(ZENIT News / Vatican City, 08.04.2024).- Around 12,000 people gathered in St. Peter’s Square at noon on Sunday, August 4, to listen to the Pope’s Sunday message and pray the Marian prayer of the Angelus with him. Although the Angelus was not suspended during the Pope’s rest period, this is the first Angelus since Pope Francis resumed his regular work schedule. We offer below the English translation of the Pontiff’s Sunday address.
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Dear brothers and sisters, happy Sunday!
Today the Gospel tells us about Jesus who, after the miracle of the loaves and fishes, invites the crowds who are looking for him to reflect on what took place to understand the meaning of it (cf. Jn 6:24-35).
They had eaten the food that was shared and seen how even with few resources all had been fed and had their fill through the generosity and courage of a young man who made available what he had with others. (cf. Jn 6:1-13). The sign was clear: if everyone gives to others what they have, with God’s help, even with little everyone can have something. Let us not forget this: if one gives to others what one has, with God’s help, even with little everyone can have something.
The crowds did not understand: they mistook Jesus for some kind of magician and went back to look for him, hoping he would repeat the miracle as if it were magic (cf. v. 26).
They were the protagonists of an experience in their journey, but they did not grasp its significance: their attention focused only on the loaves and fishes, the actual food that finished immediately. They did not realise that this was only an instrument through which the Father, while satisfying their hunger, revealed something far more important to them. And what did the Father reveal to them? The path of life that lasts forever and the taste of bread that satisfies beyond any measure. The true bread, in short, was and is Jesus, his beloved Son made man (cf. v. 35), who came to share our poverty in order to lead us through it to the joy of full communion with God and with our brothers and sisters (cf. Jn 3:16).
Material things do not give fullness to life. They help us go forward and are important, but they do not fulfill our lives. Only love can do that (cf. Jn 6:35). And for this to happen, the path to take is that of charity which keeps nothing for itself, but shares everything. Love shares everything.
And does this not happen also in our own families? We can see it. Let us think of parents who struggle all their lives to raise their children well and leave them something for the future. How beautiful when this message is understood, and the children are grateful and in turn become supportive of each other like brothers and sisters! How sad, on the other hand, when they fight over inheritance – I have seen so many cases and it is sad – and they are fighting each other and perhaps they do not speak to each other again for years! The message of a father and a mother, their most precious legacy, is not money. It is the love with which they give their children everything they have, just as God does with us, and in this way, they teach us to love.
Let us ask ourselves, then: what kind of relationship do I have with material things? Am I a slave to them, or do I use them freely as instruments to give and receive love? Am I able to say «thank you» to God and my brothers and sisters for the gifts I have received. And do I know how to share them with others?
May Mary, who gave Jesus her whole life, teach us to make everything an instrument of love.
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