Pope Francis says "God's love is always "extraordinary", it goes beyond, it goes beyond the usual criteria with which we humans live our relationships."
POPE FRANCESCO
ANGELUS
St. Peter's Square
Sunday, February 19, 2023
[Multimedia]
______________________________________
Dear brothers and sisters, good morning!
The words that Jesus addresses to us in this Sunday's Gospel are demanding and seem paradoxical: He invites us to turn the other cheek and to love even our enemies (see Mt 5:38-48). It is normal for us to love those who love us and be friends with those who are friends with us; yet, Jesus provokes us by saying: if you act in this way, "what are you doing extraordinary?" (v. 47). What do you do extraordinary? Here is the point to which I would like to draw your attention today, what you do extraordinary about this.
"Extraordinary" is what goes beyond the limits of the usual, which exceeds the usual practices and normal calculations dictated by prudence. In general, instead, we try to have everything in order and under control, so that it corresponds to our expectations, to our measure: fearing not to receive the return or to expose ourselves too much and then be disappointed, we prefer to love only those who love us for avoid disappointment, do good only to those who are good to us, be generous only with those who can return a favor; and to those who treat us badly we respond with the same coin, so we are in balance. But the Lord admonishes us: this is not enough!
We would say: this is not Christian! If we stay in the ordinary, in the balance between giving and receiving, things don't change. If God were to follow this logic, we would have no hope of salvation! But, fortunately for us, God's love is always "extraordinary", it goes beyond, it goes beyond the usual criteria with which we humans live our relationships.
Jesus' words, then, challenge us. While we try to remain in the ordinary of utilitarian reasoning, He asks us to open ourselves to the extraordinary, to the extraordinary of a gratuitous love; while we always try to balance the accounts, Christ stimulates us to experience the imbalance of love. Jesus is not a good accountant: no! He always leads to the imbalance of love. Let's not be surprised by this. If God hadn't unbalanced himself, we would never have been saved: it was the imbalance of the cross that saved us! Jesus wouldn't have come to find us while we were lost and far away, he wouldn't have loved us to the end, he wouldn't have embraced the cross for us, who didn't deserve all this and we couldn't give him anything in return. As the Apostle Paul writes, "hardly anyone is willing to die for a just man; perhaps someone would dare to die for a good person. But God demonstrates his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us" (Rom 5:7-8). Here, God loves us while we are sinners, not because we are good or able to give him anything back. Brothers and sisters, God's love is always in excess, always beyond calculation, always disproportionate. And today he also asks us to live this way, because only in this way will we truly bear witness to it.
Brothers and sisters, the Lord proposes that we abandon the logic of self-interest and not measure love on the scale of calculations and conveniences. He invites us not to respond to evil with evil, to dare to do good, to risk giving, even if we receive little or nothing in return. Because it is this love that slowly transforms conflicts, shortens distances, overcomes enmities and heals the wounds of hatred. So we can ask ourselves, each of us: do I, in my life, follow the logic of self-interest or that of gratuity, like God does? The extraordinary love of Christ is not easy, but it is possible; it is possible because he himself helps us by giving us his Spirit, his love for him without measure.
Let us pray to Our Lady, who by answering her "yes" to God without her calculations, allowed him to make her the masterpiece of her Grace.
_____________________
After the Angelus
Dear brothers and sisters,
the love of Jesus asks us to let ourselves be touched by the situations of those who are tried. I am thinking especially of Syria and Turkey, of the many victims of the earthquake, but also of the daily tragedies of the dear Ukrainian people and of many peoples who suffer because of war or because of poverty, lack of freedom or environmental devastation: many peoples… In this sense I am close to the population of New Zealand, hit in recent days by a devastating cyclone. Brothers and sisters, let us not forget those who suffer and let us make sure that our charity is attentive, it is a concrete charity!
I address my greetings to all of you, who have come from Italy and from other countries. I greet the pilgrims from Oviedo (Spain) and the students from Vila Pouca de Aguair in Portugal.
I then greet the Catholic Action groups of Rimini and Saccolongo; the faithful of Lentiai, Turin and Bolzano; the Confirmation boys from Valvasone and Almenno San Salvatore; the adolescents and young people of Tricesimo, Leno, Chiuppano and Fino Mornasco; the altar boys of Arcene and the students of the Sant'Ambrogio school in Milan.
I wish everyone a good Sunday. Please don't forget to pray for me. Have a nice lunch and goodbye.
ANGELUS
St. Peter's Square
Sunday, February 19, 2023
[Multimedia]
______________________________________
Dear brothers and sisters, good morning!
The words that Jesus addresses to us in this Sunday's Gospel are demanding and seem paradoxical: He invites us to turn the other cheek and to love even our enemies (see Mt 5:38-48). It is normal for us to love those who love us and be friends with those who are friends with us; yet, Jesus provokes us by saying: if you act in this way, "what are you doing extraordinary?" (v. 47). What do you do extraordinary? Here is the point to which I would like to draw your attention today, what you do extraordinary about this.
"Extraordinary" is what goes beyond the limits of the usual, which exceeds the usual practices and normal calculations dictated by prudence. In general, instead, we try to have everything in order and under control, so that it corresponds to our expectations, to our measure: fearing not to receive the return or to expose ourselves too much and then be disappointed, we prefer to love only those who love us for avoid disappointment, do good only to those who are good to us, be generous only with those who can return a favor; and to those who treat us badly we respond with the same coin, so we are in balance. But the Lord admonishes us: this is not enough!
We would say: this is not Christian! If we stay in the ordinary, in the balance between giving and receiving, things don't change. If God were to follow this logic, we would have no hope of salvation! But, fortunately for us, God's love is always "extraordinary", it goes beyond, it goes beyond the usual criteria with which we humans live our relationships.
Jesus' words, then, challenge us. While we try to remain in the ordinary of utilitarian reasoning, He asks us to open ourselves to the extraordinary, to the extraordinary of a gratuitous love; while we always try to balance the accounts, Christ stimulates us to experience the imbalance of love. Jesus is not a good accountant: no! He always leads to the imbalance of love. Let's not be surprised by this. If God hadn't unbalanced himself, we would never have been saved: it was the imbalance of the cross that saved us! Jesus wouldn't have come to find us while we were lost and far away, he wouldn't have loved us to the end, he wouldn't have embraced the cross for us, who didn't deserve all this and we couldn't give him anything in return. As the Apostle Paul writes, "hardly anyone is willing to die for a just man; perhaps someone would dare to die for a good person. But God demonstrates his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us" (Rom 5:7-8). Here, God loves us while we are sinners, not because we are good or able to give him anything back. Brothers and sisters, God's love is always in excess, always beyond calculation, always disproportionate. And today he also asks us to live this way, because only in this way will we truly bear witness to it.
Brothers and sisters, the Lord proposes that we abandon the logic of self-interest and not measure love on the scale of calculations and conveniences. He invites us not to respond to evil with evil, to dare to do good, to risk giving, even if we receive little or nothing in return. Because it is this love that slowly transforms conflicts, shortens distances, overcomes enmities and heals the wounds of hatred. So we can ask ourselves, each of us: do I, in my life, follow the logic of self-interest or that of gratuity, like God does? The extraordinary love of Christ is not easy, but it is possible; it is possible because he himself helps us by giving us his Spirit, his love for him without measure.
Let us pray to Our Lady, who by answering her "yes" to God without her calculations, allowed him to make her the masterpiece of her Grace.
_____________________
After the Angelus
Dear brothers and sisters,
the love of Jesus asks us to let ourselves be touched by the situations of those who are tried. I am thinking especially of Syria and Turkey, of the many victims of the earthquake, but also of the daily tragedies of the dear Ukrainian people and of many peoples who suffer because of war or because of poverty, lack of freedom or environmental devastation: many peoples… In this sense I am close to the population of New Zealand, hit in recent days by a devastating cyclone. Brothers and sisters, let us not forget those who suffer and let us make sure that our charity is attentive, it is a concrete charity!
I address my greetings to all of you, who have come from Italy and from other countries. I greet the pilgrims from Oviedo (Spain) and the students from Vila Pouca de Aguair in Portugal.
I then greet the Catholic Action groups of Rimini and Saccolongo; the faithful of Lentiai, Turin and Bolzano; the Confirmation boys from Valvasone and Almenno San Salvatore; the adolescents and young people of Tricesimo, Leno, Chiuppano and Fino Mornasco; the altar boys of Arcene and the students of the Sant'Ambrogio school in Milan.
I wish everyone a good Sunday. Please don't forget to pray for me. Have a nice lunch and goodbye.
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