- Angelus Address, 1 November 2012
02 July 2015
In the Saints we see the victory of love over selfishness and death: we
see that following Christ leads to life, eternal life, and gives meaning
to the present, every moment that passes, because it is filled with
love and hope. Only faith in eternal life makes us truly love history
and the present, but without attachment, with the freedom of the
pilgrim, who loves the earth because his heart is set on Heaven.
In fact, being united to Christ, in the Church, does not negate one's
personality, but opens it, transforms it with the power of love, and
confers on it, already here on earth, an eternal dimension.
- Angelus Address, 1 November 2012
Dear friends, our time needs Christians who have been grasped by Christ,
who grow in faith through their familiarity with Sacred Scripture and
the sacraments. People who are, as it were, an open book that tells of
the experience of new life in the Spirit, of the presence of that God
who supports us on our way and opens us to everlasting life.
- General Audience Address, 24 October 2012
Faith is a gift of God, but it is also a profoundly free and human act.
- General Audience Address, 24 October 2012
The profession of faith above all is not something to be understood,
something intellectual, something to be memorized — this too of course —
it also touches our mind, it especially touches our life.
And to me this seems very important. It is not an intellectual thing,
a pure formula. It is a dialogue of God with us, an action of God with
us, it is a response of ours, it is a journey. The truth of Christ may
be understood only if his journey is understood. Only if we accept
Christ as the way do we really set out on the way of Christ and can
understand the truth of Christ. Truth that is not lived does not open;
only truth lived, truth accepted as a way of life, as a path, also opens
as truth in its full riches and depth. This formula is thus a way, it
is an expression of our conversion, of an action of God.
- Lectio Divina, 11 June 2012
Consequently we switch to the first renunciation: “Do you reject sin
so as to live in the freedom of God’s children?”. Today freedom and
Christian life, the observance of God's commandments, go in opposite
directions; being Christian is like a form of slavery; freedom is being
emancipated from the Christian faith, emancipated — all things
considered — from God. To many people the word “sin” seems almost
ridiculous, because they say: “How can that be! We cannot offend God!
God is so great, what does it matter to God if I make a small mistake?
We cannot offend God, his concern for us is too great for us to offend
him”.
This seems true but it is not true. God made himself vulnerable. In the crucified Christ we see that God is vulnerability, God’s love is his caring for man, God’s love means that our first concern must not be to hurt or destroy his love, not to do anything against his love for otherwise we also live against ourselves and against our freedom. And, in reality, this seeming liberty in emancipation from God immediately becomes a slavery of the many dictatorships of the time, that require guidance if they are to be deemed worthy of the time.
This seems true but it is not true. God made himself vulnerable. In the crucified Christ we see that God is vulnerability, God’s love is his caring for man, God’s love means that our first concern must not be to hurt or destroy his love, not to do anything against his love for otherwise we also live against ourselves and against our freedom. And, in reality, this seeming liberty in emancipation from God immediately becomes a slavery of the many dictatorships of the time, that require guidance if they are to be deemed worthy of the time.
- Lectio Divina, 11 June 2012
The Sacrament of Baptism is not an act that lasts an hour. Rather it is a
reality of our whole life, a journey of our whole life.
- Lectio Divina, 11 June 2012
Christianity is not something purely spiritual, something only
subjective, emotional, of the will, of ideas; it is a cosmic reality.
God is the Creator of all matter, matter enters Christianity, and it is
only in this great context of matter and spirit together that we are
Christians. It is therefore very important that matter be part of our
faith, that the body be part of our faith; faith is not purely
spiritual, but this is how God inserts us into the whole reality of the
cosmos and transforms the cosmos, draws it to himself.
- Lectio Divina, 11 June 2012
This means that with Baptism, with immersion in the name of God, we too
are already immersed in immortal life, we are alive for ever. In other
words Baptism is a first stage in resurrection: immersed in God, we are
already immersed in the indestructible life, our resurrection begins.
Just as Abraham, Isaac and Jacob being the “name of God” are alive, so
we, inserted in the name of God, are alive in immortal life. Baptism is
the first step of resurrection, entry into the indestructible life of
God.
- Lectio Divina, 11 June 2012
To be baptized is never a solitary act by “me”; it is always,
necessarily, being united with all the others, being in unity and
solidarity with the whole Body of Christ, with the whole community of
his brothers and sisters. This event which is Baptism inserts me in
community, breaks my isolation. We must bear this in mind in our being
Christian.
- Lectio Divina, 11 June 2012
Becoming Christian is not something that follows a decision of mine:
“herewith I make myself a Christian”. Of course, my decision is also
necessary, but first of all it is an action of God with me: it is not I
who make myself Christian. I am taken on by God, taken in hand by God
and thus, by saying “yes” to God’s action I become Christian. Becoming
Christians, in a certain sense is passive; I do not make myself
Christian but God makes me his man, God takes me in hand and puts my
life in a new dimension. Likewise I do not make myself live but life is
given to me; I am not born because I have made myself a human being, but
I am born because I have been granted to be human. Therefore my
Christian being has also been granted to me, it is in the passive for me, which becomes active in
our, in my life. And this fact of being in the passive, of not making
ourselves Christian but of being made Christian by God, already to some
extent involves the mystery of the Cross: only by dying to my
selfishness, by coming out of myself, can I be Christian.
- Lectio Divina, 11 June 2012
But how should we Christians respond to the question of death? We
respond with faith in God, with a gaze of firm hope founded on the death
and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. So, death opens to life, to eternal
life, which is not an infinite duplicate of the present time, but
something completely new. Faith tells us that the true immortality for
which we hope is not an idea, a concept, but a relationship of full
communion with the living God: it is resting in his hands, in his love,
and becoming in him one with all the brothers and sisters that he has
created and redeemed, with all Creation. Our hope, then, lies in the
love of God that shines resplendent from the Cross of Christ who lets
Jesus’ words to the good thief: “Today you will be with me in Paradise”
(Lk 23:43) resound in our heart. This is life in its fullness: life in
God; a life of which we now have only a glimpse as one sees blue sky
through fog.
- Homily, 3 November 2012
If the love of God has planted deep roots in a person, then he is able
to love even those who do not deserve it, as God does us. Fathers and
mothers do not love their children only when they deserve love; they
always love them, though of course, they make them understand when they
are wrong. We learn from God to seek only what is good and never what is
evil. We learn to look at each other not only with our eyes, but with
the eyes of God, which is the gaze of Jesus Christ. A gaze that begins
in the heart and does not stop at the surface, that goes beyond
appearances and manages to capture the deepest aspirations of the other:
waiting to be heard, for caring attention, in a word: love. But the
opposite is also true: that by opening myself to another, just as he or
she is, by reaching out, by making myself available, I am also opening
myself to know God, to feel that he is there and is good. Love of God
and love of neighbour are inseparable and are mutually related. Jesus
did not invent one or the other but revealed that they are essentially a
single commandment and did so not only through the Word, but especially
with his testimony: the person of Jesus and his whole Mystery embody
the unity of love of God and neighbour, like the two arms of the Cross,
vertical and horizontal. In the Eucharist he gives us this two-fold
love, giving himself, because, nourished by this Bread, we love one
another as he has loved us.
- Angelus Address, 4 November 2012
17 February 2015
All our preaching must measure itself against the saying of Jesus
Christ: “My teaching is not mine” (Jn 7:16). We preach not private
theories and opinions, but the faith of the Church, whose servants we
are.
- Homily, 5 April 2012
The right to freedom of religion, both in its private
and in its public dimension, manifests the unity of the human person,
who is at once a citizen and a believer. It also legitimizes the fact
that believers have a contribution to make to the building up of
society. Strengthening religious freedom consolidates social bonds,
nourishes the hope of a better world, creates favourable conditions for
peace and harmonious development, while at the same time establishing
solid foundations for securing the rights of future generations.
- Homily, 28 March 2012
The disciple of Jesus does not respond to evil with evil, but is always an instrument of good instead, a herald of pardon, a bearer of happiness, a servant of unity. He wishes to write in each of your lives a story of friendship. Hold on to him, then, as the best of friends. He will never tire of speaking to those who always love and who do good. This you will hear, if you strive in each moment to be with him who will help you in more difficult situations.
- Meeting with Young People, 24 March 2012
God wants us to be happy always. He knows us and he loves us. If we
allow the love of Christ to change our heart, then we can change the
world. This is the secret of authentic happiness.
- Meeting with Young People, 24 March 2012
A yearning for joy lurks within the heart of every man
and woman. Far more than immediate and fleeting feelings of
satisfaction, our hearts seek a perfect, full and lasting joy capable of
giving “flavour” to our existence. This is particularly true for you,
because youth is a time of continuous discovery of life, of the world,
of others and of ourselves. It is a time of openness to the future and
of great longing for happiness, friendship, sharing and truth, a time
when we are moved by high ideals and make great plans.
The Church’s vocation is to bring joy to the world, a
joy that is authentic and enduring, the joy proclaimed by the angels to
the shepherds on the night Jesus was born (cf. Lk 2:10). Not only
did God speak, not only did he accomplish great signs throughout the
history of humankind, but he drew so near to us that he became one of us
and lived our life completely. In these difficult times, so many young
people all around you need to hear that the Christian message is a
message of joy and hope! I would like to reflect with you on this joy
and on how to find it, so that you can experience it more deeply and
bring it to everyone you meet.
The faith handed down from the Apostles leads to complete freedom and joy...
- Meeting with Young People, 15 September 2012
Only forgiveness, given and received, can lay lasting foundations for reconciliation and universal peace (cf. Rom 12:16b, 18).
- Address, 15 September 2012
Our human dignity is inseparable from the sacredness of life as the gift
of the Creator. In God’s plan, each person is unique and irreplaceable.
- Address, 15 September 2012
It is here and now that we are called to celebrate the victory of love
over hate, forgiveness over revenge, service over domination, humility
over pride, and unity over division.
- Address, 14 September 2012
For Christians, to exalt the cross means to be united to the totality of
God’s unconditional love for mankind. It means making an act of faith!
To exalt the cross, against the backdrop of the resurrection, means to
desire to experience and to show the totality of this love. It means
making an act of love! To exalt the cross means to be a committed herald
of fraternal and ecclesial communion, the source of authentic Christian
witness. It means making an act of hope!
- Address, 14 September 2012
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)