"The Lord comforts us with tenderness." God the powerful "is not afraid of tenderness." "" When a Christian forgets hope, or worse loses hope, his life has no meaning. It is as if his life was in front of a wall: nothing".

Vatican City (AsiaNews) - When Jesus comes, "He consoles," "always opens doors" and gives us the hope to move forward. Pope Francis focused on this during Mass celebrated this morning at Casa Santa Marta, commenting on a passage from the Book of Isaiah the consolation of Israel.The Lord, he noted, draws near his people to comfort them, "to give them peace." And this "work of consolation" is so strong that it "makes all things new". The Lord carries out a true re-creation:

"He recreates things. And the Church does not tire of saying that this re-creation is more wonderful than creation. The Lord most wonderfully recreates. So He visits his people: recreating, with that power.  The people of God always had this idea, this thought, that the Lord will come to visit them. We remember the last words of Joseph to his brothers : 'When the Lord will visit you carry with you my bones' . The Lord will visit His people. It is the hope of Israel. But he will visit them with this consolation".

"And the consolation - he continued - is this making all this new, not once but over and over again, with the universe and with us".  The Pope noted  it is important to emphasize two dimensions of this "making all things new of the Lord". "When the Lord comes - he said - he gives us hope; for the Lord makes us new with hope, He always opens a door. Always" . When the Lord comes to us, "He does not close doors, he opens them". The Lord "in his neighborhood - he added - gives us hope , this hope that is a real source of strength in the Christian life . It is a grace , a gift".

"When a Christian forgets hope, or worse loses hope , his life has no meaning . It is as if his life was in front of a wall: nothing. But the Lord comforts us and makes us new with hope, to move forward. And He does so with a special closeness to everyone, because the Lord has comforted His people and consoled each of us. The ending of today's passage is beautiful: ' Like a shepherd he feeds his flock , and his arms he gathers , carries the lambs in his bosom , and gently leads the mother sheep'. That image of putting the lambs in his bosom, and gently leading the mothers: this is tenderness. The Lord comforts us with tenderness".

God who is mighty, he continued, "is not afraid of tenderness". "He becomes tenderness, becomes a child , makes himself small ." In the Gospel , he noted, Jesus himself says, " So it is the Father's will, that not one of these little ones be lost ." In the eyes of the Lord "each of us is very, very important. And He gives himself to us tenderly ." And so He helps us "move forward, giving us hope." This, he said again, "was the main work of Jesus" in the " 40 days between the Resurrection and the Ascension: comfort the disciples, draw close to them and give consolation".

"Drawing near and giving hope, drawing near with tenderness. But think of the tenderness he had with the apostles, Mary Magdalene , with the disciples of Emmaus.  He drew near them with tenderness : 'Give me something to eat ' . With Thomas: ' Put your finger here'.  The Lord is always this way. So is the consolation of the Lord. May the Lord give us grace to all of us not to be afraid of the consolation of the Lord, to be open: ask for it, seek it, because it is a consolation that will give us hope and make us feel the tenderness of God the Father".

 

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