Vatican
City, 4 December 2013 (VIS) - “I believe in the resurrection of the
flesh” was the theme of the Holy Father's catechesis during this
Wednesday's general audience. “It is a truth that is neither
simple nor self-evident”, he said, “as, living immersed in this
world, it is not easy to understand what will happen in the future.
But the Gospel enlightens us”. This vigil, for the “glorious
kingdom, which we anxiously await” is “the source and the reason
for our hope; a hope which, if cultivated and preserved, becomes a
“light to illuminate our personal and communal story”.
The
Pope emphasised that “we must always remember we are disciples of
He who came, who comes to us every day and who will come to us again
at the end”, and reiterated that if we were able to keep this fact
present in our minds, we would be less overwhelmed by daily life,
less imprisoned by the ephemeral and more willing to walk the path of
salvation with a merciful heart”.
Pope
Francis recalled that the resurrection that will follow the last day
of the end of the world will be an encounter with the Risen Christ
for whom we prepare in this life with the Eucharist. “We who in
this life our nourished by His Body and His Blood will be resurrected
like Him, with Him and by Him. Just as Jesus rose again with His own
body, but did not return to an earthly life, we too will rise again
with our bodies that will be transformed into glorious bodies”.
“In
a certain sense, through our Baptism we already participate in a new
life … and, awaiting the final day, we we hold within ourselves the
seed of our resurrection, a glimpse of the full resurrection that we
will inherit. For this reason, even each of our bodies has the
resonance of eternity, and must therefore be respected; and above all
the life of those who suffer must be respected and loved, so that
they feel the closeness of the Kingdom of God, of that condition of
eternal life towards which we are headed”.
At
the end of the audience, the Vatican Mosaics Studio, which since the
seventeenth century has been responsible for the conservation and
restoration of the ten thousand square metres of mosaics present in
St. Peter's Basilica, as well as producing mosaics portraying the
Popes and those presented as gifts during pontifical trips and
official visits, presented the Holy Father with his portrait in the
form of a circular mosaic, destined to join the mosaic portraits of
all the other Popes, from St. Peter to the present, in the Basilica
of St. Paul Outside-the-Walls.
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