Vatican City, 2014 (VIS) – This
morning the Holy Father received in audience the bishops appointed
during the last year, who are participating in the congress organised
by the Congregation for Bishops and the Congregation for the Oriental
Churches. Francis commented that he was happy to meet them and said
that they were “the fruit of the arduous work and tireless prayer
of the Church who, when she chooses her pastors, recalls that entire
night the Lord spent on the mount, in the presence of the Father,
before naming those He wanted to stay with him and to go forth into
the world”.
The Pope asked them now that they have
overcome their initial fears and excitement of their consecration,
never to take for granted the ministry entrusted to them, never to
lose their wonder before God's plan nor the awe of walking aware of
His presence and the presence of the Church who is, first and
foremost, His. He also reminded them of “the inseparable bond
between the stable presence of the bishop and the growth of the
flock”. “When the pastor is missing or unavailable, pastoral care
and the salvation of souls is at risk. In fact, in the pastors Christ
gives to the Church, He shows His love for His bride and gives His
life for her”.
He continued, “we do not need
superficially happy bishops; it is necessary to dig deeper to
discover what the Spirit continues to inspire in your Bride. You are
not fixed-term bishops, who always need to change address, like
medicines that lose their power to cure, or like those insipid
foodstuffs that have to be thrown away because they have lost their
usefulness. It is important not to block the curative force that
springs from within the gift you have received, and this defends you
from the temptation to come and go aimlessly, because no wind is
favourable to he who does not know where he is going. And we have
learned where we are going: we are always going towards Jesus”. He
added, “in this way, your watch over your flock will never fail to
encounter the flame of the Risen Christ”.
“I also beg you not to fall prey to
the temptation to change the people. Love the people that God has
given you, even when they have committed grave sins, without tiring
of turning to the Lord for forgiveness and a new beginning, even at
the cost of having to cancel your false images of the divine face or
the fantasies you have nurtured of how to ensure their communion with
God”. The Church, he added, is to offer “welcome to all without
discrimination, offering the firmness of the authority that enables
growth and the gentleness of paternity that generates. Do not fall
prey the temptation to sacrifice your freedom by surrounding yourself
with courts, networks or choirs of assent, as the Church and the
world always have the right to hear from the lips of bishops the
Gospel that sets them free”.
Pope Francis advised the bishops to
imitate Moses' patience in leading his people, as “nothing is more
important than introducing people to God!”. He therefore urged them
to begin with the young and the elderly, “because the first are our
wings, and the second are our roots. Wings and roots without which we
do not know what we are, much less where we are going”. He added
that he saw the bishops as sentinels, able to awaken their Churches;
“men able to cultivate and ripen God's fields and pastors able to
restore unity. “Do not waste energy in conflict and disagreement,
but rather use it to build and to love”, he concluded, wishing them
“fruitfulness, patience, humility and much prayer”.
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