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Informationen zum Autor Pope Francis, edited by Antonio Spadaro with a preface by Federico Lombardi Klappentext Experience the morning homilies of Pope Francis and witness how he continues to change the life of the Catholic Church. Shortly after seven in the morning! Pope Francis gives a brief homily in the little Vatican chapel of Saint Martha! in front of an audience that is always different: gardeners! office workers! nuns and priests! as well as a growing group of journalists. It is a set appointment! and in some ways a revolutionary innovation! where a pope speaks to everyone! off the cuff! without any written text! as he would have done as a parish priest. Encountering Truth is a collection of highlights from these homilies from March 2013 to May 2014. Along with summaries by Radio Vaticana (who recorded and transcribed the homilies) and commentary by Father Antonio Spadaro! SJ! these reflections provide moments of inspiration! simplicity! and a glimpse into the papal world very few ever get to experience. 1 God is patient with our weaknesses During Holy Week, let’s think about the patience that God has with each of us. God’s infinite patience with man is reflected in the infinite patience that Jesus has with Judas. This is shown in the scene of the Gospel in which Judas criticizes the decision of Mary, Lazarus’s sister, to anoint the feet of Jesus with three hundred grams of priceless ointment; it would have been better, Judas says, to have sold the ointment and given the proceeds to the poor. John notes in his Gospel that Judas was not interested in the poor but in the money, which he stole. And yet “Jesus did not say to him: ‘You are a thief.’ “He was patient with Judas, seeking to draw him to himself with his patience, with his love. It would do us good to think about the patience of God during this Holy Week, about the Lord’s patience with us, with our weaknesses, with our sins.” The passage from Isaiah in the first reading, in presenting “the icon of that ‘servant of God,’?” also emphasizes the meekness and patience of Jesus. Which is the patience of God himself. “When we think about the patience of God: that is a mystery! How patient he is with us! We do so many things, but he is patient.” He is “like that father in the Gospel who saw his son from far off, that son who had gone away with all the money of his inheritance.” And why did he see him from far away? “Because every day he went out to see if his son was coming back.” This “is the patience of God, this is the patience of Jesus. “Let’s think about a personal relationship, during this week: what has the patience of Jesus meant in my life? Just this. And then only one thing will come from our hearts: ‘Thank you, Lord! Thank you for your patience.’?” March 25, 2013 Isaiah 42:1–7 John 12:1–11 2 The forgiveness of Jesus Opening our hearts to the gentleness of God’s forgiveness: this is the theme of the homily for the Mass of Tuesday during Holy Week. Everyone lives through the “night of sin,” but Jesus has a “caress” for all. “When Judas leaves the upper room to betray Jesus, outside--as the evangelist John states--it is night.” This remark on the setting leads to a brief reflection that urges us to plumb the depths of the human conscience. The night that envelops Judas is also the night in which his heart is stumbling about. It is the worst night, the “night of the corrupted,” a “definitive night, when the heart is closed” in such a way that “it cannot and does not want to come out” from itself. The “night of the sinner” is different; this is a “temporary” night that we all “experience.” How many of these nights “have we had,” how many “times when the ‘night’ comes and it is pitch black in the heart .?.?.” Then hope bursts through and drives us to a new encounter with Jesus. “We are not afraid of this night of th...
