In the first document, the Holy Father states that the messages and the journey that God proposes to His sons and daughters always aim at leading them into freedom. Why? Because of this sad reality: all human beings, made by God for freedom, often cling to oppressive bondages at different levels. The call of God, rich with words of merciful love, and His action to shape His people, aiming at leading them from death to life, from slavery to freedom, are ignored. In fact, when we look at the world in which we live, we notice right away how true this is: people allow so many things to keep them apart from each other and to deny fraternity. “Earth, air and water are polluted, but so are our souls.” Instead of having companions and fellow travelers in our world, we have enemies hating each other and generating death. All of us are too familiar with all this.
It is true that, in our society, we also have humble people who form a new humanity living and acting to heal and to sustain the world. The question is this: how can we join them in generating creativity and a new hope at all levels so that our world may not move towards a heavy tragedy, but towards the beginning of renewed life and growth? Pope Francis has found inspiration in the spirituality of Saint Therese of Lisieux, to propose confidence in the Merciful Love of God as the answer. “Confidence, ‘nothing but confidence’ is the sole path that leads us to the Love that grants everything. With confidence, the wellspring of grace overflows into our lives, the Gospel takes flesh within us and makes us channels of mercy for our brothers and sisters.” This is what the people, who live and act with mission as passion in their hearts, must proclaim with the enthusiasm of faith, and learning from the ‘little way’ of Saint Therese who teaches us: to make of our life a great gift for God’s glory and the good of all; to live the Gospel without compromises; to live in humility, rejecting the thirst for power and grandeur which obsesses so many people; to live, taken up by the beauty of concern and responsibility for one another; to live with the awareness of the importance of simplicity, the absolute primacy of love, trust and abandonment with the joy of the Gospel in our hearts.
“Dear Saint Therese, the Church needs to radiate the brightness and the joy of the Gospel. Send us your roses! Help us to be, like yourself, ever confident in God’s immense love for us, so that we may imitate each day your ‘little way’ of holiness. Amen!” (Pope Francis)
