POPE FRANCIS: A MAN OF HIS WORD (2018) 🙂
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1BsmeNf7PAGTxBJ5HgQi5VTusBreA1eRWY VerifiedHow should we live today?
How can we live in peace, with each other, with our planet?
One man had radical answers to all these questions.
He lived here: in this small town in the Umbrian mountains of central ltaly, 800 years ago: Saint Francis of Assisi.
He was a revolutionary,
not only of Christianity,
but of humankind at large.
🙂
In this basilica, erected in his honor shortly after he died,
we find a series of colorful frescoes, painted by the great Master Giotto,
which tell the life of the saint, like in a huge sacred comic strip.
In this image, we see a decisive moment.
🙂
Francis is praying in an abandoned chapel, urgently searching for
a better purpose in his life.
The prospect of just inheriting the business of his father,
a rich merchant in Assisi, frightens him.
🙂
Suddenly, he hears a voice speak to him from the cross.
"Francis, go and restore my house!
It is falling into ruins "
"Restore my house",
what could that mean?
Was he asked to restore the church itself?
🙂
lt dawns on Francis that a fundamental change
can only be brought about by taking the Gospel
seriously.
🙂
He decides to live his life in total poverty,
without any possessions, in solidarity with the poor,
the sick and the outcast,
like Jesus,
as a sign that a complete transformation of attitudes
is needed.
🙂
He and his order will give an example for a new brotherhood of men
dedicated to the common good.
And isn't that exactly what is needed today?
🙂
You know that the conclave had to give a Bishop to Rome.
It seems that my brother Cardinals went almost to the end of the
world to find one.
But here we are.
Yes here we are, all of us.
With great expectations of the first Pope
from the Americas.
🙂
The first from the Southern hemisphere.
The first Jesuit.
But most of all the first Pope ever
to choose the name of Francis.
🙂
The world today is mostly deaf. And I think that among ourselves, the priests, there are many deaf ones. I'm talking about getting involved in people's lives ...closeness.
Talk little, listen a lot, say just enough, and always look people in the
eye. 🙂
Why did you want to be Pope?
Do you know what it means when a person
doesn't really love himself?
Somebody who has the desire to become Pope,
doesn't like himself.
And God doesn't bless him.
No, l never wanted to become Pope.
Is that okay?
🙂
You, Francis, why have you renounced the riches of a Pope,
like a luxurious apartment, or an enormous car?
Instead you prefer a small apartment nearby,
and you even take the bus for bishops.
Why have you renounced to wealth?
🙂
I believe that our times tell us of such poverty all over the
world, and that is a scandal!
In a world where we have such riches,
so many resources for giving food to everybody,
you cannot understand how there can be
so many hungry children,
so many children without education,
so many poor!
The poverty today
is an outrage!
We must all consider if we can't become
a little bit poorer.
This is something we all must do:
not have so many things,
and become a bit poorer.
🙂
We either serve God or we serve money.
And the big temptation that was felt throughout history by Christians, by man, and by the Church, has always been wealth.
In the Church there are men, who have yielded, and are still yielding to those temptations.
However, since the Curia is a dynamic body,
it cannot live without nourishment and without healing.
Like any body, like any human body, it is also exposed to diseases, to malfunctioning, to infirmity.
🙂
Dear Brothers.
It is good to think of the Roman Curia as a small model of the Church,
or as a 'body' that strives seriously, every day,
to be more alive, more healthy, more harmonious
and more united in itself and with Christ.
,,,
There are diseases and temptations that weaken our service to the Lord.
Let's begin with the disease of thinking we are 'immortal', 'immune', or downright 'indispensable', neglecting the need for regular check-ups.
The disease of rivalry and vaingloriousness...
The disease of 'closed circles'. ..
The disease ofa lugubrious face...
The disease of 'existential schizophrenia.‘
The 'spiritual Alzheimer's disease'...
And lastly: The disease of 'hoarding'.
A Curia which is not self-critical, which doesn't update or seeks to improve itself, is a sick body.
When an apostle tries to fill an existential void in his heart
by accumulating material goods,
but only in order to feel secure.
As long as there's a church that places its hope on wealth,
Jesus is not there.
I say it again: as long as the church is placing its hope on wealth,
Jesus is not there.
It's an NGO for charity or culture, but it's not the church of Jesus.
Poverty is at the center of the gospel!
How good is it to be welcomed with love, generosity and joy.
When we're generous in welcoming people, and sharing with them
some food, a place in our homes, our time, we no longer remain poor,
we are enriched.
🙂
I could not understand that, because in Argentina I had not yet seen this. Today they have lotsof those. That is the effect! We take asmall land forourselves, for asmall group, and the rest have to get by with the scraps of MotherEarth that we left behind.
In 1970, I had to travel to a meeting of teachers for novices.
I'm talking about 1970.
In the city where this took place they gave me a tour,
and for the first time I saw a gated community.
A protected neighborhood, separated from the rest.
I know when someone who needs food knocks at your door
you always find a way of sharing your meal.
As the saying goes:
"You can always add more water to the beans."
Can one add more water to the beans?! Always?
Always!
The Pope is with you!
🙂
Think about it that among young people of 25 or less more than 40% don't have work!
What do young people do without a job?
What future do they have?
What path of life do they choose?
This is serious!
When you don't earn the bread, you lose your dignity!
This lack of work...
This lack of work robs us of dignity!
We must fight for this, we must defend our dignity,
as citizens, as men and women, as young people.
That is the tragedy of our time.
We must not remain silent.
No!
The way to escape consumerism, this corruption, this competitiveness,
this being enslaved to money, is the concreteness of day-to-day work,
is tangible reality!
I like to talk about the three Ts: trabajo, tierra and techo.
'Roof' means home, family.
Recovering this sense of family.
'Land' means work, cultivating the land.
And work mean precisely the most noble thing that man has:
to imitate God with your hands by creating!
Those three T's...
many of us take them for granted:
enough to eat and drink, a home, a steady work.
They're basic human rights that everybody should have access to.
I want to clarify, that I am speaking about common problems of all Latin Americans and generally of humanity as a whole.
Do we recognize, in all sincerity, that things are not going well?
In a world where there are so many farmers without land, so many families without a home, so many workers without rights...?
Do we realize that things don't go well, when soil, water and air and all living beings of creation are under permanent threat?