Pope: far from God's gratuitous love, life remains sad
This week’s catechesis was centred on the encounter between Jesus and the "rich man". As it has done for weeks, the Holy See Press Office released the written text of the catechesis.
Vatican City (AsiaNews) – The Holy See Press Office released the text of Pope Francis’s prepared catechesis for today’s weekly general audience. In it, the Holy Father says that, “precisely because we live in a culture of self-sufficiency and individualism, we find ourselves more unhappy because we no longer hear our name spoken by someone who loves us freely.”
The general audience was not held because of the pontiff’s ongoing convalescence. Yesterday the Vatican announced that Francis’s medical status remans stable with slight improvements in motor and respiratory functions as well as in his voice, which everyone was able to see on Sunday when he was in St Peter's Square greeting pilgrims present for the Jubilee of the Sick.
At present, the pope continues to receive daily oxygenation treatment, while his clinical situation remains stationary. Hence, it is not clear if and how he will take part in Holy Week celebrations and attend the Triduum rites.
Pursuing his reflections on Jesus's encounters with certain figures mentioned in the Gospels, the pontiff turned to the “rich man” story narrated in the tenth chapter of the Gospel of Mark (described as a young man in the synoptic passage in Matthew), looking at the demand for happiness this man carried in his heart.
“Since observance of the Law did not give him the happiness and security of being saved, he turns to the Master Jesus. What is striking is that this man does not know the vocabulary of gratuitousness!” Francis notes.
“Everything seems to be owed. Everything is a duty. Eternal life is for him an inheritance, something that is obtained by right, through meticulous observance of commitments. But in a life lived in this way, although certainly for good purpose, what space can love have?”
It is onto this that Jesus's gaze latches. “While on the one hand this man sets out before Jesus his fine resume, Jesus goes beyond and looks within,” the pope writes. “Jesus loves this man before He even extended the invitation to follow Him. He loves him just as he is. Jesus’ love is gratuitous: exactly the opposite of the logic of merit that has beset this person.”
“We are truly happy when we realize we are loved in this way, freely, by grace. And this also applies to the relationships between us: as long as we try to buy love or beg for affection, those relationships will never make us feel happy.”
Hence, he makes the man a proposal. “Indeed, Jesus recognizes that inside him, as in all of us, something is lacking. It is the desire we carry in our heart to be loved. [. . .] To overcome this lack we do not need to ‘buy’ recognition, affection, consideration: instead, we need to ‘sell off’ everything that weighs us down, to make our hearts freer.”
“He invites him to follow Him, to be within a bond, to live a relationship. [. . .] If we remain alone, we will never hear our name spoken, and will continue to be that ‘man’, anonymous.”
The Gospel says that the man did not accept Jesus's invitation and was left alone. The “ballast of his life," the pope said, "keeps him in the port. His sadness is the sign that he has not managed to leave.”
“Sisters and brothers, let us entrust to the Heart of Jesus all people who are sad and undecided, so that they may feel the loving gaze of the Lord, who is moved by looking tenderly within us.”
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