Pope Francis "... stop and listen to Jesus; in bad times, stop and listen to Jesus." FULL TEXT Lent Homily in Rome + Video
Homily of Pope Francis
Jesus shows himself to the Apostles as he is in Heaven: glorious, luminous, triumphant, victorious. And this is done to prepare them to bear the Passion, the scandal of the cross, because they could not understand that Jesus would die like a criminal, they could not understand it. They thought that Jesus was a liberator, but as are the earthly liberators, those who win in battle, those who are always triumphant. And the path of Jesus is another: Jesus triumphs through humiliation, the humiliation of the cross. But since this would have been a scandal for them, Jesus makes them see what comes next, what is after the cross, what awaits us, all of us. This glory and this Heaven. And this is very beautiful! It is very beautiful because Jesus - and this feels good - always prepares us to the test. In one way or another, but this is the message: it always prepares us. It gives us the strength to go on in the moments of trial and win them with its strength. Jesus does not leave us alone in the trials of life: he always prepares us, helps us, as he has prepared these [the disciples], with the vision of his glory. And so they then remembered this [moment] to bear the weight of humiliation. This is the first thing that the Church teaches us: Jesus always prepares us for tests and with us, he does not leave us alone. Never.
The second thing we can take from the words of God: "This is my beloved Son. Listen to him. " This is the message that the Father gives to the Apostles. Jesus' message is to prepare them by showing them his glory; the message of the Father is: "Listen to him". There is no moment in life that can not be lived fully by listening to Jesus. In beautiful moments, stop and listen to Jesus; in bad times, stop and listen to Jesus. This is the way. He will tell us what we have to do. Always.
And let us go forward in this Lent with these two things: in the trials, remember the glory of Jesus, that is, what awaits us; that Jesus is always present, with that glory to give us strength. And during all of life, listen to Jesus, what Jesus tells us: in the Gospel, in the liturgy, he always speaks to us; or in the heart.
In everyday life, perhaps we will have problems, or we will have to solve many things. Let's ask ourselves this question: what does Jesus say to me today? And we try to listen to the voice of Jesus, the inspiration from within. And so we follow the advice of the Father: "This is my beloved Son. Listen to him. " It will be Our Lady to give you the second council, at Cana in Galilee, when there is the miracle of water [transformed] into wine. What does the Madonna say? "Do what He tells you". Listening to Jesus and doing what He says: this is the sure path. Go forward with the memory of the glory of Jesus, with this advice: listen to Jesus and do what He tells us.
Final greeting
I'm thinking of one thing: open a parish to the North Pole, and you who have felt so cold, you can go there to do the parish ... what do you think? You like it?
Thank you, thank you for staying here, in the cold. Thank you so much for coming. Thank you for your welcome and for your kindness. The Lord bless you so much. And I would like to give you the blessing now. Let us pray for one another, for all the families of the parish, for the priests, for all those who work here and for all the faithful and the non-faithful.
[Blessing]
And please, I ask you to pray for me, do not forget. Thank you! Thank you!
Text Source: Vatican.va - Google Translation from Italian - Image Vatican.va
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