Pope: you have to 'get your hands dirty' to make the Kingdom of God grow
"So often we see teh preference for a pastoral work of preservation and not one that allows the Kingdom to grow. We stay exactly as we are, tiny, over there where we are safe and sound ... And the Kingdom does not grow. " Within us "there is a force that triggers this: there is the Holy Spirit," which "gives us hope". Concretely, this means to let "these forces of the Spirit" "help us grow" toward the fullness that awaits us in glory.
Vatican City (AsiaNews) - "woe to those who preach the Kingdom of God with the illusion of not getting their hands dirty”, “these people are “custodians of museums”: “courage is needed to cast the Christian seed, and willingness to "get your hands dirty" to mix the yeast. This was Pope Francis message at Mass celebrated this morning at Casa Santa Marta, commenting on the passage of the Gospel of Luke (13: 18-21), in which Jesus compares the Kingdom of God with mustard seed and yeast.
The Pope pointed out that both of these elements are small and yet "have a power" that grows. So for the Kingdom of God: its power comes from within. In the Letter to the Romans, proposed by the First Reading of today, Saint Paul highlights the tensions of life: these are pains, anguishes and sufferings that “are not comparable to the glory that awaits us”. We are constantly confronted with “a tension between suffering and glory”. And in the tensions of existence there is “an ardent expectation” for a “grandiose revelation of the Kingdom of God”. It is also an expectation of Creation, which “like us” cannot escape transience and it “reaches out towards the revelation to God’s children”. This is the strength that we have within ourselves and that “brings us in hope, to the fullness of God’s Kingdom”; it is the energy of the Holy Spirit. And it is “hope that brings us to fullness - he explains - the hope of coming out of this prison, from this limitation, from this slavery, from this corruption and reach glory: a path of hope. And hope is a gift of the Spirit. It is precisely the Holy Spirit who is within us and leads to this: to a grandiose thing, to a liberation, to a great glory “. And therefore, the Son of God affirms, “Inside the seed of mustard, of that small grain, there is a force that unleashes an unimaginable growth”. Pope Francis emphasized, “Inside us and in Creation there is an unleashing force: there is the Holy Spirit”, who “gives us hope”.
The Pope then illustrated the meaning of living in hope: to allow “these forces of the Spirit to help us grow” towards the fullness that awaits every human being in eternal glory. But the yeast must be mixed and the mustard grain must be thrown, because otherwise that force remains enclosed there and does not expand, so it is the Kingdom of God for it increases “from within”, and “not through proselytism”, he added. The Kingdom of the Lord “grows from within, with the strength of the Holy Spirit. And the Church has always had both the courage to take and throw, to take and mix, she even feared of doing so. And we often see that we prefer a pastoral care of conservation and not to let the Kingdom grow. But, we remain those we are, little ones, there, we are sure.... And the Kingdom does not grow. For “the Kingdom to grow requires courage: to cast the grain, to mix the yeast”.
Pope Francis recognized that if you cast the seed, you lose it, and if you mix yeast, you “get your hands dirty”, because “there is always some loss in sowing the Kingdom of God”. But “woe to those who preach the Kingdom of God with the illusion of not getting their hands dirty”, he exclaimed. These people are “custodians of museums: they prefer beautiful things, and not this gesture of throwing to unleash the force, of mixing so that strength may grow”. It is the message of “Jesus and Paul: this tension that goes from the slavery of sin, to be simple, to the fullness of glory”. And “hope is what goes on, hope does not disappoint: because hope is too small, hope is as small as grain and yeast. It is the most humble virtue, the servant “, however, where there is hope, there is the Holy Spirit, who always leads forward the Kingdom of God. And the Pope concluded by inviting us to ask a few questions: ”today, to ask ourselves if we believe that there, in hope, there is the Holy Spirit with whom we can speak”.
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