After leading the Angelus with the 25,000-strong crowd in St Peter's Square, he reflected on the day's Gospel, which recounts Jesus's miraculous healing of the blind man.

Pointing out the different reactions the story's characters had to the miracle, Francis invited people to think about how they might respond in a similar situation.

"How do we welcome the difficulties and differences of others? How do we welcome the people who have many limitations in life, either physical like this blind man or social like the beggars we find on the street?" he asked.

"And do we welcome these people as inconveniences or as occasions to draw near to them with love?"

He encouraged everyone to read St John's Gospel, Chapter 9.

"Read about this miracle" of the healing of the blind man, he said. "It's beautiful the way John recounts it."

"You can read it in two minutes. But it shows how Jesus proceeds and how the human heart proceeds. The good human heart, the lukewarm human heart, the fearful human heart, the courageous human heart."

Some characters are skeptics. Others find it unacceptable.

"In all these reactions, for various reasons, there emerge hearts closed in front of the sign of Jesus," he said.

This is "because they seek a culprit, because they do not know how to be surprised, because they do not want to change, because they are blocked by fear".

This is similar to many situations today, he added.

"When faced with something that is really a message of a person's testimony, a message from Jesus, we fall into this: we look for another explanation, we don't want to change, we look for a more elegant way out than accepting the truth."

The blind man is the only person who accepts Jesus' gift well, the pope explained.

"Happy to see, [he] testifies what happened to him in the simplest way: ‘I was blind, now I see.'"

The Gospel invites us to imagine ourselves in the same scene, so we might ask what our own reaction would be, Francis said.

"What would we have said then? And above all, what would we do today? Like the blind man, do we know how to see the good and to be grateful for the gifts we receive?

"Do we bear witness to Jesus, or do we spread criticism and suspicion instead?

"Are we free when faced with prejudices or do we associate ourselves with those who spread negativity and gossip? Are we happy to say that Jesus loves us and saves us, or, like the parents of the man born blind, do we allow ourselves to be caged in by the fear of what others will think?"

Or are we "the lukewarm of heart who do not accept reality, and do not have the courage to say: ‘No, this is how it is.'"

Source

• CNA

Addressing pilgrims gathered in St. Peter's Square Nov 7 for his Sunday Angelus address, the pope warned the faithful to be on guard "against hypocrisy, which is a dangerous illness of the soul."

"This is a warning for all time and for everyone, church and society: to never take advantage of a specific role to crush others, never to make money off the backs of the weakest!" he exclaimed.

After praying the Angelus prayer, the pope expressed concerns over increasing violence in Ethiopia amid reports that Tigray Defense Force rebels were approaching the outskirts of the country's capital, Addis Ababa.

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The CDF Responsum said priests could not give blessings to same-sex unions because "God cannot bless sin".

The statement has caused an outcry from LGBT+ Catholics and their supporters.

The sources who spoke with America Magazine did not wish to be identified as they were not authorized to comment.

They noted that when commenting on the Gospel of the day, which recounts that some Greeks wanted "to see Jesus," Pope Francis said many people today also want to see, to meet and to know Jesus.

"We Christians and our communities" have "the great responsibility" to make this possible by "the witness of a life that is given in service, a life that takes upon itself the style of God: closeness, compassion and tenderness," Francis said.

He explained that this "means sowing seeds of love, not with fleeting words but through concrete, simple and courageous examples; not with theoretical condemnations but with gestures of love."

He added that "then the Lord, with his grace, makes us bear fruit, even when the soil is dry due to misunderstandings, difficulty or persecution or claims of legalism or clerical moralism.

"This is barren soil.

"Precisely then, in trials and in solitude, while the seed is dying, that is the moment in which life blossoms, to bear ripe fruit in due time."

He followed up the comments on Tuesday, calling on Catholic moral theologians, missionaries and confessors to follow the example of St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori, the famous moral theologian and founder of the Redemptorists, who showed how "to keep together the demands of the Gospel and human fragility."

He invited them, following the example of the saint and bishop, "to enter into a living relationship with the members of God's people and to look at life from their perspective in order to understand the real difficulties they encounter and to help heal their wounds."

Moral theology, the pope said, cannot be only about principles and formulations, but must respond to the reality of the person in need, "because knowledge of theoretical principles alone, as St. Alphonsus himself reminds us, is not enough to accompany and sustain consciences in discerning the good to be done."

Earlier, on eve of the Feast of St Joseph, Francis urged student priests of Rome's Belgian Pontifical College to learn the art of fatherhood from St. Joseph.

"Saint Joseph is a welcoming father" who set aside his legitimate personal plans and loved and welcomed Mary and Jesus with faith, in a vision of a family life quite different from what he might have wished for.

In this regard, he is a master of spiritual life and discernment, who welcomes what happens in life.

As a shepherd, the Pope said, a priest always stays with his flock, sometimes in front to open the way, at times in the middle to encourage, or behind to gather the last ones.

Without being rigid, an attentive guardian, he said, is ready to change as situations require, always understanding the needs of his flock and avoiding the opposite temptations of domination and carelessness.

Sources

• America Magazine
• America Magazine
• Vatican News

"When we have strong feelings of doubt and fear and we seem to be sinking, (and) in life's difficult moments when everything becomes dark, we must not be ashamed to cry out like Peter, 'Lord, save me,'" he says.

Commenting on the passage in Matthew's 14:22-33 when Jesus walks on the water and his friend Peter starts sinking and calls on Jesus to save him, Francis explained the Gospel's meaning in his Angelus address on Sunday.

"This Gospel narrative is an invitation to abandon ourselves trustingly to God in every moment of our life, especially in times of trial and turmoil," Francis said.

Like Peter, believers must seek God's help.

We need to learn "to knock on God's heart, on Jesus' heart," Francis explained.

"Lord, save me" is "a beautiful prayer. We can repeat it many times.,"

Francis said believers should reflect on how Jesus responded: immediately reaching out and taking Peter's hand, showing that God "never abandons us."

"Having faith means keeping your heart turned to God, to his love, to his fatherly tenderness amid the storm."

"In dark moments, in sad moments, he is well aware that our faith is weak; all of us are people of little faith — all of us, myself included."

"Our faith is weak; our journey can be troubled, hindered by adverse forces," but the Lord is "present beside us lifting us back up after our falls, helping us grow in faith."

Francis explained the disciples' boat on the stormy sea is a symbol of the church, "which in every age encounters headwinds, very harsh trials at times: we recall certain long and ferocious persecutions of the last century, and even today in certain places.

"In situations like that," he said, the church "may be tempted to think that God has abandoned her. But, in reality, it is precisely in those moments that the witness of faith, the witness of love, the witness of hope shines the most."

Source

• NCR Online
• Image: YouTube