miniZibaldone

God is greater than our sin. Let us not forget this: God is greater than our sin! From the general audience Today we finish the catecheses on mercy in the Old Testament, and we do so meditating on Psalm 51, known as the Miserere . [...]  The “title” that the ancient Jewish tradition gave this Psalm makes reference to King David and his sin with Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah the Hittite. We know the  affair well. King David, called by God to tend His People and to lead them on paths of obedience to the Divine Law, betrays his mission and, after having committed  adultery with Bathsheba, has her husband killed. Terrible sin! Nathan, the prophet, reveals his guilt to him and helps him to acknowledge it. It is the moment of  reconciliation with God, in the confession of his sin. And here David was humble; he was great! [...]  The Psalmist entrusts himself to God’s goodness; he knows that divine forgiveness is extremely effective, because it creates that which...

From the homily The serpent, the Pontiff clarified, is a “symbol of sin, the serpent that kills. But the serpent that saves: this is the mystery of Christ”. St Paul, the Pope  recalled, also spoke of this mystery. “He said that Jesus emptied himself, humbled himself, annihilated himself in order to save us”. Moreover, the Apostle offers an  even stronger expression: “he became sin”. Thus, using the biblical symbol, we could say: “he became serpent”. This, Francis said, is “the prophetic message of  today’s readings. The Son of man, who like a serpent ‘became sin’, is lifted up in order to save us”. [...]  This, the Pope concluded, is “the history of our redemption”, this is “the history of God’s love”. This is why, “if we want to know the love of God, we look at the  Crucifix”. There we meet “a man who is tortured, died, who is God, ‘emptied of divinity’, tarnished, who ‘became sin’”. Then came the final prayer: “May the Lord  grant us the grace to ...