, good morning!
Having looked at the various figures important for family life - mothers, fathers, sons (and daughters), brothers (and sisters), grandparents - I want to finish this first group of catecheses on the family by speaking today about children. In will do this in two parts: today, I will focus on the great gift that children are for humanity - they truly are a great gift for humanity, but many of them are excluded because they are not even allowed to be born - and later I will focus on a few wounds that unfortunately wound childhood. I am mindful of the many children who I have encountered during my recent visit to Asia; full of life, of enthusiasm, and yet I know that many of them in our world live in undignified conditions ... In fact, a society can be judged by the manner in which it treats its children, not only from a moral standpoint, but also sociologically: whether it is a free society or a society that is controlled by international interests.
First, children remind us that all of us, in the first years of our lives, were totally dependent on the care and the kindness of others. The Son of God was not spared from this experience. This is the mystery we contemplate every year, at Christmas. The crib is the icon which communicates this reality to the world in the most simple and direct way. It's curious: God has no difficulty making himself understood by children, and children have no difficulty understanding God. It is not by coincidence that in the gospels, there are some beautiful and strong words spoken by Jesus about the little ones. This term, the little ones, points out all the people who depend on others, especially children. For example, Jesus says: I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned, and have revealed them to little ones (Matthew 11:25). And again: Take care not to despise even one of these little ones, for I tell you that their angels in heaven constantly see the face of my Father who is in heaven (Matthew 18:10).
Therefore, children are in and of themselves already a treasure for humanity and also for the Church, for they constantly remind us of the conditions necessary for us to enter into the Kingdom of God: to never consider ourselves as self-sufficient, but rather to realize that we need help, love and forgiveness. We all need help, love and forgiveness!
Children remind us of another beautiful thing: they remind us that we ourselves are still children: even when we become adults, elderly, even if we are parents, if we have a position of responsibility, at the base of all of this, we are still children. We are all children. And this brings us back to the fact that life is not something that we have given ourselves; we have received it. The great gift of life is the first gift that we have ever received. Sometimes, we live as though we have forgotten this truth, as though we ourselves were the masters of our own existence, but we are radically dependent. In truth, it is a great joy to know that in every stage of life, in every situation, in every social condition, we are and we will always be children. This is the main message that children provide for us, by their presence among us: just by their mere presence, they remind us that we are all, each and every one of us, children.
There are so many gifts, so many riches that children bring to humanity. I can only mention a few of them.
They have their own way of seeing things, with trust and purity. A child has a spontaneous trust in its father and its mother; and a spontaneous trust in God, in Jesus, in the Virgin Mary. At the same time, its interior gaze is pure, not yet tainted by malice, by duplicity, by the callousness of life that harden its hearts. We know that even babies bear original sin, that they each have their own ideas, but they also have a purity, an interior wisdom. However, babies are not diplomats: they say what's on their minds, they say what they see, quite openly. Many times, they get their parents in trouble with other people: I don't like that person, he's ugly. Children tell it as it is, they cannot hide truths, they have not yet learned the science of duplicity that we adults unfortunately have learned.
Also, children - in their interior simplicity - bear within them the capacity to receive and to display tenderness. The tenderness that comes with having a heart of flesh and not of stone, as the bible says (cf Ezekiel 36:36). Tenderness is also poetic: it is the capacity to feel things and events, not to treat them merely as objects, which are to be used, because they can be useful ...
Children have the capacity to smile and to cry. Some of them, when you take them in your arms and hug them, they smile; others see me dressed in white and believe that I am a doctor and that I have come to vaccinate them, and they start to cry ... spontaneously! Children are like that: they smile and they cry, two things that grownups often can't do, we are no longer able ... Many times our smile has become a false smile, lifeless, a smile that is not true, even artificial, like a clown. Children smile spontaneously and they cry spontaneously. They are always dependent on their hearts while our hearts become hardened and lose the ability to smile, to cry. So it is that children can teach us once again to smile and to cry. But we ourselves need to ask ourselves: do I smile spontaneously, with life, with love ... or is my smile artificial? Do I still cry, or have I lost the ability to cry? These are two very human questions that children can teach us.
For all of these reasons, Jesus invites his disciples to become like little children, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these (cf. Matthew 18:3, Mark 10:14).
Dear brothers and sisters, children bear within them life, happiness, hope and trouble too. But life is like that. They certainly have their share of preoccupations and sometimes even problems: but a society with such preoccupations and problems is better than a society that is sad and grey because there are no more children! When we see that the birthrates in a given society are barely at 1%, we might say that such a society is sad and grey because soon there will be no more children.
Syntheses of this catechesis were then presented in various languages, and the Holy Father addressed greetings to each group of pilgrims that was present. 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, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Philippines, 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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