Pope: "if we destroy the gift of Creation, Creation will destroy us"
Vatican City ( AsiaNews) - The call to prayer for Chinese Catholics on the day in which we honor the Our Lady of Sheshan and the announcement of the beatification of Mario Vergara, PIME priest , and Isidore Ngei Ko Lat catechist and lay faithful, killed in 1950 in Burma, in hatred of the Christian faith, marked the general audience today , in which Pope Francis, continuing to illustrate the gifts of the Holy Spirit, spoke of "knowledge". In this context, Pope Francis pointed out the "sin" of not protecting the "gift of Creation". " If - he added - we destroy the gift of Creation , Creation will destroy us".
After
touring among the 70 thousand people present in St Peter's Square, the Pope
pointed out that "the knowledge that comes from the Holy Spirit, however,
is not limited to human knowledge: it is a special gift, which allows us to
grasp, through Creation, the greatness and love of God and His profound relationship
with every creature. When our eyes are enlightened by the Spirit, they open to
the contemplation of God in the beauty of nature and the grandeur of the
cosmos, and lead us to discover how everything speaks to us of Him and
everything speaks to us of His love. All this arouses astonishment and a deep
sense of gratitude in us! It is the feeling we experience when we admire a work
of art or any marvel that is the result of the genius and creativity of man:
before all of this, the Spirit leads us to praise the Lord from the depths of
our hearts and recognize, in all that we have and are, a priceless gift from
God and a sign of His infinite love for us".
"The first chapter of Genesis, at the very beginning of the Bible, shows us
that God delights of His creation, by repeatedly emphasizing the beauty and
goodness of all things. At the end of each day, it is written : "God saw
that it was good" ( 1,12.18.21.25 ) ...but if God sees that Creation is
something good and beautiful, we too must have this attitude, we must see that
Creation is something good and beautiful. The gift of knowledge, of this
beauty, we have to thank God for having given us this gift, this beauty! This
is the path...and when God finished creating man, He didn't say that "it was
good", He said that it is "very good!", He draws us close to Him. And in God's
eyes we are the greatest, the most beautiful, the best things about
Creation..."But father the Angels? No the Angels are beneath us! We are more than
the Angels! We heard it in the Book of the Psalms! God really loves us! We have
to thank him for this! The gift of knowledge places us in profound harmony with
the Creator and allows us to participate in the brightness of His gaze and His
judgment. And it is in this perspective that we can grasp in man and woman the
summit of Creation, as the fulfillment of a plan of love that is imprinted in
each of us and that makes us recognize each other as brothers and sisters".
"All of this is a source of serenity and peace and renders the Christian a
joyful witness of the God, in the wake of St. Francis of Assisi and many saints
who were able to sing and praise His love through the contemplation of
Creation. At the same time, however, the gift of knowledge helps us to avoid
falling prey to excessive or incorrect attitudes. The first lies in the risk of
considering ourselves masters of Creation. Creation is not a property, which we
can rule over at will; or, even less, is the property of only a few: Creation
is a gift, it is a wonderful gift that God has given us, so that we care for it
and we use it for the benefit of all, always with great respect and gratitude".
"The second incorrect attitude is the temptation to limit ourselves to
creatures, as if they can provide the answer to all our expectations. With the
gift of knowledge, the Holy Spirit helps us not to give in to all of this...but I
would like to return to the first wrong path...Custodians Creation, not Masters
of Creation it is a gift that the Lord has given us, to us! We are Custodians
of Creation. But when we exploit Creation we destroy the sign of God's love for
us, in destroying Creation we are saying to God: "I don't like it!. This is not
good!" "So what do you like?" "I like myself!" - Here, this is sin! Do you see?
Custody of Creation is custody of God's gift to us and it is also a way of
saying thank you to God. I am the master of Creation but to carry it forward I
will never destroy your gift. And this should be our attitude towards Creation.
Safeguard Creation. Because if we destroy Creation, Creation will destroy us!
Never forget this!"
"Once I was in the countryside and I heard a saying from a simple person who
loved flowers and he nurtured these flowers and he said we must nurture these
beautiful things that God has given us. Creation is for us to use well, not
exploit to nurture...because do you know father, God always forgives - Yes it is
true God always forgives...We men, women, we forgive sometimes - Yes sometimes we
forgive, not always ...But father Creation never forgives! And if you don't
custody Creation it will never forigive you". This should give us pause for
thought and ask the holy Spirit for the gift of knowledge that Creation is a
gift from God, a gift for the best thing He created which is the human person".
To those present the Pope recalled that "On May 24, we celebrate the liturgical memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary Help of Christians, who is venerated with great devotion at the Shrine of Sheshan in Shanghai. I ask all the faithful to pray that, under the protection of the Mother Help of Christians, Catholics in China continue to believe, to hope, to love and to be, in all circumstances, a leaven of harmonious coexistence among their fellow citizens".
"Also Saturday next - he added - in Aversa (Italy), PIME priest Mario Vergara and the lay catechist Isidore Ngei Ko Lat, killed in 1950 in Burma, in hatred of the Christian faith, will be beatified. May their heroic fidelity to Christ be an encouragement and example to missionaries and especially catechists in mission lands who carry out important and irreplaceable Apostolic work, for which the whole Church is grateful".
Finally, before concluding the meeting, Pope Francis again asked for prayers and support for the people of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia and recalled that next Saturday he will depart for the Holy Land, first of all to celebrate with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew the historical embrace between Paul VI and Athenagoras 50 years ago - "Peter and Andrew will meet again and this is beautiful" - and then "for peace in the land that suffers so much".
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31/08/2022 11:39
