The encyclical on Creation "which places itself in the line of the Church's social doctrine", is "a call to responsibility based on the task that God has given to human kind". "The work of God's love is stronger than the work of death" it protects us "from a nihilistic vision of death, as well as the false consolations of the world." If we allow ourselves to be sustained by faith "the experience of mourning can generate a stronger solidarity of family ties, a new opening to the pain of other families, a new fraternity with families that are born and reborn in hope."

Vatican City (AsiaNews) - An invitation to "ask forgiveness for the people and institutions that close the door" to refugees, and another to welcome “the encyclical which will be published tomorrow on the "common home" with open hearts, concluded the general audience today, dedicated by Pope Francis to the necessity that "Pastors and all Christians express a more concrete sense of faith before the experience of family mourning".

The Pope spoke refugees in the context of next Saturday’s World Day for Refugees sponsored by the UN , "we pray for the many brothers and sisters who seek refuge far from their native lands, who seek a home where they can live without fear” and that “everyone to ask forgiveness for those persons and institutions that close the doors on these people who are searching for family, that are searching for safety”.

As for the encyclical, Pope Francis said, “Tomorrow, as you know, the Encyclical on the care of the ‘common house’ that is creation will be published. Pope Francis went on to say, “Our ‘house’ is being ruined, and that hurts everyone, especially the poorest among us.”

The Catechesis for the general audience was instead dedicated to the belief that "the work of God's love is stronger than the work of death" and protects us "from the nihilistic vision of death, as well as the false consolations of the world, so that the Christian truth” cannot be “mixed with mythologies of various kinds ", giving into rituals or superstition.

"Death – he told the 30 thousand people present in St Peter's Square - is an experience that affects all families without exception. It is part of life; yet, when it touches family affection, death never seems natural. It is particularly devastating for parents to outlive their children, which contradicts the elementary nature of the relationships that give meaning to the family. The loss of a son or a daughter is like stopping time: it opens a chasm that swallows the past and also the future. " It is "a slap to the promises, the gifts and sacrifices of love joyfully brought by the life at the birth of a child. Often parents come to Mass in Santa Marta with a picture of a son, a daughter, baby, boy, girl, and they tell me: 'She's gone'. And their gaze is filled with grief. Death touches us and when it touches a child it touches us deeply".

A "baby that is left alone, who loses a parent, or both, suffers similarly. The question: 'Where's Daddy? Where's Mammy? '... This simple question that reveals the anguish in the heart of the little boy or girl. They are alone. The emptiness of abandonment that opens in them is all the more distressing because they do not even have enough experience to "give a name"  to what happened. 'When will daddy come back? When will mammy come back? '. What do you answer? And the child is suffering. "

"In these cases death is like a black hole that opens up in the lives of families and we do not know how to give any explanation. And sometimes we go so far as to blame God. "I understand those who are angry with God, who curse... 'Why have you taken my son from me, my daughter? But there is no God, there is no God! Why did He do this? '... ".

"But physical death has 'accomplices' who are even worse than death itself, and you call it hate, envy, pride, greed" and this makes it "even more painful and unjust" because the "family ties appear as the intended and helpless victims in these auxiliary power of death, that accompany the history of man. We think the absurd 'normality' in which, at certain times and in certain places, events that add to the horror of death are caused by hatred and indifference to other humans. The Lord deliver us from becoming accustomed to this. "

But with the perspective of faith, "death does not have the last word." Every time "that a family in mourning - even a terrible mourning - finds the strength to keep the faith and love that unite us to those we love, it prevents death from taking everything. The darkness of death needs to be addressed with a more intense labor of love. "

"In the light of the Resurrection of the Lord, who does not abandon any of those whom the Father has entrusted to him, we can remove its 'sting' from death, in the words of the apostle Paul; we can prevent the poison of life spoiling our affections, from making us fall into the darker void ". In faith "we can console each other, knowing that the Lord has conquered death once and for all. Our loved ones have not disappeared into the darkness of nothingness: hope assures us that they are in good and strong hands, those of God ". "If we allow ourselves to be sustained by this belief, the experience of mourning can generate a stronger solidarity of family ties, a new opening to the pain of the other families, a new fraternity with families that are born and reborn in hope."

"We should not be denied the right to cry, we cry in mourning!", Even Jesus "wept" for the bereavement of a family he loved. "We can draw from the rather simple and strong witness of many families who have been able to grasp, in the tough transition of death, even the safe passage of the Lord, crucified and risen, by his irrevocable promise of resurrection of the dead. The work of God's love is stronger than the work of death. It is love, it is the love that makes us hard-working "accomplices", with our faith! And remember that Jesus gesture: 'And Jesus gave him back to his mother', so he will do with all of our loved ones when we meet, when death will finally be conquered in us. Death is defeated by the cross of Jesus. Jesus will restore our family for all".

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