miniZibaldone

From the homily Never give in to “failure”. It is the “perfect terrain for the devil to sow his seeds” and leads to live like professional mourners, amid complaints and dissatisfactions . “The spirit of fatigue takes away our hope...tiredness is selective: it always causes us to see the negative in the moment we are living, and forget the good things we have received”. It also happens to us “When we feel desolated and cannot bear the journey, we seek refuge either in idols or in complaint... (…) This spirit of fatigue leads us Christians to be dissatisfied (…) and everything goes wrong… Jesus himself taught us this when he said we are like children playing games when we are overcome by this spirit of dissatisfaction.”. . . We must reverse the course, especially in this time that is preparing for Easter: “Brothers and sisters, we only remember this phrase: “The people of God could not bear the journey “, Francis concludes. “Christians do not bear hope. Christians do not endure...

In fact, sometimes our exhaustion is caused by having put our trust in things that are not essential, because we have distanced ourselves from what is really valuable in life. The Lord teaches us not to be afraid to follow Him, because the hope we place in Him will not be disappointed. From the audience Jesus projects to His disciples a path of knowledge and of imitation. Jesus is not a teacher who imposes on others with severity burdens that He does not carry: this was the accusation He made to the Doctors of the Law. He addresses the humble and little ones, the poor and the needy because He Himself made Himself little and humble. He understands the poor and the suffering because He Himself is poor and tried by sorrows. Jesus did not follow an easy way to save humanity; on the contrary, his path was painful and difficult. As the Letter to the Philippians reminds: “He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross” (2:8). The yoke that the poor and the oppr...

From the general audience At times, we too can live a sort of exile, when loneliness, suffering, and death make us think that God has abandoned us. How many times we have heard this word:  “God has forgotten me”: they are persons that suffer and feel themselves abandoned. Instead, how many of our brothers are living at this time a real and tragic  situation of exile, far from their homeland, with their eyes still beholding the ruin of their homes, with fear in their heart and often, unfortunately, sorrow for  the loss of dear persons! In such cases, one can ask oneself: where is God? How is it possible that so much suffering can befall men, women and innocent children?  And when they seek to enter somewhere they see the doors close. And they are there, at the border because so many doors and so many hearts are closed. The immigrants  of today that suffer cold, are without food and cannot enter, do not experience hospitality. It pleases me so much when I see ...