Pope Francis during Angelus (VATICAN MEDIA Divisione Foto)
By Deborah Castellano Lubov
Feb 5 2024
During his Sunday Angelus address, Pope Francis urges the faithful to embrace their “first spiritual task” of “abandoning the God we think we know,” and “converting every day” to the “loving, compassionate God that Jesus presents to us in the Gospel.”
“Follow the Lord’s example and set forth, transmitting faith and hope in our loving God…”
Pope Francis gave this encouragement during his Sunday Angelus address in the Vatican, as he drew inspiration from tthe Gospel passage according to St. Mark which shows Jesus continually in motion, doing good and proclaiming God.
Jesus’ example challenges us
The Holy Father urged the faithful to look at Jesus’ ongoing movement, observing it “tells us something important about God” and, at the same time, “challenges us with some questions on our faith.”
“Jesus,” the Pope went on to say, “goes towards wounded humanity, and shows us the face of the Father.”
While some, the Pope observed, still may perceive a somewhat “distant” God, “on the contrary, the Gospel lets us see that Jesus, after teaching in the synagogue, goes out, so that the Word He has preached may reach, touch and heal people.
God, a loving father
By doing this, the Pope said, Jesus “reveals to us that God is not a detached master who speaks to us from on high; on the contrary, He is a Father filled with love who makes Himself close to us, who visits our homes, who wants to save and liberate, heal from every ill of the body and spirit.”
Jesus’ incessant walking, the Holy Father stated, challenges us.
“God is always close to us. God’s attitude can be summed up in three words: closeness, compassion and tenderness: God who comes close to accompany us, tenderly, and to forgive us. Do not forget this: closeness, compassion and tenderness. This is God’s attitude,” he said.
“We might ask ourselves,” the Pope suggested, “have we discovered the face of God as the Father of mercy, or do we believe and proclaim a cold and distant God? Does faith instil in us the restlessness of journeying or is it an intimist consolation, that calms us? Do we pray just to feel at peace, or does the Word we listen to and preach make us go out, like Jesus, towards others, to spread God’s consolation?”
Our first spiritual task
“Let us look, then, at Jesus’ journeying,” he exhorted, “and remind ourselves that our first spiritual task is this: to abandon the God we think we know, and to convert every day to the God Jesus presents to us in the Gospel, the Father of love and compassion.”
“When we discover the true face of the Father,” the Pope said, our faith matures. “We no longer remain ‘sacristy Christians,’ or ‘parlour Christians,’ but rather we feel called to become bearers of God’s hope and healing.”
Pope Francis concluded by praying that the Blessed Mother help us to come out of ourselves to proclaim and bear witness to the Lord. – Vatican News
