Pope Francis says parents participate in God’s creative power.
The Holy Father expressed this during his Angelus address today at noon in St. Peter’s Square, while speaking on matrimony. Shortly before the Angelus address, Francis had presided over the Mass for the opening of the General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops in St. Peter’s Basilica. The synod, whose theme is, ‘The Vocation and Mission of the Family in the Church and the Contemporary World,’ began this morning in the Vatican and ends Oct. 25th.
In the address, the Pope recalled that today’s reading from Genesis was on the complementarity and reciprocity between man and woman and how man is destined to leave his father and mother to become one flesh with his wife, sharing one life and existence. In this marital unit, the Pope reflected, spouses transmit life to new human beings: they become parents.
«[They] participate in the creative power of God himself,» the Pope rejoiced. «But be careful! God is love, and one takes part in His work when one loves with Him and like Him. To this end – as Saint Paul says [in his letter to the Romans] – love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.»
And this, Francis continued, is also the love that is given to spouses in the sacrament of marriage, that which «fuels their relationship, through joys and sorrows, quiet and difficult moments.» It is the love «that awakens the desire to create children, waiting for them, welcome them, raise them, educate them.»
«It is the same love that, in today’s Gospel, Jesus reveals to the children: ‘Let the children come to me, do not prevent them: for the Kingdom of God belongs to such as these (Mk 10:14),'» the Jesuit Pope recalled.
Today, the Pope said, let us ask the Lord that all parents and educators in the world, as well as all of society, be made instruments of that acceptance and love with which Jesus embraces the little ones. «He looks into their hearts with tenderness and solicitude of a father and a mother at the same time.
«I think of so many children that are hungry, abandoned, exploited, forced into the war, refused. It is painful to see images of children that are unhappy, looking lost, fleeing from poverty and conflicts. They are knocking on our doors and our hearts begging for help.»
«The Lord helps us not to be a ‘fortress-society,’ but a ‘family-society,’ which welcomes, with proper rules, but welcomes… Always welcomes… with love!»
The Holy Father invited all faithful to support the work of the Synod with prayer and invoked the maternal intercession of the Virgin Mary. After the midday prayer, Francis also asked for prayers for the victims of the floods in the French Riviera and of the landslide which engulfed a village in Guatemala.
As he normally does, Pope Francis concluded his Sunday address wishing those present a good Sunday, a good lunch, and telling them not to forget to pray for him.
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On ZENIT’s Web Page:
Full Translation: http://www.zenit.org/en/articles/pope-s-angelus-address–6
