(ZENIT News / Vatican City, 12.01.2024).- Around 15,000 people gathered in St. Peter’s Square at midday on Sunday, December 1, to join the Pope in praying the Marian Angelus. Below is the English translation of the address Pope Francis delivered in Italian:
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Dear brothers and sisters, happy Sunday!
The Gospel of today’s liturgy (Lk 21:25-28, 34-36), first Sunday of Advent, speaks to us about cosmic upheavals and anxiety and fear in humanity. In this context, Jesus addresses a word of hope to His disciples: “Stand erect and raise your heads because your redemption is at hand” (v. 28). The Master’s concern is that their hearts do not grow drowsy (cf. v. 34) and that they await the coming of the Son of Man with vigilance.
Jesus’ invitation is this: raise your head high and keep your hearts light and awake.
Indeed, many of Jesus’ contemporaries, faced with the catastrophic events they saw happening around them – persecutions, conflicts, natural disasters – are gripped by anxiety and think that the end of the world is coming. Their hearts are weighed down with fear. Jesus, however, wants to free them from present anxieties and false convictions, showing them how to stay awake in their hearts, how to read events from the plan of God, who works salvation even within the most dramatic events of history. That is why He suggests that they turn their gaze to Heaven to understand the things of earth: “Stand erect and raise your heads” (v. 28). It is beautiful… “Stand erect and raise your heads”.
Brothers and sisters, for us too Jesus’ recommendation is important: “Beware that your hearts do not become drowsy” (v. 34). All of us, in many moments of life, ask ourselves: what can I do to have a light heart, a wakeful heart, a free heart? A heart that does not let itself be crushed by sadness? And sadness is awful, it is awful. Indeed, it can happen that the anxiety, fears and worries about our personal lives or about what is happening in the world today weigh down on us like boulders and throw us into discouragement. If worries weigh down our hearts and induce us to close in on ourselves, Jesus, on the contrary, invites us to lift up our heads, to trust in His love that wants to save us and that draws close to us in every situation of our existence, He asks us to make room for Him in order to find hope again.
And so, let us ask ourselves: is my heart weighed down by fear, worries and anxieties about the future? Do I know how to look at daily events and the vicissitudes of history with God’s eyes, in prayer, with a broader horizon? Or do I let myself be overcome by despondency? May this Advent season be a precious opportunity to lift our gaze to Him, who lightens our hearts and sustains us on our way.
Let us now invoke the Virgin Mary, who even in times of trial was ready to accept God’s plan.
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