May marriage be a ‘us’ with the Holy Spirit, says pope at his weekly audience
From St Peter's Square, the pope shared in the pain due to conflicts in the world and their death numbers, including the frightening level of military spending. Speaking about John Paul II, whose memory was celebrated yesterday, Francis said that he was “the pope of families”. Couples were at the centre of today’s catechesis on the Holy Spirit. “The human couple” is the ”realization of the communion of love that is the Trinity”.
Vatican City (AsiaNews) – This is a “figure that should frighten us,” said Pope Francis at the general audience in St Peter's this morning. The pontiff urged the faithful to look at the most profitable and historically solid investments "in weapons factories", which “profit from death”, as a litmus test in today's world, amid the wars and sufferings that rage unabated.
This reflects the latest report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), which estimates that global military spending last year reached an unprecedented US$ 2.443 trillion, an increase of 6.8 per cent over the previous year.
“War does not forgive. War is a defeat from the beginning. Let us pray to the Lord for peace. May he give peace to all. To all of us," the pontiff said in his address to Italian-speaking faithful.
“Brothers and sisters, let us pray for peace. Today, early in the morning, I received the statistics of the dead in Ukraine. It's terrible,” Francis said. Although he did not cite any figure, last month the Wall Street Journal estimated that the number of people killed and injured after two and a half years following the beginning of the Russian invasion at over a million.
"And let's not forget Myanmar," the pontiff added. “Let us not forget Palestine, which is suffering inhumane attacks. Let us not forget Israel,” and "all the nations that are at war", who yearn for peace.
Pope Francis devoted the catechesis read at the opening of the audience to the action of the Holy Spirit in the family. Continuing the cycle of reflections on the Holy Spirit in the Church, the pope, starting from the reference reading (1 Jn 4:7-8), shared “ a few crumbs of the doctrine of the Holy Spirit developed in the Latin tradition", of which Saint Augustine is the first author, who is part of the "revelation" that "God is love" (1 Jn 4:8).
“Now love presupposes one who loves, one who is beloved and love itself that unites them,” he added. “The God of Christians is therefore a ‘sole’ God, but not solitary; His is a unity of communion and love.”
From these premises, the catechesis focused on the family, in particular on the sacrament of Christian marriage, since “The human couple is [. . .] the first and most elementary realization of the communion of love that is the Trinity,” called to “form a first-person plural, a ‘we’,” like the Holy Spirit, which is usually associated with the “third-person”.
“Stand before each other as an ‘I’ and a ‘you’, and stand before the rest of the world, including the children, as a ‘we’.” This should be the expression of family unity.
“How much children need this unity – mother and father together – unity of parents, and how much they suffer when it is lacking!” Francis lamented.
This "vocation [. . .] needs the support of He who is the Gift, indeed the quintessential giver. Where the Holy Spirit enters, the capacity for self-giving is reborn.”
“No-one says that such unity is an easy task, least of all in today’s world”. Yet, with the Holy Spirit, it is possible to renew the miracle that Jesus performed at Cana, “to change the water of habit into a new joy of being together.”
“An Italian proverb says, ‘Never place a finger, never intervene, between husband and wife’,” Francis said. “There is in fact a ‘finger’ to be placed between husband and wife, the ‘finger of God’: that is, the Holy Spirit!”
Finally, addressing Polish-speaking pilgrims, Pope Francis mentioned Saint John Paul II, whose memory was celebrated yesterday.
"He was, as I said on the occasion of his canonization, the pope of families," and “constantly reminded you Poles that the strength of the family must come from God. Let us ask for the strength of the Holy Spirit for all families, so that the ability to give themselves and the joy of being together can relive in them."
Turning to the newlyweds present in large numbers in St Peter's Square, the pontiff said: “Know how to be missionaries of the Gospel everywhere, offering the spiritual support of prayer and your concrete help to those who struggle to bring it to those who do not yet know it."
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17/04/2024 16:34
