At the Angelus prayer on Sunday, Pope Francis acknowledges that despite our limitations, Jesus still encourages us to witness, through our lives and our joy, how beautiful it is to love Jesus, and insists that announcing the Gospel is never time ‘lost.’
Like the Lord had much patience with His disciples, He has with us. Nevertheless, we are just as called upon to witness through our joy and our lives, how beautiful it is to love Jesus.
This was the comforting message Pope Francis offered during his Sunday Angelus address at noon to the faithful and pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square.
The Holy Father had drawn inspiration from today’s Gospel reading according to St. Mark, which recounts the vocation of the first disciples, being recruited by the Lord, to “become fishers of men.”
Jesus’ patience with His disciples
Recalling how calling upon others to join His mission was one of the first things Jesus does at the beginning of His public life, the Pope said this reveals something significant, namely that “the Lord loves to involve us in His work of salvation, He wants us to be active with Him,” and to be “responsible and protagonists.
“The Pope observed that He includes us, and included His disciples, in this endeavour, despite all our limitations.
“Let us look, for example,” Pope Francis marveled, “at how much patience He had with His disciples: often they did not understand His words, sometimes they did not get along with each other, for a long time, they could not accept essential aspects of His preaching, such as service.” Yet, he highlighted, Jesus chose them and continued to believe in them.
Jesus’ greatest happiness
“In fact, bringing God’s salvation to all was Jesus’ greatest joy, his mission” the Pope said.
“Bringing God’s salvation to all was Jesus’ greatest joy”
“In every word and action with which we unite ourselves to Him, in the beautiful adventure of giving love,” the Pope said, “light and joy are multiplied, not only around us, but also within us.”
To proclaim the Gospel, Pope Francis went on to insist, “is not wasted time.” Rather, he encouraged, “it is to be happier by helping others to be happy; to free oneself by helping others to be free; to become better by helping others to be better!”
Source: vaticannews.va
