Pope Francis says a Christian’s style of life should be founded on a commitment to express the Father’s mercy, such that “my life, my attitude, my way of living life must be, in fact, a concrete sign of the fact that God is close to us.”
The Pope said this on Saturday when he held his second “Jubilee Audience.” The jubilee audiences are open to the public and scheduled to be held one Saturday a month during the Year of Mercy.
The Holy Father reflected during his address on commitment, and specifically the way that the faithful should be committed to mirroring God’s own commitment to us.
“What is a commitment? What does it mean to be committed?” the Pope asked. “When I am committed, it means that I assume a responsibility — a task towards someone, and it also means the style, the attitude of fidelity and dedication, of the particular care with which I carry out this task. Every day we are asked to put commitment in the things we do: in prayer, in work, in study, but also in sport, in free time. In sum, to be committed means to put our good will and our strengths to improve life.”
God is first committed to us, the Pontiff affirmed. He created the world and sustains it “despite our attempts to ruin it.” And his great commitment was giving us Jesus.
“Jesus was the living expression of the Father’s mercy,” Francis explained.
Thus, he said, “we also can and must correspond to His love with our commitment.”
And this commitment should be shown above all in situations of greatest need, the Pope stressed. “We must always bring God’s caress, because God has caressed us with His mercy – we must bring it to others, to those who are in need, to those who have a suffering in the heart or are sad: We must come close with God’s caress, which is the same as that which He gave us.”
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On ZENIT’s Web page:
Full text: https://zenit.org/articles/jubilee-audience-on-imitating-gods-deep-mercy/
