This morning's General Audience began at 9:20am (3:20am EST) in Saint Peter's Square, where the Holy Father, Pope Francis met with groups of pilgrims and the faithful from Italy and from every corner of the world.
In his speech, the Pope continued the cycle of catecheses on the Our Father, adding a meditation on the phrase: May thy kingdom come (Mt 13:31-32).
After having summarized his catechesis in various languages, the Holy Father offered particular greetings to each group of the faithful in attendance.
The General Audience concluded with the chanting of the Pater Noster and the Apostolic blessing.
Dear brothers and sisters, good morning!
When we pray the Our Father, the second invocation with which we address God is may thy kingdom come (Mt 6:10). After having prayed that his name be held holy, the believer expresses a desire to hasten the coming of his kingdom. This desire has flowed, so to speak, from the very heart of Christ, who began his preaching in Galilee proclaiming: The time is near and the kingdom of God is at hand; be converted and believe in the Gospel (Mk 1,15). These words are not a threat at all, on the contrary, they are a happy proclamation, a message of joy. Jesus does not want to push people to convert by sowing the fear of God's looming judgment or a sense of guilt for evil committed. Jesus does not proselytize: he simply announces. On the contrary, what He brings is the Good News of salvation, and starting with this good news, he calls all people to be converted. Everyone is invited to believe in the gospel: the lordship of God has become close to his children. This is the Gospel: the lordship of God has come close to his children. And Jesus proclaims this marvellous thing, this grace: God, the Father, loves us, is near to us and teaches us to walk on the path of holiness.
The signs of the coming of this Kingdom are many and all are positive. Jesus begins his ministry taking care of the sick, both in body and in spirit, taking care of those who have lived a social exclusion - for example the lepers - sinners who have been looked upon with contempt by everyone, even by those who were more sinners than they were but who had pretended to be without sin. And Jesus, what did he call them? Hypocrites. Jesus himself indicates these signs, the signs of the Kingdom of God: The blind regain their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead rise again, the Gospel is proclaimed to the poor (Mt 11: 5) .
May your Kingdom come! The Christian repeats these words insistently when he prays the Our Father. Jesus came; but the world is still marked by sin, populated by so many people who suffer, by people who are not reconciled and do not forgive, by wars and by so many forms of exploitation; we can think of the trafficking of children, for example. All these facts are proof that the victory of Christ has not yet been fully implemented: many men and women still live with closed hearts. It is above all in these situations that the second invocation of the Our Father emerges on the Christian's lips: May your kingdom come!. Which is like saying: Father, we need you! Jesus, we need you, we need you to be everywhere and forever; You are Lord in our midst! . Let your kingdom come, come live among us.
Sometimes we ask ourselves: why is this Kingdom coming about so slowly? Jesus loves to speak of his victory with the language of the parables. For example, he says that the Kingdom of God is like a field where good wheat and weeds grow together: the worst mistake would be to want to intervene immediately eradicating from the world those that seem to us to be weeds. God is not like us, God has patience. It is not with violence that the Kingdom is established in the world: its style of propagation is meekness (cf Mt 13: 24-30).
The Kingdom of God is certainly a great force, the greatest that there is, but not according to the criteria of the world; this is why it never seems to have an absolute majority. It is like the leaven that is kneaded in the flour: apparently it disappears, yet it is precisely that which ferments the dough (cf Mt 13:33). Or it is like a grain of mustard, so small, almost invisible, but it carries within it the explosive force of nature, and once grown it becomes the greatest of all the trees of the garden (cf Mt 13: 31-32).
In this destiny of the Kingdom of God we can see the progress of Jesus' life: he too was a sign for his contemporaries, an event almost unknown to the official historians of the time. He defined himself as a grain of wheat which dies in the earth but only in this way can he bear much fruit (cf Jn 12,24). The symbol of the seed is eloquent: one day the peasant sinks it into the earth (a gesture that looks like a burial), and then, whether we sleep or wake, by night or by day, the seed sprouts and grows. As he himself does not know (Mk 4:27). A seed that sprouts is more the work of God than of the man who sowed it (cf Mk 4:27). God always precedes us, God always surprises us. Thanks to him after the night of Good Friday there is a dawn of Resurrection capable of illuminating the whole world with hope.
May your kingdom come!. We sow this word in the midst of our sins and failures. We give it to people who are defeated and bent by life, to those who have savoured more hate than love, to those who have experienced useless days without ever understanding why. Let us give this word to those who have fought for justice, to all the martyrs of history, to those who have concluded that they have fought for nothing and that evil always dominates in this world. Then we will hear the prayer of the Our Father respond. We will repeat for the umpteenth time those words of hope, the same ones that the Spirit has placed in the seal of all the Holy Scriptures: Yes, I am coming soon!: This is the Lord's answer. I'm coming soon. Amen. And the Church of the Lord replies: Come, Lord Jesus (cf Rev 2:20). May your kingdom come is like saying Come, Lord Jesus. And Jesus says: I am coming soon. And Jesus comes, in his way, but every day. We trust this. And when we pray the Our Father, we always say: May your kingdom come, so that we can hear his response in our heart: Yes, yes, I am coming, and I will come soon. Thank you!
(Original text in Italian)
The Holy Father's catechesis was then summarized in various languages, and His Holiness offered greetings to each group of the faithful in attendance. To English-speaking visitors, he said:
I greet the English-speaking pilgrims and visitors taking part in today’s Audience, especially those from England, Wales, India, the Philippines and the United States of America. May the Lenten journey we begin today bring us to Easter with hearts purified and renewed by the grace of the Holy Spirit. Upon you, and your families, I invoke joy and peace in Christ our Redeemer!
In his speech, the Pope continued the cycle of catecheses on the Our Father, adding a meditation on the phrase: May thy kingdom come (Mt 13:31-32).
After having summarized his catechesis in various languages, the Holy Father offered particular greetings to each group of the faithful in attendance.
The General Audience concluded with the chanting of the Pater Noster and the Apostolic blessing.
Catechesis of His Holiness, Pope Francis
for the General Audience
Dear brothers and sisters, good morning!
When we pray the Our Father, the second invocation with which we address God is may thy kingdom come (Mt 6:10). After having prayed that his name be held holy, the believer expresses a desire to hasten the coming of his kingdom. This desire has flowed, so to speak, from the very heart of Christ, who began his preaching in Galilee proclaiming: The time is near and the kingdom of God is at hand; be converted and believe in the Gospel (Mk 1,15). These words are not a threat at all, on the contrary, they are a happy proclamation, a message of joy. Jesus does not want to push people to convert by sowing the fear of God's looming judgment or a sense of guilt for evil committed. Jesus does not proselytize: he simply announces. On the contrary, what He brings is the Good News of salvation, and starting with this good news, he calls all people to be converted. Everyone is invited to believe in the gospel: the lordship of God has become close to his children. This is the Gospel: the lordship of God has come close to his children. And Jesus proclaims this marvellous thing, this grace: God, the Father, loves us, is near to us and teaches us to walk on the path of holiness.
The signs of the coming of this Kingdom are many and all are positive. Jesus begins his ministry taking care of the sick, both in body and in spirit, taking care of those who have lived a social exclusion - for example the lepers - sinners who have been looked upon with contempt by everyone, even by those who were more sinners than they were but who had pretended to be without sin. And Jesus, what did he call them? Hypocrites. Jesus himself indicates these signs, the signs of the Kingdom of God: The blind regain their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead rise again, the Gospel is proclaimed to the poor (Mt 11: 5) .
May your Kingdom come! The Christian repeats these words insistently when he prays the Our Father. Jesus came; but the world is still marked by sin, populated by so many people who suffer, by people who are not reconciled and do not forgive, by wars and by so many forms of exploitation; we can think of the trafficking of children, for example. All these facts are proof that the victory of Christ has not yet been fully implemented: many men and women still live with closed hearts. It is above all in these situations that the second invocation of the Our Father emerges on the Christian's lips: May your kingdom come!. Which is like saying: Father, we need you! Jesus, we need you, we need you to be everywhere and forever; You are Lord in our midst! . Let your kingdom come, come live among us.
Sometimes we ask ourselves: why is this Kingdom coming about so slowly? Jesus loves to speak of his victory with the language of the parables. For example, he says that the Kingdom of God is like a field where good wheat and weeds grow together: the worst mistake would be to want to intervene immediately eradicating from the world those that seem to us to be weeds. God is not like us, God has patience. It is not with violence that the Kingdom is established in the world: its style of propagation is meekness (cf Mt 13: 24-30).
The Kingdom of God is certainly a great force, the greatest that there is, but not according to the criteria of the world; this is why it never seems to have an absolute majority. It is like the leaven that is kneaded in the flour: apparently it disappears, yet it is precisely that which ferments the dough (cf Mt 13:33). Or it is like a grain of mustard, so small, almost invisible, but it carries within it the explosive force of nature, and once grown it becomes the greatest of all the trees of the garden (cf Mt 13: 31-32).
In this destiny of the Kingdom of God we can see the progress of Jesus' life: he too was a sign for his contemporaries, an event almost unknown to the official historians of the time. He defined himself as a grain of wheat which dies in the earth but only in this way can he bear much fruit (cf Jn 12,24). The symbol of the seed is eloquent: one day the peasant sinks it into the earth (a gesture that looks like a burial), and then, whether we sleep or wake, by night or by day, the seed sprouts and grows. As he himself does not know (Mk 4:27). A seed that sprouts is more the work of God than of the man who sowed it (cf Mk 4:27). God always precedes us, God always surprises us. Thanks to him after the night of Good Friday there is a dawn of Resurrection capable of illuminating the whole world with hope.
May your kingdom come!. We sow this word in the midst of our sins and failures. We give it to people who are defeated and bent by life, to those who have savoured more hate than love, to those who have experienced useless days without ever understanding why. Let us give this word to those who have fought for justice, to all the martyrs of history, to those who have concluded that they have fought for nothing and that evil always dominates in this world. Then we will hear the prayer of the Our Father respond. We will repeat for the umpteenth time those words of hope, the same ones that the Spirit has placed in the seal of all the Holy Scriptures: Yes, I am coming soon!: This is the Lord's answer. I'm coming soon. Amen. And the Church of the Lord replies: Come, Lord Jesus (cf Rev 2:20). May your kingdom come is like saying Come, Lord Jesus. And Jesus says: I am coming soon. And Jesus comes, in his way, but every day. We trust this. And when we pray the Our Father, we always say: May your kingdom come, so that we can hear his response in our heart: Yes, yes, I am coming, and I will come soon. Thank you!
(Original text in Italian)
The Holy Father's catechesis was then summarized in various languages, and His Holiness offered greetings to each group of the faithful in attendance. To English-speaking visitors, he said:
I greet the English-speaking pilgrims and visitors taking part in today’s Audience, especially those from England, Wales, India, the Philippines and the United States of America. May the Lenten journey we begin today bring us to Easter with hearts purified and renewed by the grace of the Holy Spirit. Upon you, and your families, I invoke joy and peace in Christ our Redeemer!
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