Pope: Remembering what God has done in our lives, strengthens the journey of faith
"It is good for a Christian’s heart to remember their journey, for their path: how the Lord led me here, how He took me by the hand. And how often I have said to the Lord: 'No! Go away! I do not want to!'".
Vatican City (AsiaNews) - The memory of the "good things" that God has done for us in the course of our lives and also of the obstacles, our rejections of Him strengthens the journey of faith, said Pope Francis at Mass celebrated this morning in Casa Santa Marta.
Taking his cue from the First reading, in which Paul goes to the synagogue in Antioch on the Sabbath to proclaim the Gospel starting from the beginning of the chosen people, passing to Abraham and Moses, Egypt and the promised Land, to reach Jesus, the Pope reflected on the need for Christians to look back and store in their memories all the key moments and signs of God’s presence in their lives. He said we must memorize both the beautiful things done by God as well as the obstacles and rejections because God accompanies us and is not frightened off by our wicked deeds.
“We must look back to see how God has saved us, follow – with our hearts and minds – this path with its memories and in this way arrive at Jesus’s side. It’s the same Jesus, who in the greatest moment of his life – Holy Thursday and Good Friday, in the (Last) Supper - gave us his Body and his Blood and said to us ‘Do this in memory of me.’ In memory of Jesus. To remember how God saved us.
Pope Francis went on to explain how the Church describes the Sacrament of the Eucharist as a “memorial,” just as in the Bible the book of Deuteronomy is ‘the book of the Memory of Israel.’ And we must do the same in our personal lives, he said.
“It’s good for the Christian heart to memorize my journey, my personal journey: just like the Lord who accompanied me up to here and held me by the hand. And the times I said to our Lord: No! Go away! I don’t want you! Our Lord respects (our wishes). He is respectful. But we must memorize our past and be a memorial of our own lives and our own journey. We must look back and remember and do it often. ‘At that time God gave me this grace and I replied in that way, I did this or that… He accompanied me.’ And in this way we arrive at a new encounter, an encounter of gratitude.”
Concluding his homily, the Pope said our hearts should give rise to a sense of gratitude towards Jesus who never stops accompanying us ‘in our history.’ How many times, he admitted, have we closed the door in his face, how many times have we pretended not to see him and not believe that He is by our side. How many times have we denied his salvation… But He was always there.
“Memory makes us draw closer to God. The memory of that work which God carried out in us, in this recreation, in this regeneration, that takes us beyond the ancient splendour that Adam had in the first creation. I give you this simple advice: Memorize it! What’s my life been like, what was my day like today or what has this past year been like? (It’s all about) memory. What has my relationship with the Lord been like? Our memories of the beautiful and great things that the Lord has carried out in the lives of each one of us.”
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