At 10:00am this morning, the second Jubilee Audience was held in Saint Peter's Square, a meeting which Pope Francis has established on one Saturday each month for the pilgrims and the faithful who have come to Rome during the Jubilee of Mercy.
In his speech, the Pope continued the cycle of catecheses on mercy from the perspective of the bible, adding a meditation on the theme: Mercy is a commitment and commenting on a bible passage from the letter to the Romans (8:31a-34).
Following the usual summaries of his catechesis, presented in various languages, the Holy Father offered particular greetings to each group of the faithful in attendance.
The Jubilee Audience concluded with the chanting of the Pater Noster and the Apostolic Blessing.
Dear brothers and sisters, good morning!
The Jubilee of Mercy is a real opportunity to enter profoundly into the heart of the mystery of God's goodness and love. During this time of Lent, the Church invites us to deepen our knowledge of the Lord Jesus and to live in a manner that reflects the faith with a lifestyle that expresses the Father's mercy. This is a commitment that we are called to take on in order to offer concrete signs of God's closeness to those we meet. My life, my attitude, the way I live my life should itself be a concrete sign of the fact that God is close to me. Little gestures of love, of tenderness, of care that make others think that the Lord is with us, close to us. In this way, the door of mercy is opened.
Today, I want to briefly pause and reflect with you on the them of this word that I have spoken: the theme of commitment. What is commitment? What does it mean to commit ourselves? When I commit myself, it means that I take on a responsibility, a task for someone else's good; and it also means the style, the attitude of fidelity and of dedication, of particular attention with which I accomplish this task. Every day, we are asked to commit ourselves to things that we do: to prayer, to work, to study, but also to sports, to leisure activities ... In the end, committing ourselves means putting our good will and our strengths to use in order to make life better.
God is committed to us too. His first commitment was to create the world, and despite our attempts to ruin it - and there are many of those - He is committed to keeping it alive. But his greatest commitment was to give us Jesus. This is the great commitment of God! Yes, Jesus is himself the most extreme commitment that God has ever taken on. We are reminded of this in Saint Paul's writings, when he wrote that God did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for all of us (Rom 8:32). And because of this, together with Jesus, the Father will give us everything that we need.
How is this commitment on the part of God made known to us? It is very easy to verify it in the gospel. In Jesus, God completely committed Himself to restoring hope to the poor, to those who are deprived of dignity, to strangers, to the sick, to prisoners, and to sinners who he always welcomed with kindness. In all of this, Jesus was the living expression of the Father's mercy. I want to repeat this: Jesus always welcomed sinners with kindness. If we think in human terms, the sinner should be the enemy of Jesus, an enemy of God, but He drew close to them with kindness, loved them and changed their hearts. We are all sinners: all of us! We are all guilty before God, but we must not be lacking in trust. He draws close to us in order to comfort us, to show us mercy and forgiveness. This is God's commitment and this is the reason why he sent Jesus: to draw close to us, to all of us and to open the door of his love, of his heart, of his mercy. This is very beautiful ... very beautiful!
Inspired by the merciful love with which Jesus expressed God's commitment, even we can and should imitate his love with our commitment, above all in times of greatest need, where there is more thirst for hope. I think - for example - of our commitment to people who have been abandoned, to those who bear very challenging handicaps, to those who are gravely ill, to those who are dying, to those who are unable to express gratitude ... In all these cases, we can demonstrate God's mercy through our commitment to life, a testament to our faith in Christ. We should always carry God's embrace within us - for God has embraced us with his mercy - and share this embrace with others, with those who are in need, with those who are suffering in heart or those who are saddened: draw close to them with God's embrace, the same embrace that He has given to us.
May this Jubilee help our minds and our hearts to truly realize the commitment that God has taken on toward each of us, and because of this realization, may we transform our lives into commitments of mercy for others.
This catechesis was subsequently repeated in summary form in various languages, and the Holy Father offered words of greeting to each of the groups of faithful in attendance. To English-speaking pilgrims, he said:
I greet the English-speaking pilgrims and visitors taking part in today’s Audience, especially those from Scotland, Norway and Latvia. With prayerful good wishes that the present Jubilee of Mercy will be a moment of grace and spiritual renewal for you and your families, I invoke upon all of you joy and peace in our Lord Jesus Christ. God bless you all!
In his speech, the Pope continued the cycle of catecheses on mercy from the perspective of the bible, adding a meditation on the theme: Mercy is a commitment and commenting on a bible passage from the letter to the Romans (8:31a-34).
Following the usual summaries of his catechesis, presented in various languages, the Holy Father offered particular greetings to each group of the faithful in attendance.
The Jubilee Audience concluded with the chanting of the Pater Noster and the Apostolic Blessing.
Catechesis of His Holiness, Pope Francis
for the Second Jubilee Audience
Dear brothers and sisters, good morning!
The Jubilee of Mercy is a real opportunity to enter profoundly into the heart of the mystery of God's goodness and love. During this time of Lent, the Church invites us to deepen our knowledge of the Lord Jesus and to live in a manner that reflects the faith with a lifestyle that expresses the Father's mercy. This is a commitment that we are called to take on in order to offer concrete signs of God's closeness to those we meet. My life, my attitude, the way I live my life should itself be a concrete sign of the fact that God is close to me. Little gestures of love, of tenderness, of care that make others think that the Lord is with us, close to us. In this way, the door of mercy is opened.
Today, I want to briefly pause and reflect with you on the them of this word that I have spoken: the theme of commitment. What is commitment? What does it mean to commit ourselves? When I commit myself, it means that I take on a responsibility, a task for someone else's good; and it also means the style, the attitude of fidelity and of dedication, of particular attention with which I accomplish this task. Every day, we are asked to commit ourselves to things that we do: to prayer, to work, to study, but also to sports, to leisure activities ... In the end, committing ourselves means putting our good will and our strengths to use in order to make life better.
God is committed to us too. His first commitment was to create the world, and despite our attempts to ruin it - and there are many of those - He is committed to keeping it alive. But his greatest commitment was to give us Jesus. This is the great commitment of God! Yes, Jesus is himself the most extreme commitment that God has ever taken on. We are reminded of this in Saint Paul's writings, when he wrote that God did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for all of us (Rom 8:32). And because of this, together with Jesus, the Father will give us everything that we need.
How is this commitment on the part of God made known to us? It is very easy to verify it in the gospel. In Jesus, God completely committed Himself to restoring hope to the poor, to those who are deprived of dignity, to strangers, to the sick, to prisoners, and to sinners who he always welcomed with kindness. In all of this, Jesus was the living expression of the Father's mercy. I want to repeat this: Jesus always welcomed sinners with kindness. If we think in human terms, the sinner should be the enemy of Jesus, an enemy of God, but He drew close to them with kindness, loved them and changed their hearts. We are all sinners: all of us! We are all guilty before God, but we must not be lacking in trust. He draws close to us in order to comfort us, to show us mercy and forgiveness. This is God's commitment and this is the reason why he sent Jesus: to draw close to us, to all of us and to open the door of his love, of his heart, of his mercy. This is very beautiful ... very beautiful!
Inspired by the merciful love with which Jesus expressed God's commitment, even we can and should imitate his love with our commitment, above all in times of greatest need, where there is more thirst for hope. I think - for example - of our commitment to people who have been abandoned, to those who bear very challenging handicaps, to those who are gravely ill, to those who are dying, to those who are unable to express gratitude ... In all these cases, we can demonstrate God's mercy through our commitment to life, a testament to our faith in Christ. We should always carry God's embrace within us - for God has embraced us with his mercy - and share this embrace with others, with those who are in need, with those who are suffering in heart or those who are saddened: draw close to them with God's embrace, the same embrace that He has given to us.
May this Jubilee help our minds and our hearts to truly realize the commitment that God has taken on toward each of us, and because of this realization, may we transform our lives into commitments of mercy for others.
This catechesis was subsequently repeated in summary form in various languages, and the Holy Father offered words of greeting to each of the groups of faithful in attendance. To English-speaking pilgrims, he said:
I greet the English-speaking pilgrims and visitors taking part in today’s Audience, especially those from Scotland, Norway and Latvia. With prayerful good wishes that the present Jubilee of Mercy will be a moment of grace and spiritual renewal for you and your families, I invoke upon all of you joy and peace in our Lord Jesus Christ. God bless you all!
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