Pope Francis celebrates morning Mass in the Domus Sanctae Marthae

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The Father Dreamed of You, as Expectant Parents Dream, Pope Says

In Morning Homily, Says Our Identity as Persons Chosen by God Should Give Us Great Security

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Just as expectant parents dream of their child — how he will look and smile and what his name shall be — so the Father has dreamed of us, says Pope Francis. “The Father wanted you, not the mass of people, no — you, you, you. Each of us.”
The Pope said this today at Mass in the Casa Santa Marta, Vatican Radio reported. He was emphasizing that a characteristic of the Christian is that we are “chosen” and that this should give us great security.
“The Christian is blessed by the Father, who is God,” Pope Francis said in his homily, drawing from St Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians. Focusing on the “traits of this blessing,” he noted that the Christian is “chosen.” The Father chose us one by one, he loves us and gave us a name, God calls us one by one, “not as an oceanic crowd.”  The Holy Father reiterated, “we have been chosen, expected by the Father:”
“Think of a couple, when expecting a baby: ‘How will it be? And how will he or she smile? And talk? ‘But I dare say that we, each of us, has been dreamed of by the Father as a father and a mother dreams of their awaited baby. And this gives you great security. The Father wanted you, not the mass of people, no, you, you, you. Each of us. And ‘the foundation, is the basis of our relationship with God. We speak of a Father who loves us, who chose us, who gave us a name. ”
It can also be noted, the Pope continued, when a Christian “does not feel chosen by the Father.” But when they feel they belong to a community, “it is like a fan of a football club.” “The fan – Pope Francis commented – is choosing the team and belongs to the football team.”
The Christian, therefore, “is chosen, he or she is a dream from God.” And when we live like this, the Pope added, “our hearts are filled with great consolation,” we do not feel “abandoned.”
“The second part of the Christian blessing is feeling forgiven,” he said. “A man or woman who does not feel forgiven,” the Holy Father cautioned, is not fully “Christian”:
“We have all been forgiven with the price of the blood of Christ. But what have I been forgiven of? It’s a memory and a reminder of the bad things you have done — not your friend, your neighbor, you. ‘What bad things have I done in life?’ The Lord has forgiven these things. Here, I am blessed, I am a Christian. That is, the first part: I am chosen, dreamed by God, with a name that God gave me, loved by God. Second part: forgiven by God. ”
 
The third part, continued Pope Francis: the Christian “is a man and a woman walking towards fullness, towards an encounter with Christ who redeemed us”:
“A Christian cannot stand still. The Christian must always move forward, he must walk. The Christian who stands still is the Christian who received the talent and for fear of life, fear of losing, fear of his boss, out of fear or convenience, buried it. He is calm and spends his life going nowhere. The Christian is a man on a journey, a woman walking, who are always doing good, trying to do good and going forward.”
This, summed up the Pope, is the Christian identity: “blessed, because they are chosen because they are forgiven and forging a path.”
We, he concluded, ” are not anonymous, we are not proud”, so as not to have “need of forgiveness. “We are not still.”  “May the Lord – in his invocation – be with us through the grace of the blessing he has given us, that is the blessing of our Christian identity.”

Readings provided by the US bishops’ conference:

Reading 1 EPH 1:1-10

Paul, an Apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God,
to the holy ones who are in Ephesus
and faithful in Christ Jesus:
grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
who has blessed us in Christ
with every spiritual blessing in the heavens,
as he chose us in him, before the foundation of the world,
to be holy and without blemish before him.
In love he destined us for adoption to himself through Jesus Christ,
in accord with the favor of his will,
for the praise of the glory of his grace
that he granted us in the beloved.
In Christ we have redemption by his Blood,
the forgiveness of transgressions,
in accord with the riches of his grace that he lavished upon us.
In all wisdom and insight, he has made known to us
the mystery of his will in accord with his favor
that he set forth in him as a plan for the fullness of times,
to sum up all things in Christ, in heaven and on earth.

Responsorial Psalm PS 98:1, 2-3AB, 3CD-4, 5-6

R. (2a) The Lord has made known his salvation.
Sing to the LORD a new song,
for he has done wondrous deeds;
His right hand has won victory for him,
his holy arm.
R. The Lord has made known his salvation.
The LORD has made his salvation known:
in the sight of the nations he has revealed his justice.
He has remembered his kindness and his faithfulness
toward the house of Israel.
R. The Lord has made known his salvation.
All the ends of the earth have seen
the salvation by our God.
Sing joyfully to the LORD, all you lands;
break into song; sing praise.
R. The Lord has made known his salvation.
Sing praise to the LORD with the harp,
with the harp and melodious song.
With trumpets and the sound of the horn
sing joyfully before the King, the LORD.
R. The Lord has made known his salvation.

Alleluia JN 14:6

R. Alleluia, alleluia.
I am the way and the truth and the life, says the Lord;
no one comes to the Father except through me.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel LK 11:47-54

The Lord said:
“Woe to you who build the memorials of the prophets
whom your fathers killed.
Consequently, you bear witness and give consent
to the deeds of your ancestors,
for they killed them and you do the building.
Therefore, the wisdom of God said,
‘I will send to them prophets and Apostles;
some of them they will kill and persecute’
in order that this generation might be charged
with the blood of all the prophets
shed since the foundation of the world,
from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah
who died between the altar and the temple building.
Yes, I tell you, this generation will be charged with their blood!
Woe to you, scholars of the law!
You have taken away the key of knowledge.
You yourselves did not enter and you stopped those trying to enter.”
When Jesus left, the scribes and Pharisees
began to act with hostility toward him
and to interrogate him about many things,
for they were plotting to catch him at something he might say.

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