Pope: The world needs Christians, Jews and Muslims prayers for peace
At the general audience, Francis recalls the Vatican meeting with Peres and Abbas. God never abandons us. "We can be distant, hostile, we can also profess" a world without God, "but the Gospel reveals that" God cannot be without us: He will never be a God without man. "
Vatican City (AsiaNews) - God never leaves us alone. "We can be distant, hostile, we can also profess" a world without God, "but the Gospel reveals that" God cannot stand without us: He will never be a God without man." This certainty is the source of our hope, which is kept in all the invocations of our Father. "The Fatherhood of God is the source of our hope" (cf. Lk 11: 1-4) was the theme of which Pope Francis spoke at today's general audience, after which he invited prayers for peace by joining the initiative "One Minute for Peace", which in various countries recalls "the Vatican meeting between myself, the late Israeli President Peres and Palestinian President Abbas (June 8, 21014, ndr). In our time - he stressed - there is so much need for prayers - Christians, Jews and Muslims - for peace. "
Earlier, in addressing the 25,000 people in St. Peter's Square, Francis emphasized the "Father" of Jesus' prayer. "All the mystery of Christian prayer - he said - is summed up here, in this word: to have the courage to Call God by the name of Father. The liturgy also states that when inviting us to the community recitation of Jesus' prayer, he uses the expression "we dare say". In fact, calling God by the name of 'Father' is by no means a deserved fact. We should use the highest titles, which seem more respectful to His transcendence. Instead, invoking him as "Father" puts us in a relationship of trust with Him, like a child calling out to their dad, knowing that they are loved and cared for by him. This is the great revolution that Christianity embodies in the religious psychology of man. God's mystery, which always fascinates us and makes us feel small, but no longer afraid, does not crush us, there is no anguish. This is a difficult revolution to welcome in our human soul; It is true that even in the stories of the Resurrection it is said that women, after seeing the empty tomb and the angel, "fled away ... for they were full of fear and amazement" (Mk 16: 8). But Jesus reveals to us that God is a good Father, and He says to us, 'Do not be afraid!'
"Let us consider the parable of the merciful father (cf. Lk 15: 11-32). Jesus tells of a father who has a just love for his children. A father who does not punish his son for his arrogance and who is even able to give him his share of inheritance and let him go. God is Father, Jesus says, but not in the human way, because there is no father in this world who would behave like the protagonist of this parable. God is Father in his own way: good, helpless in the face of the free will of man, able only to conjugate the verb 'to love'. When the rebellious son, after having squandered everything, finally returns home, that father does not apply the criteria of human justice, but first he feels the need to forgive, and with his embrace makes the child understand that in all that long absence He misses him, he is painfully missed in his father's love. What an unfathomable mystery is a God who nourishes this kind of love for his children! "
"Perhaps it is for this reason that, evoking the center of the Christian mystery, the Apostle Paul does not feel able to translate into a Greek word that Jesus, in Aramaic, pronounced Abba. For twice Saint Paul, in his epistle (cf. Rm 8:15, Gal. 4: 6), touches on this theme, and twice leaves that untranslated word, in the same way that it flourished on Jesus' lips, ', A term more intimate than' father ', and which some translate as ‘dad' ".
"Dear brothers and sisters, we are never alone. We can be distant, hostile, we could also profess to be 'without God'. But the Gospel of Jesus Christ reveals to us that God cannot stand without us: He will never be a God without man. This certainty is the source of our hope, which is kept in all the invocations of our Father. When we need help, Jesus does not tell us to resign ourselves and close ourselves, but to turn to the Father and ask him with confidence. All of our necessities, from the most obvious and everyday ones, such as food, health, work, to being forgiven and sustained in temptations, are not the mirror of our solitude: there is a Father who is always there and gazes upon us with love, and who surely does not abandon us. "
The Pope also talked about praying for peace in his greeting to the Polish faithful when he recalled that the Radical Peace Community Association, "inspired by the 12 stars in Mary's Wreath, Queen of Peace, which is building 12 centers of Eucharistic Adoration and perpetual prayer for peace in the most conflict ridden places in the world. At their request, I blessed the Adoratio Domini's altar today, dedicated to the sanctuary of the Rosary in Namyang in South Korea. This June, devoted to the Sacred Heart of Jesus - he concluded – let our individual prayers for peace not be lacking."
.png)
