Vatican City — Contemplating the Passion of Christ should inspire Christians to be more patient in the face of their own sufferings and trials, Pope Francis said.
Pope Francis said in his general audience on March 27 that “there is nothing that bears greater witness to the love of Christ than to meet patient Christians,” adding that “there are many mothers, fathers, workers, doctors, nurses, and the sick.” He emphasized that he is working in secret every day. Decorate the world with holy patience. ”
“But we have to be honest: we often lack patience,” he said. “In everyday life, we are all impatient.”
Pope Francis walked with a cane across the stage in the Vatican’s audience hall and waved to visitors, three days after he skipped the homily at Palm Sunday Mass and expressed concerns about his health. He read the speech in its entirety and added extemporaneous remarks without any visible signs of difficulty. The audience was scheduled to take place in St. Peter’s Square, but due to bad weather it was moved indoors.
In his catechesis, the Pope said the virtue of patience is an “essential vitamin” needed to combat the human instinct to “be impatient and to counter evil with evil.”
Pope Francis quoted St. Augustine as saying that patience requires “knowing how to endure evil.”
The pope then pointed out that two men sitting in the front row of the audience, one Israeli and one Palestinian, had both lost daughters in the violent conflict. . The Pope praised them for choosing friendship instead of focusing on the “hostility of war.”
Patience is more than just a value for living a good life, the Pope said. It is a countercultural Christian mission.
“If Christ was patient, then Christians are called to be patient,” he said, adding that doing so requires countering today’s fast-paced culture and pervasive “anything now” mentality. He said there is.
“Let us remember that haste and impatience are the enemies of the spiritual life,” Pope Francis said. “God is love, and those who love do not grow weary, do not get frustrated, do not give ultimatums. God is patient and knows how to wait.”
During Holy Week, Pope Francis urged Christians to ask the Holy Spirit for “the power of meek patience” and to meditate on Christ on the cross and learn from his patience.
“It is precisely in the Passion that Christ’s patience is revealed. He accepts with gentleness and meekness the fact that he is arrested, beaten, and unjustly accused,” he said. “This is the patience of Jesus.”
The Pope urged Christians to pray before the crucified Christ and ask for grace to practice “the well-known and yet neglected act of mercy, patiently enduring troublesome people.” encouraged.
He said Christians should look at those who may be troubling them “with compassion, with the gaze of God, knowing how to distinguish between their faces and their mistakes.”
“We have a habit of categorizing people by the mistakes they make,” he says. “No, this is not good. Let us see people in their faces and in their hearts, not their mistakes.”
Pope Francis concluded his audience by praying for peace in Ukraine, Israel, and Palestine, where heavy bombings are occurring.
“May the Lord give peace to all as an Easter gift,” he prayed.
