(ZENIT News / Vatican City, 10.13.2024).- Around 20,000 faithful gathered in St. Peter’s Square at noon on Sunday, October 13, to join Pope Francis in praying the Angelus and to listen to his traditional Sunday address. Below, we offer the Pope’s words in English. The address was based on the Gospel of that Sunday (Mark 10:17-30).
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Dear brothers and sisters, good Sunday!
The Gospel of today’s liturgy (Mk 10, 17:30) tells us about a rich man who encounters Jesus and asks Him: “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” (v. 17). Jesus invites him to leave everything and follow Him, but the man, sorrowful, goes away because, as the text says, “he had great possessions” (v. 23). It costs to leave everything.
We can see the two movements of this man: at the beginning he runs, to go to Jesus; at the end, though, he goes away sorrowful, he goes away sad. First, he runs towards, and then he goes away. Let us dwell on this.
First of all, this man goes to Jesus running. It is as if something in his heart urges him on: in fact, although he has many riches, he is dissatisfied, he feels restlessness inside, he is searching for a fuller life. As the sick and the possessed often do (cf. Mk 3:10; 5:6), we see this in the Gospel, he throws himself at the Master’s feet; he is rich, yet in need of healing. He is rich but needs to be healed. Jesus looks at him with love (v. 21); then, He proposes a “therapy”: to sell everything he has, give it to the poor and follow Him. But, at this point, comes an unexpected conclusion: this man’s face falls and he goes away! So great and impetuous was his desire to meet Jesus; how cold and swift was his farewell.
We, too, carry in our hearts an irrepressible need for happiness and for a life full of meaning; however, we can fall into the illusion of thinking that the answer is found in the possession of material things and earthly securities. Instead, Jesus wants to bring us back to the truth of our desires and to make us discover that, in reality, the goodness we yearn for is God Himself, His love for us and the eternal life that He and He only can give us. The true wealth is to be looked upon with love by the Lord – this is a great wealth – and, as Jesus does with that man, to love each other by making our life a gift for others. Brothers and sisters, therefore, Jesus invites us to risk, to “risk love”: to sell everything to give it to the poor, which means divesting ourselves of the self and our false securities, making ourselves attentive to those who are in need and sharing our possessions, not just things, but what we are: our talents, our friendship, our time, and so on.
Brothers and sisters, that rich man did not want to risk, to risk what? He did not want to risk love, and he went away with a sad face. And us? Let us ask ourselves: what is our heart attached to? How do we satiate our hunger for life and happiness? Do we know how to share with those who are poor, with those who are in difficulty or in need of listening, of a smile, of a word to help them regain hope? Or who need to be listened to… Let us remember this: the true wealth is not the goods of this world, the true wealth is being loved by God, and learning to love like Him.
And now let us ask for the intercession of the Virgin Mary, so that she may help us discover in Jesus the treasure of life.
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