Pope at Angelus: ‘Celebrate your Baptism like a new birthday’.

From the window of the Apostolic Palace Bergoglio invited us to think about the date of the first sacrament: ‘If you do not remember, ask your parents, the godparents’. 21 children baptised this morning in the Sistine Chapel: ‘Today they are in charge’. Prayer for Los Angeles and for peace ‘in Ukraine, the Middle East and the whole world’.

Vatican City (AsiaNews) - The date of your Bptusm is a date to celebrate ‘like a new birthday’. Today, the Feast of the Baptism of Jesus, Pope Francis asked the faithful gathered in St. Peter's Square to attend the recitation of the Angelus: ‘Do you all remember the date of your Baptism?’

Then he asked those listening to give importance to the first sacrament, which sanctions belonging to Christ. ‘If your do not remember, when you get home,  ask your parents, your godparents the date of your Baptism,’ added the Bishop of Rome.

The Pope believed, the sacrament represents a second birth ‘in the Spirit of God’. And again an invocation: ‘Do not forget! This is a work to be done at home: the date of my Baptism'.

Before the Marian prayer, Pope Francis read the commentary on the Gospel of the day (Lk 3:15-16.21-22), which recounts the Baptism of Jesus at the River Jordan, a moment when the heavens ‘opened and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form, like a dove’, with a voice that said ‘You are my Son, the Beloved: in you I have put my pleasure’.

‘When Jesus receives baptism, the Spirit is manifested and the Epiphany of God takes place, who reveals his face in the Son,’ Bergoglio commented.

Two images emerge from this episode: the face and the voice. Focusing on the face, he said: ‘In revealing himself as Father through the Son, God establishes a privileged place to enter into dialogue and communion with humanity’. The voice too is ‘another sign that accompanies the revelation of Jesus,’ the pontiff added.

Face and voice of God therefore, which are manifested ‘in the humanity of Jesus’. Today's Solemnity leads precisely to ‘contemplate’ these two images, starting from the memory of one's own Baptism.

Pope Francis shared some questions with the faithful and pilgrims: ‘Do we feel loved? Do I feel loved and accompanied by God or do I think that God is distant from me? Are we able to recognise his face in Jesus and in our brothers and sisters? And are we used to listening to his voice?’. At the end of the commentary again a reminder: ‘Don't forget the date of your Baptism!’.

After the recitation of the Angelus, Pope Francis shared his closeness to the population of Los Angeles County, prey to devastating fires: ‘I am close to the inhabitants,’ he said, ‘I pray for all of you. Referring then to the 21 children baptised today in the Sistine Chapel, children of Holy See employees and the Swiss Guard, he said: ‘We pray for them, for their families. And I would like to ask the Lord, for all young couples, that they have the joy of welcoming the gift of children and bringing them to Baptism’. This morning, the Pontiff said referring to the little protagonists: ‘Today they are in charge’.

This was followed by the remembrance of the priest of the Missionaries of the Most Precious Blood Fr John Merlini (1795-1873), beatified this morning at the basilica of St John Lateran. On the first blessed of the jubilee year, Bergoglio said: ‘Devoted to the missions to the people, he was a prudent counsellor of many souls and a messenger of peace’.

This was followed by a thought dedicated to peace: ‘Let us also invoke his intercession as we pray for peace in Ukraine, in the Middle East and throughout the world. Let us applaud the new Blessed!’. Concluding, Pope Francis added: ‘Let us not neglect to pray for peace. Let us not forget that war is always a defeat'.