Drawing from the advice given to the Sanhedrin by the Pharisee Gamaliel, Pope Francis said today that it is a good idea to «give time to time.»
The Pope celebrated his customary early morning Mass in Domus Sanctae Marthae today, reflecting on the passage from the First Reading, Acts 5:34-42.
In that reading, Gamaliel advises the chief priests and Sanhedrin to allow the works of the first Christians to run their course: «So now I tell you, have nothing to do with these men [the Apostles], and let them go. For if this endeavor or this activity is of human origin, it will destroy itself. But if it comes from God, you will not be able to destroy them; you may even find yourselves fighting against God.»
In his homily, Pope Francis observed that «give time to time” is “wise advice also for our life, because time is God’s messenger. God saves us in time, not in the moment.”
«The Lord saves us in history, in our own personal history,» he continued, as reported by the Vatican Publishing House, whose staff attended the Mass. «The Lord does not work as a fairy with a magic wand.”
The Pontiff then described “triumphalism” as “a great temptation in Christian life, of which not even the Apostles were immune.»
«Triumphalism is not of the Lord,” who lived “humbly,» the Pope said. «The Lord teaches us that in life everything is not magic, that triumphalism is not Christian.”
Instead, the Pope spoke of a “grace that we must ask for,” which “is that of perseverance: to persevere in the way of the Lord, to the end, every day.”
One proceeds on the way “with difficulty, with effort, with so much joy.” Hence the invocation is «that the Lord save us from triumphalist fantasies.”
The homily ended with this phrase: to walk every day “in the presence of God: that is the way of the Lord. Let’s go on that one!”
Once the celebration was over, the Holy Father greeted one by one the staff of the Vatican Publishing House who attended the Mass.
The publishing house has already released books compiling Francis’ first addresses.
