In the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Quebec, Francis’ speech to the bishops, clergy and pastoral agents of Canada. “Let’s go back to the first announcement: to those who have not yet embraced the Lord in his life, we cannot pretend to communicate the joy of faith by presenting secondary aspects, repeating certain practices or replicating pastoral forms of the past.”
Quebec () – A Church free from nostalgia for the past, which must not defend itself from the world but give it the joy of the Gospel. This is the horizon that Francis described to the Church of Canada last night, when he met with bishops, priests, deacons, consecrated persons, seminarians and pastoral workers at Notre Dame Cathedral in Quebec. With them he addressed another of the great themes of the presence of the Church in Canada today: the relationship with a context strongly marked by secularization.
“Does our Church -he asked them- express the joy of the Gospel? Is there in our communities a faith that attracts by the joy it transmits? If we want to address the root of these questions -he answered-, we cannot stop reflecting on what, in the reality of our time, it threatens the joy of faith and risks extinguishing it, seriously undermining the Christian experience One immediately thinks of secularization, which has long been transforming the lifestyle of women and men, leaving God almost in the background”.
“When we observe the culture in which we are immersed, its languages and its symbols -Pope Francis observed-, we must be careful not to remain prisoners of pessimism and resentment, letting ourselves be carried away by negative judgments or useless nostalgia. For the Pope, It is necessary to overcome this negative perspective, the result of “a faith that, feeling attacked, conceives of itself as a kind of ‘armour’ to defend itself from the world, running the risk of becoming a ‘crusading spirit'”. of this,” he warned, “because it’s not Christian; it’s not God’s way. The Lord, who detests worldliness, looks favorably on the world. He blesses our lives, he says good things about us and about our reality, he incarnates himself in the situations of history not to condemn, but to make the seed of the Kingdom sprout where darkness seems to triumph “.
“If we cling to a negative gaze – Francis continued – we will end up denying the incarnation, because we will flee from reality, instead of incarnating ourselves in it. We will close ourselves off, we will cry for our losses, we will complain continuously and we will fall into sadness and pessimism, which never come from God.” Instead, it is about “having a gaze similar to that of God, who knows how to discern what is good and strives to seek it, see it and feed it”. It is not a naive look, but a look that discerns reality.
Recalling the distinction between secularization and laicism -proposed by Paul VI in the apostolic exhortation Evangelli nuntiandi-, Pope Francis invited to be careful with the risk “of transmitting the wrong message, as if behind the criticism of secularization there was nostalgia for a sacralized world, for a society of bygone times in which the Church and her ministers had more power and social relevance”. On the contrary, “secularization is a challenge to our pastoral imagination. While it makes us see the difficulties we have in transmitting the joy of faith, it stimulates us to rediscover a new passion for evangelization, to seek new languages, to change some pastoral priorities, to go to the essential”.
Hence the invitation to cultivate “a style of personal and ecclesial life that can revive the Lord’s desire, instill hope, transmit trust and credibility.” A path in which he pointed out three challenges in particular. First, make Jesus known Going back to the first ad. “We cannot pretend to communicate the joy of faith, presenting secondary aspects to those who have not yet embraced the Lord in their lives,” Francis commented. Nor “by repeating certain practices or replicating pastoral forms of the past. We must find new ways of announcing the heart of the Gospel to those who have not yet found Christ”.
For this first announcement it is necessary to have credibility, and here is the second challenge, that of testimony. “The Gospel is effectively announced when it is life that speaks,” Francis explained, “when it reveals that freedom that frees others, that compassion that asks for nothing in return, that mercy that, without words, speaks of Christ.” In this sense, the Pope also cited the path of purification that the Church must follow – and not only in Canada – due to the scandal of sexual abuse committed against minors and vulnerable people, “scandals that require strong actions and a thorough fight” .
Finally, the third challenge: the fraternity. “It is about living a Christian community that becomes a school of humanity, where we learn to love each other as brothers and sisters, and are willing to work together for the common good. Let us ask ourselves: what is brotherhood like among us? Are we brothers? or competitors divided into parties? And how are our relations with those who are not “of ours”, with those who do not believe, with those who have different traditions and customs? This is the way to promote fraternal relations with everyone ” , concluded the Pope: “with our indigenous brothers, with every sister and brother we meet, because the presence of God is reflected in the face of each one”.
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