Pope: every experience of encounter with Jesus leads us to take different paths

​ "We are the ones who have to change, to transform our way of life even in the usual environment, to change the criteria for judging the reality that surrounds us.  Here is the difference between the true God and the treacherous idols, such as money, power, success ...;  between God and those who promise to give you these idols, like magicians, fortune tellers, sorcerers."

Vatican City (AsiaNews) - Our encounter with Jesus changes our life, "because he brings a force for good that heals the heart and detaches us from evil".  And like the Magi who, after having adored the Child, returned to their country "by another path", "every experience of encounter with Jesus leads us to take different paths".  The changes that "the experience of God" arouses, in memory of what happened to the Magi, were at the center of the reflection that Pope Francis proposed to the 40 thousand people present in St. Peter's Square for the recitation of the Angelus.

Francis underlined how, after having adored the Child and offered their gifts, the Magi “set off on their journey without delay to return to their land.  But that encounter changed them.  The encounter with Jesus does not hold back the Magi, on the contrary, it infuses them with a new impulse to return to their country, to tell what they have seen and the joy they have felt.  In this there is a demonstration of the style of God, of his way of manifesting himself in history.  The experience of God does not block us, but frees us;  it does not imprison us, but puts us back on the road, returns us to the usual places of our existence.  The places are the same, but after the encounter with Jesus, we are not the same as before.  The encounter with Jesus changes us. "

“Every experience of meeting with Jesus leads us to take different paths, because from him comes a good force that heals the heart and detaches us from evil.  There is a wise dynamic between continuity and novelty: one returns 'to one's country', but 'by another way'.  This indicates that it is we who have to change, to transform our way of life even in the usual environment, to change the criteria for judging the reality around us.  Here is the difference between the true God and the treacherous idols, such as money, power, success ...;  between God and those who promise to give you these idols, like magicians, fortune tellers, sorcerers.  They do not go.  The difference is that idols bind us, make us idol-dependent on ourselves and we take possession of them.  The true God neither holds us back nor lets himself be held back by us: he opens up paths of novelty and freedom.  The Magi will no longer know anything about that King born in Bethlehem, but they will always carry in their hearts the novelty and the fruits that the encounter with him has produced in their existence.  If you meet Jesus you have to go back to another way ".

After the recitation of the Marian prayer, the Pope addressed “a special thought to the brothers of the Eastern, Catholic and Orthodox Churches, many of whom celebrate the Lord's Christmas tomorrow.  For them and for their communities we wish the light and peace of Christ the Savior ".

Lastly, a "special greeting" to the historical-folkloristic events, inspired by the traditions of Epiphany taking place in Italy and Poland, of "the many beautiful popular expressions linked to today's celebration - I think of Spain, Latin America, Germany  ".