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This morning’s general audience took place at 9.30 in the Library of the Vatican Apostolic Palace. In his address in Italian, the Pope continued his cycle of catechesis on prayer, focusing on the theme: “The prayer of Jacob” (Genesis 32: 25-30). After summarising his catechesis in various languages, the Holy Father addressed special greetings to the faithful. He then launched an appeal to institutions for the World Day Against Child Labour, to be held this coming Friday 12 June. The general audience concluded with the recitation of the Pater Noster and the Apostolic Blessing.
Catechesis of the Holy Father Dear Brothers and Sisters, Good morning! Let us continue with our catechesis on the subject of prayer. The Book of Genesis, through the occurrences of men and women of a far off time, tells us stories that we can reflect on in our own lives. In the Patriarch Cycle, we also find that of a man who shrewdly developed his best talent: Jacob. The biblical account tells us about the difficult relationship Jacob had with his brother Esau. Ever since childhood, there was a rivalry between them, which was never overcome later on. Jacob is the second-born - they were twins - but through trickery he manages to obtain the blessing and birthright of their father Isaac (cf. Genesis 25:19-34). It is only the first in a long series of ploys of which this unscrupulous man is capable. Even the name “Jacob” means someone who is cunning in his movements.
Forced to flee far from his brother, he seems to succeed in every undertaking in his life. He is adept at business: he greatly enriches himself, becoming the owner of an enormous flock. With tenacity and patience he manages to marry Laban's most beautiful daughter, with whom he is truly in love. Jacob – as we would say in modern terms – is a “self-made” man; with his ingenuity, his cunning, he manages to obtain everything he wants. But he lacks something. He lacks a living relationship with his own roots.
And one day he hears the call of home, of his ancient homeland, where his brother Esau, with whom he has always had a terrible relationship, still lives. Jacob sets out, undertaking a long journey with a caravan of many people and animals, until he reaches the final step, the Jabbok stream. Here the Book of Genesis offers us a memorable page (cf. 32: 23-33). It describes that the patriarch, after having all of his people and all the livestock - and they were many - cross the stream, remains alone on the bank of the river on the foreign side. And he ponders: what awaits him the following day? What attitude will his brother Esau, from whom he stole his birthright, assume? Jacob's mind is a whirlwind of thoughts.... And, as it is getting dark, suddenly a stranger grabs him and begins to wrestle with him. The Catechism explains: “the spiritual tradition of the Church has retained the symbol of prayer as a battle of faith and as the triumph of perseverance” (CCC, 2573).
Jacob wrestles the entire night, never letting go of his adversary. In the end he is beaten, his sciatic nerve is struck by his opponent, and thereafter he will walk with a limp for the rest of his life. That mysterious wrestler asks the patriarch for his name and tells him: “Your name shall no more be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed” (Genesis 32:28). As if to say: you will never be the man who walks this way, straight. He changes his name, he changes his life, he changes his attitude. You will be called Israel. Then Jacob also asks the other: “Tell me, I pray, your name”. The other does not reveal it to him, but blesses him instead. Then Jacob understands he has encountered God “face to face” (vv. 29-30).
Wrestling with God: a metaphor for prayer. Other times Jacob has shown himself able to dialogue with God, to sense Him as a friendly and close presence. But that night, through a lengthy struggle that nearly makes him succumb, the patriarch emerges changed. A change of name, a change in hits way of life and a personality change: he comes out of it a changed man. For once he is no longer master of the situation - his cunning is no use to him - he is no longer a strategic and calculating man. God returns him to his truth as a mortal man who trembles and fears, because in the struggle, Jacob was afraid. For once Jacob has only his frailty and powerlessness, and also his sins, to present to God. And it is this Jacob who receives God's blessing, with which he limps into the promised land: vulnerable and wounded, but with a new heart. Once I heard an elderly man - a good man, a good Christian, but a sinner who had great trust in God - who said: “God will help me; He will not leave me alone. I will enter Heaven; limping, but I will enter”. First he was a self-assured man; he trusted in his own shrewdness. He was a man impervious to grace, immune to mercy; he did not know what mercy was. “Here I am, I am in command!”. He did not think he was in need of mercy. But God saved what had been lost. He made him understand that he was limited, that he was a sinner who was in need of mercy, and He saved him.
We all have an appointment during the night with God, in the night of our life, in the many nights of our life: dark moments, moments of sin, moments of disorientation. And there we have an appointment with God, always. He will surprise us at the moment we least expect, when we find ourselves truly alone. That same night, struggling against the unknown, we will realise that we are only poor men and women - “poor things”, I dare say - but right then, in that moment in which we feel we are “poor things”, we need not fear: because God will give us a new name, which contains the meaning of our entire life; He will change our heart and He will offer us the blessing reserved to those who have allowed themselves to be changed by Him. This is a beautiful invitation to let ourselves be changed by God. He knows how to do it, because He knows each one of us. “Lord, You know me”, every one of us might say. “Lord, You know me. Change me”.
Appeal of the Holy Father This Friday, 12 June, is the World Day Against Child Labour, a reality that deprives boys and girls of their childhood and jeopardises their integral development. Given the current health crisis in various countries, many children are forced into jobs that are inappropriate for their age, so as to help their own families who are in conditions of extreme poverty. Many cases are forms of slavery and confinement, resulting in physical and psychological suffering. We are all responsible for this. I appeal that every effort be made on the part of institutions to protect minors, by filling the economic and social gaps that underlie the distorted dynamic in which they are unfortunately involved. Children are the future of the human family: all of us are expected to promote their growth, health and tranquillity.
This morning’s general audience took place at 9.30 in the Library of the Vatican Apostolic Palace. In his address in Italian, the Pope continued his cycle of catechesis on prayer, focusing on the theme: “The prayer of Abraham” (Genesis 15: 1, 3-6). After summarising his catechesis in various languages, the Holy Father addressed special greetings to the faithful. The general audience concluded with the recitation of the Pater Noster and the Apostolic Blessing.
Catechesis of the Holy Father Dear brothers and sisters, good morning!
There is a voice that resounds unexpectedly in the life of Abraham. A voice that invites him to set out on a path that sounds absurd: a voice that spurs him to uproot himself from his homeland, from the roots of his family, to move towards a new future, a different future. And all on the basis of a promise, which can only be trusted. And to trust in a promise is not easy, it takes courage. And Abraham trusted.
Bible is silent with regard to the past of the first patriarch. Logic would suggest that he worshipped other divinities; perhaps he was a wise man, used to peering at the sky and the stars. The Lord, in fact, promises him that his descendants will be as numerous as the stars that dot the sky.
And Abraham leaves. He hears God’s voice and trusts His word. This is important: he trusts in God’s word. And with this departure a new way of conceiving the relationship with God is born; it is for this reason that the Patriarch Abraham is present in the great Jewish, Christian and Islamic spiritual traditions as the perfect man of God, capable of submitting to Him, even when His will is difficult, if not even incomprehensible.
Abraham is therefore the man of the Word. When God speaks, men and women become the receiver of that Word and their life the place where it asks to be incarnated. This is a great novelty in humanity’s religious journey: the life of the believer begins to be conceived of as a vocation, that is, as a calling, as a place where a promise is fulfilled; and he or she moves in the world not so much under the weight of an enigma, but with the strength of that promise, which one day will be fulfilled. And Abraham believed in God’s promise. He believed and he went, without knowing where he was going - so says the Letter to the Hebrews (see 11: 8). But he trusted.
Reading the book of Genesis, we discover how Abraham lived prayer in continuous fidelity to that Word, which periodically appeared on his path. In short, we can say that in Abraham's life, faith becomes history. Faith becomes history. Or rather, Abraham, with his life, by his example, teaches us this way, this path on which faith becomes history. God is no longer seen only in cosmic phenomena, as a distant God who can inspire terror. The God of Abraham becomes “my God”, the God of my personal history, who guides my steps, who does not abandon me; the God of my days, the companion of my adventures; the God of Providence. I ask myself, and I ask you: do we have this experience of God? “My God”; the God who accompanies me, the God of my personal history, the God who guides my steps, who does not abandon me, the God of my days? Do we have this experience? Let us think about this a little.
This experience of Abraham is also testified to in one of the most original texts in the history of spirituality: the Memorial of Blaise Pascal. It begins as follows: “God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob, not of philosophers and wise men. Certainty, certainty. Sentiment. Joy. Peace. God of Jesus Christ”. This memorial, written on a small parchment, and found after his death stitched inside a philosopher's robe, expresses not an intellectual reflection that a wise man like him might conceive about God, but the living, experienced sense of his presence. Pascal even notes the precise moment in which he felt that reality, having finally encountered it: the evening of November 23, 1654. It is not an abstract God or a cosmic God, no, It is the God of a person, of a calling, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, of Jacob, the God who is certainty, who is sentiment, who is joy.
“Abraham’s prayer is expressed first by deeds: a man of silence, he constructs an altar to the Lord at each stage of his journey” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2570). Abraham does not build a temple, but rather scattered the path with stones recalling the passing of God. A surprising God, such as when He visits him in the figure of three guests, whom he and Sarah welcome with care and who announce to them the both of their son Isaac (see Genesis 18: 1-15). Abraham was a hundred years old, his wife ninety, more or less. And they believed, they trusted in God. And Sarah, his wife, conceived. At that age! This is the God of Abraham, our God, who accompanies us.
And so Abraham becomes familiar with God, even able to argue with Him, but always faithful. He speaks with God and argues. Up to the supreme test, when God asks him to sacrifice his very own son, Isaac, the old man’s son, his only heir. Here Abraham lives faith like a drama, like walking on tenterhooks in the night, under a sky this time without stars. And very often this happens to us too, to walk in the dark, but with faith. God Himself stops the hand of Abraham when he is about to strike, because He saw that he was truly willing (see Genesis 22: 1-19).
Brothers and sisters, let us learn from Abraham, let us learn to pray with faith: listen to the Lord, walk, dialogue to the point of arguing. We must not be afraid of discussing with God! I will also say something that seems to be a heresy. Many times I have heard people say: “You know, this happened to me and I am angry with God”. “Do you have the courage to be angry with God?”. “Yes, I am angry”. “But this is a form of prayer”. Because only a son or daughter is capable of being angry with his or her father and then meeting him again. Let us learn from Abraham to pray with faith, to dialogue, to discuss, but always willing to accept God’s word and put it into practice. With God, we learn to speak like a son to his father: to listen to him, to answer, to argue. But transparent, like a son with his father. This is how Abraham teaches us to pray. Thank you.
Greeting in English I greet the English-speaking faithful joining us through the media. Dear brothers and sisters in the United States, I have witnessed with great concern the disturbing social unrest in your nation in these past days, following the tragic death of Mr George Floyd. My friends, we cannot tolerate or turn a blind eye to racism and exclusion in any form and yet claim to defend the sacredness of every human life. At the same time, we have to recognise that “the violence of recent nights is self-destructive and self-defeating. Nothing is gained by violence and so much is lost”. Today I join the Church in Saint Paul and Minneapolis, and in the entire United States, in praying for the repose of the soul of George Floyd and of all those others who have lost their lives as a result of the sin of racism. Let us pray for the consolation of their grieving families and friends and let us implore the national reconciliation and peace for which we yearn. May Our Lady of Guadalupe, Mother of America, intercede for all those who work for peace and justice in your land and throughout the world. May God bless all of you and your families.
Greeting in Italian I greet Italian-speaking faithful. The coming Feast of the Holy Trinity leads us back to the mystery of the intimate life of the One and Triune God, the centre of the Christian faith, and stimulates us to find our comfort and inner peace in God’s love. I address a thought to the elderly, the young, the sick and the newlyweds. Trust in the Holy Spirit, “who is Lord and gives life”, and be open to His love so that you might transform your lives, your families and your communities. To all of you my blessing!
This morning’s general audience took place at 9.30 in the library of the Vatican Apostolic Palace. In his address in Italian the Pope continued his cycle of catechesis on prayer, focusing on the theme: “The prayer of the just” (Psalm 17: 1-3, 5). After summarising his catechesis in several languages, the Holy Father addressed special greetings to the faithful. The general audience concluded with the recitation of the Pater Noster and the Apostolic Blessing.
Catechesis of the Holy Father Dear brothers and sisters, good morning! Today’s catechesis is dedicated to the prayer of the just. God’s plan regarding humanity is for the good. Yet in our everyday lives we experience the presence of evil: it is an everyday experience. The first chapters of the Book of Genesis describe the progressive expansion of sin in human living. Adam and Eve (see Genesis 3:1-7) doubt God’s good intentions. They think they are dealing with a jealous God who wants to prevent their happiness. Hence rebellion arose: they no longer believe in a generous Creator who desire their well-being. Their hearts yield to the temptation of the evil one. They are taken in by the delirium of omnipotence: “When you eat of the fruit of the tree, you will become like God” (see v. 5). And this is the temptation: this is the ambition that enters into the heart. The experience goes in the opposite direction, however. Their eyes are opened and they discover that they are naked (v. 7), with nothing. Do not forget this: the tempter is a bad payer, he pays badly.
Evil becomes even more explosive with the second human generation, it is stronger: it is the story of Cain and Abel (see Genesis 4:1-16). Cain is envious of his brother: there is the worm of envy. As the first-born, he sees Abel as a rival, someone who threatens his place as the first-born. Evil enters within his heart and Cain does not succeed in controlling it. Evil starts to enter the heart: we tend always to look badly at others, with suspicion. And this also happens with our thought: “This person is bad, he will harm me”. And this thought gradually enters into the heart. And so we have the story of the first relationship of brothers that ends in homicide. I think, today, of human brotherhood … war everywhere.
Cain’s descendants develop crafts and arts, but violence develops as well. It is expressed in Lamech’s sinister song that sounds like a hymn of vengeance: “I have killed a man for wounding me, a young man for bruising me […] If Cain is avenged seven times, then Lamech seventy-seven times” (Genesis 4:23-24). Revenge: “You will pay for what you have done”. But the judge does not say this, I do. And I make myself the judge of the situation. Thus evil spreads like wildfire until it invades the entire picture: “The Lord saw how great the wickedness of human beings was on earth, and how every desire that their heart conceived was always nothing but evil” (Genesis 6:5). The great frescoes of the universal flood (chapters 6-7) and of the Tower of Babel (chapter 11) reveal that a new beginning is needed, like a new creation, that will have its fulfilment in Jesus Christ.
Yet, in these first pages of the Bible, another story is also written. It is less apparent, humbler and more devout. It represents the redemption of hope. Even though almost everyone behaves cruelly, making hatred and conquest the driving force behind human affairs, there are persons who are capable of praying to God with sincerity, who are capable of writing humanity’s destiny in another way. Abel offers God a sacrifice of first-fruits. After he dies, Adam and Eve had a third son, Seth, of whom Enosh (which means “mortal”) is born. It is said that “at that time people began to invoke the Lord by name” (4:26). Then Enoch appears, a person who “walks with God” and who was taken up into heaven (see 5:22-24). Finally, there is the story of Noah, a just man who “walked with God” (6:9), before whom God withholds His plan to destroy humanity (see 6:7-8).
Reading these accounts, one has the impression that prayer is an embankment, that is humankind’s refuge before the wave of evil that is growing in the world. We see well that we pray even to be saved from ourselves. It is important to pray: “Lord, please, save me from myself, from my ambitions, from my passions”. Those who pray in the first pages of the Bible are peacemakers: in fact, when it is authentic, prayer liberates us from our instinct toward violence. It is a gaze directed toward God, so that He might return to take care of the human heart. We read in the Catechism: “This kind of prayer is lived by many righteous people in all religions” (CCC, 2569). Prayer cultivates flowerbeds of rebirth in places where human hatred was only capable of sowing a desert. And prayer is powerful, because it attracts the power of God, and the power of God always gives life: always. He is the God of life, and He brings about rebirth.
This is the reason why God’s lordship is transmitted down the chain of these men and woman, who are often misunderstood and marginalised in the world. But the world lives and grows thanks to God’s power that these servants of His attract through their prayer. They are like a chain, which does not make a lot of noise, that rarely makes the headlines, and yet its importance is such that it restores trust in the world! I remember the story of a man: a head of government, important, not of this time, from times past. An atheist who did not have religious feeling in his heart, but as a child used to hear his grandmother who prayed, and this stayed in his heart. And in a difficult moment of his life, that memory returned to his heart, and he said, “But my grandmother prayed…”. In this way he began to pray with the formulas his grandmother used, and there he found Jesus. Prayer is a chain of life, always: many men and women who pray, sow life.
God’s path and God’s story is transmitted through them: it is passed down to the “remnant” of humanity who have not been conformed to the law of the strongest, but have asked that God accomplish His miracles, and above all that He transform their hearts of stone to hearts of flesh (see Ezekiel 36:26). And prayer helps this: because prayer opens the door to God, transforming our heart, very often made of stone, into a human heart. And it takes great humanity, and with humanity one prays well.
Greeting in English I greet the English-speaking faithful joining us through the media. As we prepare to celebrate the Solemnity of Pentecost, I invoke upon you and your families an abundance of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. May God bless you!
Greeting in Italian I greet the Italian-speaking faithful. The day after tomorrow we will celebrate the liturgical memorial of Pope Saint Paul VI. May the example of this bishop of Rome, who reached the heights of holiness, encourage everyone to embrace generously the ideals of the Gospel. I address a thought to the elderly, the young, the sick, and newly-weds. In this atmosphere of preparation for the Solemnity of Pentecost, now upon us, I urge you always to be obedient to the action of the Holy Spirit, so that your life may always be warmed and enlightened by the love that the Spirit of God pours into hearts. My blessing to you all!
This morning’s general audience took place at 9.30 in the library of the Vatican Apostolic Palace. In his address in Italian the Pope, continuing his cycle of catechesis on prayer, focused on the theme “The mystery of Creation” (Psalm 8: 4-5, 10). After summarising his catechesis in various languages, the Holy Father addressed special greetings to the faithful. The general audience concluded with the recitation of the Pater Noster and the Apostolic Blessing:
Catechesis of the Holy Father Dear brothers and sisters, good morning! Let us continue the catechesis on prayer, focusing on the mystery of Creation. Life, the simple fact that we exist, opens the heart of the human person to prayer.
The first page of the Bible resembles a great hymn of thanks. The account of Creation is punctuated with refrains in which the goodness and beauty of all things that exist are continually reaffirmed. God calls into life with His word, and each thing enters into existence. With the word, He separates light from darkness, He alternates day and night, He alternates the seasons, He opens up a palette of colours with the variety of plants and animals. In this overflowing forest that rapidly defeats chaos, the human being finally appears. And this apparition causes an excess of exultation that amplifies satisfaction and joy: “God saw all that He had made, and it was very good” (Genesis 1: 31). A good thing, but also beautiful: one sees all the beauty of all Creation!
The beauty and mystery of Creation generate in the heart of man and woman the first movement that stirs prayers (see Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2566). Thus says the Psalm 8, which we heard in the beginning: “When I see your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have fixed, what is man that you are mindful of him, and a son of man that you care for him?” (vv. 4-5). The man or woman in prayer contemplates the mystery of existence around them, they see the starry sky above - which astrophysics shows us today in all its immensity - and wonder what design of love there must be behind such a powerful work! And in this boundless vastness, what is man? “Frail”, almost nothing, says another Psalm (see 89: 48): a being that is born, a being that dies, a very fragile creature. Yet, in the whole universe, the human being is the only creature aware of such a profusion of beauty. A small being that is born, dies, is here today but not tomorrow, is the only one aware of this beauty. We are aware of this beauty!
The prayer of the human person is closely linked to the sentiment of wonder. The greatness of man and woman is infinitesimal in relation to the dimensions of the universe. Our greatest achievements seem to be very little… But we are nothing. In prayer a sentiment of mercy is overwhelmingly affirmed. Nothing exists by chance: the secret of the universe resides in a benevolent glance that catches our eyes. The Psalm affirms that we are made as little less than a god, crowned with glory and honour (see 8: 6). The relationship with God is the greatness of each human person: his or her enthronement. By nature we are almost nothing, small, but by vocation, by calling, we are children of the great King!
It is an experience that many of us have had. If the events of our life, with all its bitterness, at times risks suffocating the gift of prayer within us, it is enough to contemplate a starry sky, a sunset, a flower, to reignite the spark of thanksgiving. This experience is perhaps the basis of the first page of the Bible.
When the great biblical account of Creation was written, the people of Israel were not going through happy days. An enemy power had occupied the land; many had been deported, and now they found themselves enslaved in Mesopotamia. There was no homeland, no temple, no social and religious life, nothing.
And yet, just starting from the great story of Creation, someone began to find reasons to give thanks, to praise God for their existence. Prayer is the first force of hope. You pray and hope grows, it goes ahead. I would say that prayer opens the door to hope. There is hope, but with my prayer I open the door. Because men and women of prayer safeguard the basic truths; they are those who repeat, first of all to themselves and then to all others, that this life, despite all its fatigue and trials, despite its difficult days, is filled with a grace at which we marvel. And as such it must always be defended and protected.
Men and women who pray know that hope is stronger than discouragement. They believe that love is more powerful than death, and that it will surely triumph one day, be it in times and ways we do not know. Men and women of prayer bear the reflection of light on their faces: because even on the darkest days the sun does not cease to illuminate them. Prayer illuminates you: it illuminates your soul, it illuminates your heart, and it illuminates your face. Even in the darkest times, even in the times of greatest pain.
We are all bearers of joy. Have you thought of this? That you are a bearer of joy? Or do you prefer to bear bad news, things that bring sadness? We are all capable of bearing joy. This life is the gift that God has given us: and it is too short to be consumed in sadness, in bitterness. Let us praise God, content simply to exist. Let us look at the universe, let us look at the beauty and let us also look at our crosses and say: “But, you exist, you have made us this way, for you”. It is necessary to feel that restlessness in the heart that leads us to thank and to praise God. We are the children of the great King, of the Creator, capable of reading His signature in all creation; that creation that today we do not protect, but in that creation there is the signature of God who made it out of love. May the Lord make us understand this ever more deeply, and lead us to say “thank you”; and that “thank you” is a beautiful prayer.
Greeting in English I greet the English-speaking faithful joining us through the media. As we prepare to celebrate the Ascension of the Lord, I invoke upon you and your families the peace and joy that come from the Risen Christ. May God bless you!
Greeting in Italian I greet Italian-speaking faithful. The feast, now near, of the Ascension of the Lord, offers me an occasion to urge you all to be generous witnesses of the Risen Christ, well aware that He is always with us and sustains us along the way. I address a special thought to the elderly, the young, the sick and the newlyweds. Jesus Christ, ascending into heaven, leaves a message and a programme for the whole Church: “Go and make disciples of all nations … teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you” (Mt 28: 19-20). Let it be your ideal and your commitment to make Christ’s word of salvation known and bear witness to it in daily life. My blessing to you all!
Greeting in Polish I cordially greet all Polish faithful. In these days we celebrate the centenary of the birth of Saint John Paul II. A pastor of great faith, he loved to entrust the Church and all humanity to God in prayer. By choosing the episcopal motto “Totus Tuus”, he also showed that in difficult moments we must turn to the Mother of God, who can help us and intercede for us. May her life, built on profound, intense and trustful prayer, be an example to Christians today. I bless you from my heart.
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