At the Mass, Francis points out that the seed of the Word of God must be meditated upon and measured against what happens to us in life. Freeing us from the "stones" and "thorns", attachment to riches and vices. "Safeguarding" is an effort that brings hope.

Vatican City (AsiaNews) - We must learn from Mary to receive and safeguard the Word of God, asking ourselves what it is saying to us "right now" in our lives. Thus Pope Francis commented on the Gospel reading today, in memory of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, during morning Mass in the chapel of Casa Santa Marta. The celebration - as reported Vatican Radio - was attended by staff from Caritas International, together with the Secretary General Michel Roy.

In his homily, the Pope spoke of the important elements that help us to meditate on and assimilate God's Word. Referring to the passage of the Gospel of Luke (2,41-51), Francis asked the question: "Keeping the Word of God: what does this mean? I receive the Word, and then I take a bottle, I put the word in the bottle and I keep it? No. Keeping the Word of God means that our heart opens, it is open to that Word just like the earth opens to receive the seed. The Word of God is a seed and is sown. And Jesus told us what happens with the seeds: some fall along the path, and the birds come and eat them; this word is not kept, these hearts do not know how to receive it".

Others, he said, fall into a stony soil and the seed dies. Jesus says that they "do not know how to keep the Word of God because they are not constant: When a tribulation comes they forget." The Pope repeated that the Word of God falls into a soil that is unprepared, not kept, full of thorns. And what are the thorns? Jesus pointed them out, when He speaks of '"attachment to riches, vices". Pope Francis said "keeping the Word of God means constantly meditating on what this Word says to us and what happens in our life." And this "is what Mary did", she "pondered and questioned" it. This, said Pope Francis, "is a truly great spiritual work":

Then quoting John Paul II, the Pope said that, "because of this work, Mary had a particular heaviness in her heart, she had a fatigued heart. But this is not the same as tired, it is fatigue, this comes from effort. This is the effort of keeping the Word of God : the work of trying to find what this means at this moment, what the Lord wants to say to me at this time, this situation of questioning the [meaning of ]the Word of God is how we understand. This is reading our life with the Word of God and this it means to keep".

The Pope concluded: "We would do well to ask ourselves: 'With the things that happen in life, I ask myself the question: what is the Lord saying to me with His Word, right now?'. This is called keeping the Word of God, because the Word of God is precisely the message that the Lord gives us in every moment. Let us safeguard it with this: safeguard it with our memory. And safeguard it with our hope. We ask the Lord for the grace to receive the Word of God and keep it, and also the grace to have a heart that is fatigued in this effort. So be it. "

 

 

 

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