Pope Francis says "...let us think of the Palestinian and Israeli peoples: may the Lord bring a just peace. There is so much suffering...Children are suffering..."
.png)
Saint Peter's Square on Wednesday, 8 November 2023
_______________________________________
Cycle of catechesis. The passion for evangelization: the apostolic zeal of the believer. 25. Madeleine Delbrêl. The joy of faith among non-believers
Dear brothers and sisters, good morning!
Among the many witnesses of the passion for the proclamation of the Gospel, those impassioned evangelizers, today I will present a twentieth-century French woman, the venerable servant of God Madeleine Delbrêl. She was born in 1904 and died in 1964, a social worker, writer and mystic, and lived for more than thirty years in the poor, working class outskirts of Paris. Dazzled by the encounter with the Lord, she wrote: “Once we have come to know the word of God, we have no right not to receive it; once we have received it, we have no right not to let it be incarnated in us; once it has been incarnated in us, we have no right to keep it for ourselves: from that moment on, we belong to those who await it” (La santità della gente comune, Milan 2020, 71).
Beautiful: what she wrote is beautiful.
After an adolescence of agnosticism – she believed in nothing – at the age of around twenty Madeleine encountered the Lord, struck by the witness of some friends who were believers. She set out in search of God, giving voice to a profound thirst that she felt within, and came to learn that the “emptiness that cried out her anguish in her” was God who sought her (Abbagliata da Dio. Corrispondenza, 1910-1941, Milan 2007, 96). The joy of faith led her to evolve towards the choice of a life entirely given to God, in the heart of the Church and in the heart of the world, simply sharing in fraternity the life of the “street people”. Thus, she poetically addressed Jesus: “To be with you on your path, we must go, even when our laziness begs us to stay. You have chosen us to stay in a strange balance, a balance that can be achieved and maintained only in movement, only in momentum. A bit like a bicycle, which does not stay upright unless its wheels turn. … We can stay upright only by going forward, moving, in a surge of charity”. It is what she calls the “spirituality of the bicycle” (Umorismo nell’Amore. Meditazioni e poesie, Milan 2011, 56). Only on the move, on the go, do we live in the balance of faith, which is an imbalance, but it is like that: like the bicycle. If you stop, it does not stay upright.
Madeleine had a constantly outgoing heart, and she let herself be challenged by the cry of the poor. She felt that the Living God of the Gospel should burn within us until we have taken his name to those who have not yet found it. In this spirit, oriented towards the stirrings of the world and the cry of the poor, Madeleine felt called to “live Jesus’ love entirely and to the letter, from the oil of the good Samaritan to the vinegar of Calvary, thus giving him love for love … because, by loving him without reserve and letting ourselves be loved completely, the two great commandments of charity are incarnated in us and become but one” (La vocation de la charité, 1, Œuvres complètes XIII, Bruyères-le-Châtel, 138-139).
Finally, Madeleine teaches us yet another thing: that by evangelizing one is evangelized: by evangelizing we are evangelized. Therefore, she used to say, echoing Saint Paul: “Woe to me if evangelizing, I do not evangelize myself”. Indeed, evangelizing evangelizes one. And this is a beautiful doctrine.
Looking at this witness of the Gospel, we too learn that in every personal or social situation or circumstance of our life, the Lord is present and calls to us to inhabit our own time, to share our life with others, to mingle with the joys and sorrows of the world. In particular, he teaches us that even secularized environments are helpful for conversion, because contact with non-believers prompts the believer to a continual revision of his or her way of believing and rediscovering faith it its essentiality (cf. Noi dell estrade, Milan 1988, 268s).
May Madeleine Delbrêl teach us to live this faith “on the move”, so to speak, this fruitful faith that makes every act of faith an act of charity in the proclamation of the Gospel. Thank you.
_________________________________________
APPEAL Let us think and pray for the people who suffer from war. Let us not forget the tormented Ukraine and think of the Palestinian and Israeli people: may the Lord lead us to a just peace. There is so much suffering : children suffer, the sick, the old suffer and many young people die. War is always a defeat: let's not forget. It's always a defeat.
I extend a cordial welcome to the Italian-speaking pilgrims, in particular to the faithful of Altamura, San Salvatore Telesino and Petronà.
I welcome Unitalsi Emiliano-Romagnola, the group from the Milan Polyclinic and the Pro Musica e Arte Sacra Foundation with particular affection.
Finally, I greet the young people, the elderly, the sick and the newlyweds.
Tomorrow we will celebrate the liturgical feast of the Dedication of the Basilica of San Giovanni in Laterano: it is the cathedral of Rome, the Pope's chair as Bishop of Rome. May this occasion arouse in everyone the desire to become living stones in the service of the Lord.
And my Blessing to all!
Special Greetings
I extend a warm welcome to the English-speaking pilgrims and visitors taking part in today’s Audience, especially the groups from England, Denmark, Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, and the United States of America. Upon all of you I invoke the joy and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ. God bless you!
I cordially greet the French-speaking people, in particular the pilgrims who have come from France and all the members of the National Union of Catholic Family Associations. Faced with our secularized world, let us not complain, but see in it a call to test our faith and an invitation to communicate the joy of the Gospel. God bless you.
Liebe Brüder und Schwestern German Sprache, der Glaube ist das Licht, das uns zum Herrn führt. Let us dieses Licht durch unseren Lebenswandel so aufstrahlen, dass es also die Wege derer erhellt, die noch nicht glauben.
Dear German-speaking brothers and sisters, faith is the light that leads us to the Lord. Let this light shine in our lives so that it can also illuminate the paths of those who do not yet believe.] I cordially greet the pilgrims of the Spanish language. Let us tell the Lord that we give our grace to be valiant witnesses of the Gospel, above all in secularized environments, to help us discover the essence of faith and strengthen ourselves in the difficulties. May Jesus bless him and the Holy Virgin guard him. Much thanks.
Dear Portuguese-speaking pilgrims, welcome! This month revives in us the nostalgic memory of our deceased. They left us one day with the request, tacit or explicit, for our spiritual help in their passage towards the afterlife. We know that our prayers for them reach Heaven. Let's pray for them!
أُحيِّي المُؤمِنِينَ النَّاطِقِينَ باللُغَةِ العربِيَّة. لِنَطْلُبْ إلى الرَّبِّ يسوع أَنْ يُعطِينا الشَّجاعةَ لِنَعمَلَ معَ كلِّ العامِلِينَ في الأرضِ لِنُحَرِّرَها مِن الشَّرّ، ونُعيدَها إلى صلاحِها وطِيبَتِها الأصلِيَّة. بارَكَكُم الرَّبُّ جَميعًا وَحَماكُم دائِمًا
I greet the Arabic-speaking faithful. We ask the Lord Jesus to give us the courage to work with all those who work on the earth to free it from evil and return it to its original goodness. May the Lord bless you all and protect you always from all evil!
Serdecznie pozdrawiam pielgrzymów polskich. Za kilka dni obchodzić będziecie rocznicę odzyskania przez Polskę niepodległości. Niech ta rocznica pobudza Was do wdzięczności wobec Boga. Przekazujcie młodemu pokoleniu Waszą historię. Z serca wam błogosławię.
I cordially greet the Polish pilgrims. In a few days you will celebrate the anniversary of Poland's regaining independence. This anniversary stimulates you to be grateful to God. Pass on your story to the new generations. I bless you from the bottom of my heart
Comments