" When the Church loses courage, the Church enters into a ‘lukewarm’ atmosphere. The lukewarm, lukewarm Christians, without courage ... That hurts the Church so much, because this tepid atmosphere draws you inside, and problems arise among us; we no longer have the horizon, or courage to pray towards heaven, or the courage to proclaim the Gospel. We are lukewarm ... ".

Vatican City (AsiaNews) - The Church and all Christians must have the courage to pass on the faith, " faith in the Risen Jesus, in Jesus who has forgiven our sins through His death and reconciled us with the Father." Because " When the Church loses courage, the Church enters into a 'lukewarm' atmosphere. The lukewarm, lukewarm Christians, without courage ... That hurts the Church so much, because this tepid atmosphere draws you inside, and problems arise among us; we no longer have the horizon, or courage to pray towards heaven, or the courage to proclaim the Gospel. We are lukewarm ... We have the courage to get involved in our small things in our jealousies, our envy, our careerism, in selfishly going forward ... In all these things, but this is not good for the Church: the Church must be courageous! We all have to be courageous in prayer, in challenging Jesus" who said," Whatever you ask in My name I will do so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. "

The "grace of courage" to proclaim "with life and word" was the focus of the homily that Pope Francis gave during Mass, like every morning, in the chapel of Casa Santa Marta, concelebrated with Msgr. Claudio Maria Celli, president of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, which was attended by the Swiss Guards with their commander Daniel Rudolf Anrig. At the end of the celebration, the Pope addressed a special greeting to them. Yours, he said, "is a beautiful testimony of fidelity to the Church" and "love for the Pope."

All of us Christians who have received the faith, Francis said, as reported by Vatican Radio, "we must pass this on", "we must proclaim this with our lives, with our word." But what is this fundamental faith? It is faith in the Risen Jesus, in Jesus who has forgiven our sins through His death and reconciled us with the Father". And transmitting this requires us to be courageous: the courage of transmitting the faith. A sometimes simple courage. I remember - excuse me - a personal story: as a child every Good Friday my grandmother took us to the Procession of Candles and at the end of the procession came the recumbent Christ and my grandmother made us kneel down and told us children, 'Look he is dead, but tomorrow he will be Risen! '. That is how the faith entered: faith in Christ Crucified and Risen. In the history of the Church there have been many, many people who have wanted to blur this strong certainty and speak of a spiritual resurrection. No, Christ is alive". "Christ is alive" and is "also live among us."

But there is also another courage that Jesus asks of us:"Jesus - to put it in stronger terms - challenges us to prayer and says this:' Whatever you ask in my name, I will do so that the Father may be glorified in the Son '. If you ask anything in my name, I will do it ... But this is really powerful! We must have the courage to go to Jesus and ask him: 'But you said this, do it! Make the faith grow, make evangelization move forward, help me to solve this problem... Do we have this courage in prayer? Or do we pray a little, when we can, spending a bit' of time in prayer? But that courage, that parresia even in prayer ... ".

 

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