Pope Francis today dedicated a few words to fear and its impact on the lives of Catholics in his address accompanying the prayer of the Eucharist. Angelus. In his message he deepened the phrase that Christ repeats three times in today's Gospel: "Do not be afraid".
Meditating on the words of Jesus, the Holy Father underlined a paradox that we find in the New Testament and in the life of Catholics. "The proclamation of the Kingdom of God is a message of peace and justice, founded on fraternal charity and forgiveness, and yet it encounters opposition, violence and persecution."
How can it be then that the Lord tells us not to be afraid? Francis replied that "not because everything will go well in the world, no, not because of that, but because we are precious to the Father and nothing that is good will be lost."
The fear of Catholics
But there is something that Catholics should be afraid of and "we discover it through an image that Jesus uses today: the image of "Gehenna". This Gehenna was "the great garbage dump of the city. Jesus speaks of it to say that the real fear to have is that of throwing away one's own life".
What Christ wants to say through this is that "we should not be so afraid of being misunderstood and criticized, of losing prestige and economic advantages for remaining faithful to the Gospel, but rather of wasting our existence looking for things of little value, which do not fulfill the meaning of life".
Nowadays "one can be the object of ridicule or discrimination if one does not follow certain fashionable models, which, however, often place second-class realities at the center". The Pope mentioned some examples, such as parents who work and take care of their children, religious women and priests, or young people with illusions who want to meet other people, "without wasting time on things that pass and leave no trace".
True to what matters
All this entails renunciations "but it is necessary in order not to lose oneself in things, which are then thrown away, as was then done in Gehenna". Francisco He assured that "to remain faithful to what matters is costly; it costs to go against the current, it costs to free oneself from the conditioning of common thinking, it costs to be set aside by those who follow fashion". However, the Pope insisted on what "Jesus says: what counts is not to waste the greatest good, that is, life. Do not throw life away. This alone should frighten us."
For this reason, Francis invited us all to ask ourselves: "What am I afraid of? Of not having what I like? Of not achieving the goals that society imposes? Of the judgment of others? Or rather, of not pleasing the Lord and not putting his Gospel first?
After the Angelus message, the Pope expressed his sorrow for the deaths that occurred after a gang fight in a prison in Honduras. The Holy Father also remembered Emanuela Orlandi and her family, to whom he assured of his prayers. Finally, he greeted several Italian communities and groups.
