Pope Francis reflected on the Fifth Commandment: You shall not kill. When life is welcomed as a gift from God, he said, the vision of interpreting life through the lens of eliminating problems can be corrected.
Value of life
The reading from Wisdom 11:24-26 provided the inspiration for the Pope’s remarks. Pope Francis reaffirmed that the Fifth Commandment is concise and to the point. It is “a defending wall for the foundational value in human relations: the value of life”, Pope Francis said.
Gift of God, not a problem
Pope Francis then noted a contradictory approach to life: the suppression of “human life in the mother’s womb in order to safeguard other values”.It is not right to 'take out' a human being, no matter how little, to resolve a problem. That is like hiring a hitman to resolve a problem.
Fear is the culprit
Fear leads to violence and rejection, the Pope continued. Welcoming life as a gift of God leads to accepting life in all of its expressions. Pope Francis mentioned that parents are in need of true support should they discover that the baby they are expecting will be disabled. Then Pope Francis said,
A sick child, …just as an elderly person, needs assistance…. He or she who is presented as a problem is in reality God’s gift who can draw me out of my self-centeredness to make me grow in love.
God’s love is the measure for life
The world’s idols prompt people to reject life, the Pope said. Pope Francis listed these idols: money, power, and success. Pope Francis called them “mistaken parameters by which to evaluate life”. Whereas “the only authentic measure for life is love, the love that God has for it!”
Secret of God’s love
The secret of love was shown in how God’s own Son lived, the Pope continued.
He became man to the point of assuming rejection, weakness, poverty and pain on the cross. In every sick child, in every weak elderly person, in every desperate migrant, in every life that is fragile and threatened, Christ is seeking our heart so as to disclose the joy of love.
Therefore, the Pope Francis concluded:
Do not despise life! … We need to say to so many young people: do not despise your existence! Stop rejecting the work of God! You are a work of God! … For the Gospel says that 'God so loved the world that he gave his only Son so that whoever believes in him might not die, but have eternal life' (John 3:16).
Pope Francis Mass: Jesus teaches us to be "invasive" in prayer
Praying with courage and without getting tired
Pope Francis emphasizes three elements: a man in need, a friend, a little bread. It is a surprise visit from the needy friend and his is an insistent request because he has confidence in the friend who has what he needs. The Lord wants to teach us how to pray: said Pope Francis, wants us to pray with "intrusiveness".
Please be bold, because when we pray we usually have a need. The friend is God: he is a rich friend who has bread, he has what we need. As Jesus said: "In prayer be intrusive. Do not get tired ". But do not get tired of what? Of asking. “Ask and it will be given to you”.
Prayer is not a magic wand
But, the Pope continued, "prayer is not like a magic wand", it is not that as soon as we ask, we obtain. It is not a matter of saying two "Our Fathers" and then leaving it at that :Prayer requires effort: it asks us for will, it asks for constancy, it asks us to be determined, without shame. Why? Because I'm knocking on my friend's door. God is a friend, and with a friend I can do this. A constant, intrusive prayer. Think of Saint Monica, for example, how many years she prayed like this, even with tears, for the conversion of her son. The Lord eventually opened the door.
Fight with the Lord to obtain what you need
Pope Francis then provided another example, recounting a real life story that happened in Buenos Aires: a man, a worker, had a daughter who was dying, the doctors had given up hope and he traveled 70 kilometers to go up to the Shrine of Our Lady of Luján. It was night time and the sanctuary was closed, but he prayed all night long imploring Our Lady: "I want my daughter, I want my daughter, you can give her to me." And when morning came he returned to the hospital he found his wife who told him: "You know, the doctors took her to do another test, they cannot explain why she woke up and asked for food, there's nothing wrong, she's fine, she's out of danger" This man, Pope Francis concluded, knew how to pray.
The cries of the capricious children
The Pope invited those gathered to think about capricious children when they want something, they cry and cry saying: "I want it! I want it! "And eventually the parents give up. But some may ask: will not God be angry if I do so? It is Jesus himself, said the Pope, who, in anticipating this, told us: If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” He is a friend: he always gives good things. He gives more: I ask you to solve this problem and he solves it and also gives you the Holy Spirit. More. Let's think a little: how do you pray? Like a parrot? Do I really pray with a need in my heart? Struggle with God in prayer in order that he gives me what I need if it is right? We learn from this passage of the Gospel how to pray.
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