Pope: in the US "sin of racism", but violence is self-destructive and self-defeating

"We learn from Abraham to pray with faith: listening, walking, dialoguing up to arguing, we must not be afraid to argue with God, it may seem like heresy. I have often heard it said, I got angry with God”. "But this is prayer." “We need to learn to dialogue with God like a son with a father. Abraham teaches us this”.

Vatican City (AsiaNews) – At today’s general audience Pope Francis addressed what is happening in the United States due to the killing of George Floyd and he condemned the "sin of racism" and violence.

In greeting to the English-speaking faithful he said: “Dear brothers and sisters in the United States, I have witnessed with great concern the disturbing social unrest in your nation in these past days, following the tragic death of Mr George Floyd. My friends, we cannot tolerate or turn a blind eye to racism and exclusion in any form and yet claim to defend the sacredness of every human life. At the same time, we have to recognize that ‘the violence of recent nights is self-destructive and self-defeating. Nothing is gained by violence and so much is lost’. Today I join the Church in Saint Paul and Minneapolis, and in the entire United States, in praying for the repose of the soul of George Floyd and of all those others who have lost their lives as a result of the sin of racism. Let us pray for the consolation of their grieving families and friends and let us implore the national reconciliation and peace for which we yearn. May Our Lady of Guadalupe, Mother of America, intercede for all those who work for peace and justice in your land and throughout the world. May God bless all of you and your families".

Previously, continuing the cycle of catechesis on prayer, Pope Francis focused his meditation on the theme: "Abraham’s prayer'(Gen 15.1.3-6) .

Abraham, he stressed, "trusted" the "voice of God", left his homeland, his family roots and went, without knowing where. “Abraham leaves. He listens to the voice of God and trusts His word. This is important: he trusts the word of God. And with his departure, a new way of conceiving the relationship with God is born; it is for this reason that the patriarch Abraham is present in the great Jewish, Christian and Islamic spiritual traditions as the perfect man of God, capable of submitting to Him, even when his will proves difficult, if not incomprehensible. Abraham is therefore the man of the Word. When God speaks, man becomes the receptor of that Word and his life the place where it asks to incarnate. This is a great novelty in man's religious journey: the life of the believer begins to be conceived as a vocation, as a place where a promise is fulfilled; and he moves in the world not so much under the weight of an enigma, but with the strength of that promise, which one day will come true. Abraham believed in God’s promise, He trusted and went without knowing where he was going ".

“God is no longer seen only in cosmic phenomena, like a distant God, who can instill terror. The God of Abraham becomes 'my God', the God of my personal history, who guides my steps, who does not abandon me; the God of my days, the companion of my adventures; the God of Providence ".

Abraham becomes “familiar with God, also capable of arguing with him, but always faithful. Until the ultimate test, when God asks him to sacrifice his own son Isaac. His only one, his heir. Here Abraham lives faith like a drama, stumbling in the night, under a sky this time without stars. Often, we too walk in the dark, but with faith. God himself will stop the hand of Abraham already ready to strike, because he has truly seen his total availability (cf. Gen 22: 1-19). May we learn from Abraham to pray with faith: listening, walking, dialoguing until arguing, we must not be afraid to argue with God, it may seem like heresy. I have often heard it said, I got angry with God”. "But this is prayer."

Pope Francis concluded: “We need to learn to dialogue with God like a son with a father. Abraham teaches us this.”

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