Vatican City, 22 March 2015 (VIS) –
At midday today the Pope appeared at the window of his study in the
Vatican Apostolic Palace for the Sunday Angelus prayer with the
thousands of faithful and pilgrims gathered in St. Peter's Square.
Before the Marian prayer, Francis commented on the day's Gospel
reading, in which the evangelist John narrates that some 'Greeks',
Hebrews, had asked the apostle Philip if they could see Jesus. The
Pope explained that this request goes far beyond this particular
episode, instead expressing something universal; it “reveals a
desire present in the ages and cultures, a desire present in the
heart of so many people who have heard of Christ, but have not yet
met him. Jesus responds with a prophecy that reveals His identity and
shows the path to know Him truly: 'The hour has come for the Son of
Man to be glorified'. … The hour of the Cross, the darkest in
history, is also the source of salvation for those who believe in
Him”.
Continuing in His prophecy, “Jesus
uses a simple and suggestive image, that of the 'grain of wheat'
that, once fallen in the earth, dies in order to produce fruit. In
this image we find another aspect of Christ's Cross: fruitfulness.
The death of Jesus, in fact, is an inexhaustible source of new life,
because it carries within itself the regenerating strength of the
love of God. Immersed in this love through Baptism, Christians can
become 'grains of wheat' and produce much fruit if they, like Jesus,
'lose their own life' for the love of God and for their brothers and
sisters”.
Francis emphasised that all those who
want to see Jesus, who search for Him, those who have not yet
encountered Jesus or who have lost their faith, we are able to offer
three things: the Gospel, where we can encounter Jesus, listen to
Him, know Him; the Cross, sign of the love of Jesus who gave Himself
for us; and our witness of faith, poor but sincere. “A faith that
is translated into simple gestures of fraternal charity. But mainly,
in the coherence of our life, between what we say and what we do,
coherence between our faith and our life, between our words and our
actions”.
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