Here and Now with Francis 6/17/16 (Christ, faith, realism, Church, family, sin, dependence, discernment)

Faith does not take us out of the world but inserts us more profoundly in it. Not like those perfect and immaculate ones that think they know it all, but as persons that have known the love that God has for us.

From the address

In fact, to look at our families with the delicacy with which God looks at them helps us to put our consciences in His same direction. The accent put on mercy puts us before the reality in a realistic way, not, however, with just any realism but with God’s realism. Our analyses are important and necessary and they will help us to have a healthy realism. But nothing is comparable to the evangelical realism, which does not halt at the description of situations, of problems, — even less of sin — but always goes beyond and succeeds, seeing behind every face, every story, every situation an opportunity, a possibility. Evangelical realisms is committed to the other, to others and does not make ideals and of “having to be” an obstacle to encounter others in the situations in which they find themselves. It is not about not proposing the evangelical ideal; on the contrary, it invites us to live it within history, with all that it entails. This does not mean not to be clear in Doctrine, but to avoid falling into judgments and attitudes that do not take in the complexity of life. Evangelical realisms soils its hands because it knows that “wheat and weeds” grow together, and the best wheat — in this life — will always be mixed with a bit of weeds. “I understand those who prefer a more rigorous pastoral care which leaves no room for confusion. But I sincerely believe that Jesus wants a Church attentive to the goodness which the Holy Spirit sows in the midst of human weakness, a Mother who, while clearly expressing her objective teaching, “always does what good she can, even if in the process, her shoes get soiled by the mud of the street”. The Church’s pastors, in proposing to the faithful the full ideal of the Gospel and the Church’s teaching, must also help them to treat the weak with compassion, avoiding aggravation or unduly harsh or hasty judgements. The Gospel itself tells us not to judge or condemn (cf. Mt 7:1; Lk 6:37)” (AL, 308). ...  They are two realities that go together and that are in need of one another and are connected. It is lovely to find spouses, couples that as elderly people continue to seek one another, to look at one another; they continue to love one another and to choose each other. It is so lovely to find “grandparents” that show on their faces, wrinkled by time, the joy that is born of having made a choice of love and for love. As a society, we have deprived our elderly of their voice; we have deprived them of their space; we have deprived them of the opportunity to tell us about their life, their stories and their experiences. We have set them aside and thus we have lost the richness of their wisdom. By discarding them, we discarded the possibility of having contact with the secret that enabled them to go forward. We are deprived of the testimony of spouses that not only persevered in time, but that keep in their heart gratitude for all that they have lived (cf. AL , 38).[full text]