Pope: Let us commit ourselves to respond to God’s love with love
At Jubilee audience, Francis stresses the importance of commitment: "The Lord has committed Himself for us, He created the world, and despite our attempts to ruin it - and there are many - He agrees to keep it alive. But His greatest commitment was to give us Jesus. " Through works of mercy "we continue to bring the Father's caress to those who suffer ".
Vatican City (AsiaNews) - What is commitment? What does it means to commit oneself to something? Pope Francis asked faithful gathered in St. Peter's Square for the extraordinary "Jubilee" audience, a monthly event that will continue throughout the Holy Year. Commitment, he explained, "means taking on responsibility. God has committed Himself to us, keeping the world in spite of our attempts to destroy it and giving us Jesus. "
In the jubilee year, says Francis, "we are invited to know more about the Lord and to live in accord with the faith, with a lifestyle that expresses the Father's mercy. It is a commitment that we are called to take on in order to offer to those we meet the concrete sign of closeness to God. My life, my attitude, the way I live must be a concrete sign of the fact that God is close to us . Small gestures of love, of tenderness, of care, which suggest that the Lord is with us, is close to us. This is how we open the door of mercy ".
This is why we need to make a commitment: "It means that I take on a responsibility, a task for someone; and it also means lifestyle, loyalty and dedication, an attitude, a particular attention with which I carry out a certain task. " Committing oneself, in short, means putting our good will and our forces into improving life: "Even God has committed Himself to us. His first task was to create the world, and despite our attempts to ruin it - and there are many - He agrees to keep it alive. But His greatest commitment was to give us Jesus. This is God’s greatest commitment”.
In the gift of Jesus, as the Gospels explain, "God has engaged in a complete way to give back hope to the poor, to those who were deprived of dignity, to foreigners, the sick, the prisoners, and sinners whom He welcomed with kindness. In all this, Jesus was a living expression of the Father's mercy. " To the point of having even sinners welcomed with kindness: "If we think in a human way, the sinner would be an enemy of Jesus, an enemy of God, but He approached them with kindness, He loved them and changed their hearts. We are all sinners: everyone! We all have some guilt before God. But we must not be without confidence: He approaches us to give us comfort, mercy and forgiveness”.
In the face of this merciful love "we can and must respond to His love with our commitment. And this especially in situations of greatest need, where there is hunger for hope. I think - for example - of our commitment with the abandoned, with those who carry very heavy handicaps, with the most seriously ill, with the dying, those who are not able to express gratitude ... In all these situations we bring God's mercy through a commitment of life, which is the witness of our faith in Christ. We must always take the caress of God - because God has caressed us with his mercy - bring it to others, to those who need it, to those who have a pain in their heart or are sad: draw closer with God's caress, which is the same that He has given to us. "
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10/08/2016 11:50
