At 10:45am today, in the Sala Clementina at the Apostolic Palace, the Holy Father, Pope Francis received in audience the Bishops who have been appointed during the past year.
Beloved brothers in the Episcopate,
Peace be with you!
In the context of these days of deepening and sharing organized by the Congregation for Bishops and by the Congregation for Eastern Churches, I am pleased to be able to greet you with the same greeting that the Risen Christ spoke to the disciples, gathered in the Upper Room on the evening of the day after the Sabbath (cf Jn 20:19-23).
After the night of the cross and the time of God's silence had passed, then came the Resurrection, through the doors of the disciples' fears, stopping in the midst of them, showing the signs of His sacrifice of love, confiding to them the mission that He had received from the Father, breathing upon them the Holy Spirit so that they could disperse throughout the world the forgiveness and the mercy of the Father, the first fruits of his passion. Then his disciples found themselves alone. For a brief but dark period, they were left dispersed by the scandal of the cross: lost, ashamed of their weakness, forgetting their identity as followers of the Lord. Now, seeing the face of the Risen Christ, they are able to put together the fragments of their lives. Recognizing His voice allowed them to rediscover the peace that was missing in their hearts ever since they had been abandoned. Shaken by the breath of his lips, they now understood that the mission they had received could not crush them.
You are Bishops of the Church, recently called and consecrated. You come from a unique encounter with the Risen One. Through the walls of your powerlessness, He has reached out to you with His presence, even though he knows of your denials and abandonments, your attempts to hide and your experiences of betrayal. Nevertheless, he is present in the Sacrament of the Church and has breathed upon you. This is a breath worth keeping, a breeze that disrupts your life (and it will never again be the same), even as it cheers and consoles you like a gentle breeze, which no one can ever possess. I beg you never to attempt to tame this power, but instead allow it to continually disrupt your life.
Bishops are witnesses of the Risen One
You are now witnesses to the Risen One. This is your primary and irreplaceable task. It is not the muddled discourse of the weak or of losers, but the only treasure that the Church has handed on albeit through fragile hands. To you is entrusted the preaching of the truth which supports the entire edifice of the Church: Jesus is Risen! The One who has subjected his life to love, could not remain among the dead. God the Father raised Jesus! We too will rise with Christ!
It is not a matter of an obvious or an easy proclamation. The world is so content with its present state, at least it appears so, with all that it is able to provide in order to suppress the question of that which is definitive. Men are so forgetful about eternity, but distracted and absorbed, they administer that which is while delaying what will be. Many have tacitly resigned themselves to the habit of navigating according to sight, to the point of removing the very reality of the door that awaits. Many are so enraptured by the cynical calculation of their own survival that now they have become indifferent and, not infrequently, impervious to the possibility of life that will never die.
And yet we are assaulted by questions, the answers to which cannot but come from a definitive future. They are, in fact, such difficult questions that we would not know how to answer them if we were to exclude the day after the Sabbath, apart from the horizon of eternity that it opens, and remain limited us to the amputated logic of the closed present in which we remain imprisoned without the light of that day. How can we face the unfortunate present if we resist the inner sense of belonging to the community of the Risen One? How can we give to the world that which is most precious? Would we be able to remember the greatness of human destiny, if we were to deny within us the courage to subordinate our lives to the love that never dies?
I think of dramatic challenges such as globalization, that brings us close to that which is far away while on the other hand separates those who are close; I think of the epic phenomenon of migration that is so changing our times; I think of the environment, the garden that God has given us as a home for all human beings and for other creatures, now being threatened by short-sightedness and predatory exploitation; I think about dignity and the future of human work, of which entire generations are being denied, reduced to statistics; I think about the desertification of relationships, about the widespread lack of responsibility, about the lack of interest in the future, about the increasing incidence of fearfulness and closed attitudes; about the loss of so many young people and the loneliness being experienced by so many of the elderly. I am certain that every one of you can add to this list of problems.
I don't want to focus on this kind of agenda of tasks because I wouldn't want to scare you, or myself. You are still on your honeymoon! As the Bishop of Rome who, after diligent discernment, has added his own weak voice so that the Risen One may invigorate the episcopal college, I want only to entrust you once again to the joy of the gospel.
The disciples were filled with joy when they encountered the Shepherd who had accepted death for his flock. Rejoice, even as you spend yourselves for the good of your particular Churches. Do not allow yourselves to be robbed of this treasure. Always remember that the gospel will protect you and therefore do not be afraid to go anywhere and to surround yourselves with those the Lord has entrusted to you.
As I explored in Evangelii gaudium, no sphere of the life of mankind can be excluded from the interests of the heart of the Shepherd (EG, 14-15; Redemptoris missio, 33). Beware of the risk of neglecting the collective and individual realities of your flock; do not neglect opportunities for encounter; spare no opportunity to preach the living word of the Lord; invite all people to undertake the mission.
Bishops: teachers, spiritual and catechetical guides
For those who are at home, involved in your community and receiving the Eucharist, I invite you to continue! Be pedagogical bishops, spiritual and catechetical guides, capable of taking them by the hand and making it possible for them to climb the heights of Tabor (cf Lk 9:28-36), guiding them in conscience to the mystery that we profess, to the splendour of the divine face which is hidden in the word that perhaps you are so accustomed to hearing without realizing the fullness of its power. For those who are already journeying with you, find places and set up tents in which the Risen Lord can reveal the fullness of his splendour. Spare no energy in accompanying them on this ascent. Do not allow them to resign themselves to staying on the plain. Gently and carefully remove any wax that sometimes may settle in their ears, impeding them from listening to God who says: This is my Son, the beloved: with him I am well pleased (cf Mt 17:5).
Joy leaves its mark, enchants, enraptures. Without joy, Christianity would diminish in its effect, becoming simply an effort. Care for your priests, in order that the spark of God may remain alive in the people, as much as they may desire to remain in your presence, to feel nostalgic about being with you, may they want for nothing more than to return to His presence.
There are too many empty words that lead people away from Him, relegated to the ephemeral and limited to the provisional. Be sure to speak of Jesus, the beloved of God, the solid food that is continually received and assimilated.
Mystagogical Bishops
Secondly, I remembered people who have been baptized but who do not live according to the needs of one who is baptized. Perhaps it has long been assumed that the earth into which the seed of the gospel has fallen does not need to be cared for. Some people have been disappointed and turned away because they have been disillusioned because the promises of the faith have let them down or because the path proposed by faith has proven too demanding. Many have left and have slammed the door, effectively pointing out our weaknesses and posing questions, without succeeding at all but rather convincing themselves that they have been deceived by hopes which have eventually been disproven.
Strive to be Bishops capable of intercepting such paths; allowing yourselves also to appear to be lost (Lk 24:13-35), wondering as to what has happened to the Jerusalem of their lives and, discretely, allowing them to express their cold hearts. Do not be scandalized by their sufferings and their disillusions. Enlighten them with your own humble flame, caring for them with tenderness, but always capable of enlightening those you reach with your clarity which however is never too dazzling.
Spend time meeting them on the road to their Emmaus. Use words that will reveal to them the things that they are incapable of seeing: the hidden potential in their own delusions. Guide them in the mysteries that lead to words that can be spoken even without recognizing their own strength. More than words, warm their hearts with humble listening and interest in their true good, so that they may open their eyes and turn back to Him from who they have been parted.
Remember, I beg you, that they have already known the Lord. They must however rediscover him because, in the meantime, their eyes have been obscured. Help them to rediscover their Lord, so that they will have the strength to return to Jerusalem. The faith of the community will be enriched and confirmed by the witness of their return. Be vigilant within your communities against the danger of the lurking pride of older children, who can make the rest of the community unable to rejoice with those who were lost and now are found (Lk 15:24).
Missionary bishops
As missionary shepherds of God's freely-offered salvation, seek also those who do not yet know Jesus or those who always tend to refute him. Go toward them, stop in front of them and watch, without fear or awe, in which trees they have climbed (cf Lk 19:1-10). Do not be afraid to invite them to come down immediately, for the Lord wants to enter, even today, into their homes. Help them to understand that salvation still passes under the tree of their lives, and hurry to make your way to their home, which at times is filled with many things that make no sense.
It is not true that we can disregard these distant brothers and sisters. We are not allowed to neglect our concern for their fate. Also, looking out for their authentic and definitive good can open a breach in the protective wall with which they jealously protect their own self-sufficiency. Seeing in us the Lord who calls to them, perhaps they will have the courage to respond to the divine invitation. If this happens, our communities will be enriched by the gifts they have to share and our pastoral hearts will rejoice as they repeat once more: Today, salvation has come to this house. Such horizons should prevail in your pastoral outlook toward the forthcoming Jubilee Year of Mercy which we are preparing to celebrate.
While imparting to each of you and to your Churches the Apostolic Blessing, with great affection and gratitude, I also bless Cardinal Marc Ouellet and Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, the Congregations over which they preside and the entire team of those who work with them.
Speech of the Holy Father, Pope Francis
with Bishops appointed during the past year
Beloved brothers in the Episcopate,
Peace be with you!
In the context of these days of deepening and sharing organized by the Congregation for Bishops and by the Congregation for Eastern Churches, I am pleased to be able to greet you with the same greeting that the Risen Christ spoke to the disciples, gathered in the Upper Room on the evening of the day after the Sabbath (cf Jn 20:19-23).
After the night of the cross and the time of God's silence had passed, then came the Resurrection, through the doors of the disciples' fears, stopping in the midst of them, showing the signs of His sacrifice of love, confiding to them the mission that He had received from the Father, breathing upon them the Holy Spirit so that they could disperse throughout the world the forgiveness and the mercy of the Father, the first fruits of his passion. Then his disciples found themselves alone. For a brief but dark period, they were left dispersed by the scandal of the cross: lost, ashamed of their weakness, forgetting their identity as followers of the Lord. Now, seeing the face of the Risen Christ, they are able to put together the fragments of their lives. Recognizing His voice allowed them to rediscover the peace that was missing in their hearts ever since they had been abandoned. Shaken by the breath of his lips, they now understood that the mission they had received could not crush them.
You are Bishops of the Church, recently called and consecrated. You come from a unique encounter with the Risen One. Through the walls of your powerlessness, He has reached out to you with His presence, even though he knows of your denials and abandonments, your attempts to hide and your experiences of betrayal. Nevertheless, he is present in the Sacrament of the Church and has breathed upon you. This is a breath worth keeping, a breeze that disrupts your life (and it will never again be the same), even as it cheers and consoles you like a gentle breeze, which no one can ever possess. I beg you never to attempt to tame this power, but instead allow it to continually disrupt your life.
Bishops are witnesses of the Risen One
You are now witnesses to the Risen One. This is your primary and irreplaceable task. It is not the muddled discourse of the weak or of losers, but the only treasure that the Church has handed on albeit through fragile hands. To you is entrusted the preaching of the truth which supports the entire edifice of the Church: Jesus is Risen! The One who has subjected his life to love, could not remain among the dead. God the Father raised Jesus! We too will rise with Christ!
It is not a matter of an obvious or an easy proclamation. The world is so content with its present state, at least it appears so, with all that it is able to provide in order to suppress the question of that which is definitive. Men are so forgetful about eternity, but distracted and absorbed, they administer that which is while delaying what will be. Many have tacitly resigned themselves to the habit of navigating according to sight, to the point of removing the very reality of the door that awaits. Many are so enraptured by the cynical calculation of their own survival that now they have become indifferent and, not infrequently, impervious to the possibility of life that will never die.
And yet we are assaulted by questions, the answers to which cannot but come from a definitive future. They are, in fact, such difficult questions that we would not know how to answer them if we were to exclude the day after the Sabbath, apart from the horizon of eternity that it opens, and remain limited us to the amputated logic of the closed present in which we remain imprisoned without the light of that day. How can we face the unfortunate present if we resist the inner sense of belonging to the community of the Risen One? How can we give to the world that which is most precious? Would we be able to remember the greatness of human destiny, if we were to deny within us the courage to subordinate our lives to the love that never dies?
I think of dramatic challenges such as globalization, that brings us close to that which is far away while on the other hand separates those who are close; I think of the epic phenomenon of migration that is so changing our times; I think of the environment, the garden that God has given us as a home for all human beings and for other creatures, now being threatened by short-sightedness and predatory exploitation; I think about dignity and the future of human work, of which entire generations are being denied, reduced to statistics; I think about the desertification of relationships, about the widespread lack of responsibility, about the lack of interest in the future, about the increasing incidence of fearfulness and closed attitudes; about the loss of so many young people and the loneliness being experienced by so many of the elderly. I am certain that every one of you can add to this list of problems.
I don't want to focus on this kind of agenda of tasks because I wouldn't want to scare you, or myself. You are still on your honeymoon! As the Bishop of Rome who, after diligent discernment, has added his own weak voice so that the Risen One may invigorate the episcopal college, I want only to entrust you once again to the joy of the gospel.
The disciples were filled with joy when they encountered the Shepherd who had accepted death for his flock. Rejoice, even as you spend yourselves for the good of your particular Churches. Do not allow yourselves to be robbed of this treasure. Always remember that the gospel will protect you and therefore do not be afraid to go anywhere and to surround yourselves with those the Lord has entrusted to you.
As I explored in Evangelii gaudium, no sphere of the life of mankind can be excluded from the interests of the heart of the Shepherd (EG, 14-15; Redemptoris missio, 33). Beware of the risk of neglecting the collective and individual realities of your flock; do not neglect opportunities for encounter; spare no opportunity to preach the living word of the Lord; invite all people to undertake the mission.
Bishops: teachers, spiritual and catechetical guides
For those who are at home, involved in your community and receiving the Eucharist, I invite you to continue! Be pedagogical bishops, spiritual and catechetical guides, capable of taking them by the hand and making it possible for them to climb the heights of Tabor (cf Lk 9:28-36), guiding them in conscience to the mystery that we profess, to the splendour of the divine face which is hidden in the word that perhaps you are so accustomed to hearing without realizing the fullness of its power. For those who are already journeying with you, find places and set up tents in which the Risen Lord can reveal the fullness of his splendour. Spare no energy in accompanying them on this ascent. Do not allow them to resign themselves to staying on the plain. Gently and carefully remove any wax that sometimes may settle in their ears, impeding them from listening to God who says: This is my Son, the beloved: with him I am well pleased (cf Mt 17:5).
Joy leaves its mark, enchants, enraptures. Without joy, Christianity would diminish in its effect, becoming simply an effort. Care for your priests, in order that the spark of God may remain alive in the people, as much as they may desire to remain in your presence, to feel nostalgic about being with you, may they want for nothing more than to return to His presence.
There are too many empty words that lead people away from Him, relegated to the ephemeral and limited to the provisional. Be sure to speak of Jesus, the beloved of God, the solid food that is continually received and assimilated.
Mystagogical Bishops
Secondly, I remembered people who have been baptized but who do not live according to the needs of one who is baptized. Perhaps it has long been assumed that the earth into which the seed of the gospel has fallen does not need to be cared for. Some people have been disappointed and turned away because they have been disillusioned because the promises of the faith have let them down or because the path proposed by faith has proven too demanding. Many have left and have slammed the door, effectively pointing out our weaknesses and posing questions, without succeeding at all but rather convincing themselves that they have been deceived by hopes which have eventually been disproven.
Strive to be Bishops capable of intercepting such paths; allowing yourselves also to appear to be lost (Lk 24:13-35), wondering as to what has happened to the Jerusalem of their lives and, discretely, allowing them to express their cold hearts. Do not be scandalized by their sufferings and their disillusions. Enlighten them with your own humble flame, caring for them with tenderness, but always capable of enlightening those you reach with your clarity which however is never too dazzling.
Spend time meeting them on the road to their Emmaus. Use words that will reveal to them the things that they are incapable of seeing: the hidden potential in their own delusions. Guide them in the mysteries that lead to words that can be spoken even without recognizing their own strength. More than words, warm their hearts with humble listening and interest in their true good, so that they may open their eyes and turn back to Him from who they have been parted.
Remember, I beg you, that they have already known the Lord. They must however rediscover him because, in the meantime, their eyes have been obscured. Help them to rediscover their Lord, so that they will have the strength to return to Jerusalem. The faith of the community will be enriched and confirmed by the witness of their return. Be vigilant within your communities against the danger of the lurking pride of older children, who can make the rest of the community unable to rejoice with those who were lost and now are found (Lk 15:24).
Missionary bishops
As missionary shepherds of God's freely-offered salvation, seek also those who do not yet know Jesus or those who always tend to refute him. Go toward them, stop in front of them and watch, without fear or awe, in which trees they have climbed (cf Lk 19:1-10). Do not be afraid to invite them to come down immediately, for the Lord wants to enter, even today, into their homes. Help them to understand that salvation still passes under the tree of their lives, and hurry to make your way to their home, which at times is filled with many things that make no sense.
It is not true that we can disregard these distant brothers and sisters. We are not allowed to neglect our concern for their fate. Also, looking out for their authentic and definitive good can open a breach in the protective wall with which they jealously protect their own self-sufficiency. Seeing in us the Lord who calls to them, perhaps they will have the courage to respond to the divine invitation. If this happens, our communities will be enriched by the gifts they have to share and our pastoral hearts will rejoice as they repeat once more: Today, salvation has come to this house. Such horizons should prevail in your pastoral outlook toward the forthcoming Jubilee Year of Mercy which we are preparing to celebrate.
While imparting to each of you and to your Churches the Apostolic Blessing, with great affection and gratitude, I also bless Cardinal Marc Ouellet and Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, the Congregations over which they preside and the entire team of those who work with them.
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