The Holy Year makes us enter even more into relationship with Jesus Christ, the face of the Father’s mercy.
Pope Francis said this today to pilgrims from the dioceses of the Netherlands, who have journeyed together to Rome for the occasion of the Jubilee Year.
A Mass was celebrated for them this morning at the altar of the Cathedra of St. Peter’s Basilica. At the end of the Eucharistic celebration, the Holy Father greeted the pilgrims in the basilica. “We can never exhaust this great mystery of God’s love!” he said. “It is the source of our salvation: the whole world, all of us are in need of God’s mercy. It saves us, it gives us life, it recreates us as true sons and daughters of God.”
In the Sacraments of Penance and Reconciliation, he noted, we experience God’s saving goodness in a particular way.
“Confession is the place in which we receive the gift of God’s forgiveness and mercy, which has initiated the transformation of each one of us and the reform of the life of the Church.”
The Holy Father encouraged them to open their hearts and let themselves “be molded by God’s mercy.”
As this happens, he told the pilgrims, they will become instruments of mercy.
“Embraced by the merciful Father, who always offers us His forgiveness, you will be able to witness His love in every day life.”
Stressing that men and women today thirst for God, Francis reminded them they can help quench this thirst, and accordingly help so many people “to rediscover Christ, Savior and Redeemer of humanity.”
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On Zenit’s web page:
Full text: https://zenit.org/articles/popes-greeting-to-pilgrims-from-netherlands/
