Christ must take center place, Amazon synod participant says

Vatican City, Sep 17, 2017 / 09:30 am (CNA/EWTN News).- On Sunday Pope Francis spoke about the limitless love of God, and how it leads him to forgive us time and time again; something we must strive to do for others, no matter how many times they’ve sinned against us.

“The forgiveness of God is a sign of his overwhelming love for each of us; it is the love that leaves us free to move away, like the prodigal son, but that awaits our return every day; it is the enterprising love of the shepherd for the lost sheep; it is the tenderness that welcomes every sinner who knocks at his door.”

“Heavenly Father, our father, is full and full of love and wants to offer it to us, but he cannot do it if we close our hearts to love for others,” the Pope said Sept. 17.

Continuing, Francis pointed out how Jesus teaches us this in the Our Father, when he directly links the forgiveness we ask of God with the forgiveness we give to our brothers and sisters in the words: “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”

In his Angelus address Sunday Pope Francis reflected on the day’s Gospel reading from Matthew, where St. Peter asks Christ: “Lord, if my brother sins against me, how often must I forgive? As many as seven times?”

To Peter, seven already seems like the maximum amount of times we should forgive the same person, Francis said. And maybe to us it seems like twice is already a lot.

But Christ’s response is that we must forgive seven times seventy times, “that is to say always. You always have to forgive,” he said. Christ confirms this by telling a parable, the Pope continued, a parable which shows “the inconsistency of the one who was forgiven before and then refuses to forgive.”

The king in the parable is a generous man who when his servant begs for forgiveness of a large debt he has compassion on him and forgives him.

The servant on the other hand refuses to forgive a much smaller debt of a fellow servant and “behaves in a ruthless way,” having him thrown in prison.

“The incoherent attitude of this servant is also ours when we refuse forgiveness to our brothers,” the Pope said. “While the king of the parable is the image of God who loves us with a love so abundant of mercy from embracing us, loving us and forgiving us continually.”

“Since our Baptism God has forgiven us, remitting an insoluble debt: original sin. But that’s the first time. Then, with unlimited mercy, He forgives us all the faults as soon as we show even a little sign of repentance,” the Pope said. “God is so merciful.”

When we are tempted to behave as the servant did toward his fellow servant, closing off our hearts to those who have offended us and come to apologize, we must remember the words of the Heavenly Father, he stated.

He told the ruthless servant: “I forgave you your entire debt because you begged me to. Should you not have had pity on your fellow servant, as I had pity on you?”

“Anyone who has experienced the joy, peace, and inner freedom that comes from being forgiven can open themselves to the possibility of forgiving in turn,” he noted.

Concluding, Francis turned to the Blessed Virgin Mary, who he said “helps us to be more and more aware of the gratuitousness and greatness of the forgiveness received from God.”

May she help us to become as “merciful as He is, the good Father: slow to anger and great in love.”

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Pope Francis praying in St. Peter’s Basilica on All Souls’ Day, Nov. 2, 2022. / Vatican Media

Rome Newsroom, Nov 2, 2022 / 06:53 am (CNA).

On All Souls’ Day, Pope Francis urged Christians not to “compromise with the Gospel” but to take Jesus’ words seriously when he says we will be judged by how we treat the poor.

“Often, out of convenience or comfort, we tend to tone down Jesus’ message, to water down his words. Let’s face it, we have gotten pretty good at compromising with the Gospel,” the pope said in St. Peter’s Basilica on Nov. 2.

“From simple disciples of the Master we become masters of complexity, who argue a lot and do little, who seek answers more in front of the computer than in front of the Crucifix, on the internet rather than in the eyes of our brothers and sisters; Christians who comment, debate, and expound theories but do not know even a poor person by name, have not visited a sick person for months, have never fed or dressed someone, have never made friends with someone in need,’” he said.

Pope Francis offered Mass on All Souls’ Day for the repose of the souls of more than 150 deceased bishops and cardinals who died in the past year.

In his homily, the pope reflected on Jesus’ words in the Gospel of Matthew: “For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me.”

The pope said that these words in the Gospel help prepare for death and the final judgment. He said God is “waiting for us among the poor and wounded of the world.” Pope Francis warned that there is a continual risk to “put the expectations of the world before the expectation of God” and to end up “losing sight of what matters.”

“The best careers, the greatest achievements, the most prestigious titles and awards, the accumulated wealth and earthly gains, all will vanish in an instant, everything,” he said.

The pope said that All Souls’ Day is a good occasion to ask “if our desires have anything to do with heaven.”

The Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica was offered for the 9 cardinals and 148 bishops and archbishops who died between Oct. 30, 2021, and Oct. 17, 2022.

Among the deceased cardinals listed in a booklet accompanying the Mass were Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the former Vatican secretary of state; Cardinal Claudio Hummes, the former archbishop of São Paulo, Brazil, who had a significant role in the 2019 Amazon Synod; and Cardinal Antonios Naguib, the former patriarch of Alexandria and head of the Coptic Catholic Church.

Bishops who died in the past year included Archbishop Emeritus Joseph Anthony Fiorenza of Galveston-Houston, Texas; Archbishop Emeritus Stanislaw Nowak of Czestochowa, Poland; Archbishop Emeritus Joseph Cheng Tsai-Fa of Taipei, Taiwan; and Bishop Emeritus Lawrence Donald Soens of Sioux City, Iowa.

After the Mass, Pope Francis made a private visit to a cemetery inside Vatican City. The Teutonic Cemetery, located next to St. Peter’s Basilica, is the burial place of people of German, Austrian, and Swiss descent, as well as for people from other German-speaking nations, particularly members of the Archconfraternity of Our Lady.

The cemetery is built on the historic site of Nero’s Circus, where early Christians in Rome were martyred, including St. Peter.

On All Souls’ Day and throughout the month of November, the Church makes a special effort to remember, honor, and pray for the dead. There are many different cultural traditions around this period, but one of the most consistently honored is the practice of visiting cemeteries.

Last year, Pope Francis visited a military cemetery in Rome on All Souls’ Day. In 2018, Pope Francis offered Mass in a cemetery for deceased children and unborn babies called the Garden of Angels, located in the Laurentino Cemetery on the outskirts of Rome.

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Pope Francis waves at the crowd of 1.5 million people who attended the closing Mass of World Youth Day 2023 in Lisbon, Portugal on Aug. 6, 2023. / Vatican Media.

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Dec 30, 2023 / 07:00 am (CNA).
Pope Francis maintained … […]