The ultimate purpose of other creatures is not to be found in us. Rather, all creatures are moving forward with us and through us towards a common point of arrival, which is God, in that transcendent fullness where the risen Christ embraces and illumines all things.
Brothers and sisters, let us not be closed to the newness that God wants to bring into our lives! Are we often weary, disheartened, and sad? Do we feel weighed down by our sins? Do we think that we won’t be able to cope? Let us not close our hearts, let us not lose confidence, let us never give up.
Mercy will always be greater than any sin, no one can put a limit on the love of the all-forgiving God.
Let us remain with Christ – abiding in Christ – and let us always try to be one with him. Let us follow him; let us imitate him in his movement of love, in his going forth to meet humanity. Let us go forth and open doors. Let us have the audacity to mark out new paths for proclaiming the Gospel.
For me it’s clear: we must redesign the economy so that it can offer every person access to a dignified existence while protecting and regenerating the natural world.
Crossing the threshold of faith means that we work out of a sense of dignity and see service as a vocation. It means we serve selflessly and are prepared to begin over time and time again without giving in to weariness – as if all that has been done so far were only a step on the journey toward the Kingdom, the fullness of life.
When people become self-centred and self-enclosed, their greed increases. The emptier a person’s heart is, the more he or she needs things to buy, own and consume. It becomes almost impossible to accept the limits imposed by reality. In this horizon, a genuine sense of the common good also disappears. As these attitudes become more widespread, social norms are respected only to the extent that they do not clash with personal needs.
Today I ask you in the name of Christ and the Church, never tire of being merciful.
Mary was able to turn a stable into a home for Jesus, with poor swaddling clothes and an abundance of love. She is the handmaid of the Father who sings his praises. She is the friend who is ever concerned that wine not be lacking in our lives. She is the woman whose heart was pierced by a sword and who understands all our pain.
Mercy will always be greater than any sin, no one can put a limit on the love of the all-forgiving God. Just by looking at him, just raising our eyes from ourselves and our wounds, we leave an opening for the action of his grace. Jesus performs miracles with our sins, with what we are, with our nothingness, with our wretchedness.
Tenderness is not weakness; it is fortitude.
The time has come to pay renewed attention to reality and the limits it imposes; this in turn is the condition for a more sound and fruitful development of individuals and society.
See everything; turn a blind eye to much; correct a little.
But sin is more than a stain. Sin is a wound; it needs to be treated, healed. This.
Living our vocation to be protectors of God’s handiwork is essential to a life of virtue; it is not an optional or a secondary aspect of our Christian experience.
Narcissism makes people incapable of looking beyond themselves, beyond their own desires and needs.
We need to remember and remind ourselves where we come from, what we are, our nothingness.
God forgives not with a decree but with a caress. Jesus too goes beyond the law and forgives by caressing the wounds of our sins.
Necesitamos una solidaridad universal nueva.
We are more alone than ever in an increasingly massified world that promotes individual interests and weakens the communitarian dimension of life.