We must memorize the beautiful deeds God has worked in our lives.
The Holy Father stressed this during his daily morning Mass this morning at Casa Santa Marta, saying that our faith is made stronger when we recall all the key moments and signs in which God has been active and present for us, reported Vatican Radio.
The Pontiff urged those present to ‘store’ these wonderful memories, as they demonstrate how God always accompanies us and is not frightened off by our wicked deeds.
“We must look back to see how God has saved us, follow – with our hearts and minds – this path with its memories and in this way arrive at Jesus’s side. It’s the same Jesus, who in the greatest moment of his life – Holy Thursday and Good Friday, in the (Last) Supper – gave us his Body and his Blood and said to us ‘Do this in memory of me.’ In memory of Jesus. To remember how God saved us!»
Just as the Church describes the Sacrament of the Eucharist as a “memorial,” and in the Bible, the book of Deuteronomy is ‘the book of the Memory of Israel,’ the Pope said we similarly must do this in our personal lives.
“It’s good for the Christian heart to memorize my journey, my personal journey: just like the Lord who accompanied me up to here and held me by the hand. And the times I said to our Lord: No! Go away! I don’t want you! Our Lord respects (our wishes). He is respectful.»
«But we must memorize our past and be a memorial of our own lives and our own journey. We must look back and remember and do it often. ‘At that time God gave me this grace and I replied in that way, I did this or that… He accompanied me.’ And in this way we arrive at a new encounter, an encounter of gratitude.”
Pope Francis reminded those gathered that Christian hearts must give rise to a sense of gratitude towards Jesus who never stops accompanying us ‘in our history.’
«How many times, he admitted, have we closed the door in his face, how many times have we pretended not to see him and not believe that He is by our side. How many times have we denied his salvation… But He was always there.»
Memory, the Pope highlighted, makes us draw closer to God, especially «the memory of that work which God carried out in us, in this recreation, in this regeneration, that takes us beyond the ancient splendor that Adam had in the first creation.»
Saying he was giving ‘simple advice,’ the Pope told the faithful to memorize what God has done for them.
«What’s my life been like, what was my day like today or what has this past year been like? (It’s all about) memory. What has my relationship with the Lord been like? Our memories of the beautiful and great things that the Lord has carried out in the lives of each one of us,” the Pope concluded.
