Hajja Salesjana January March 2018

5 Recently Pope Francis encouraged Christians to live the “familiarity” with God in his homily during the morning Mass he celebrated at Santa Marta in the Vatican. In his homily quoted by Radio Vatican in Italian, the Pope commented on the Gospel of Lk 8: 19-21, in which Jesus declared, “My mother and my brothers are those who listen to the word of God and put it into practice . More than being disciples, the relationship with Jesus is not formal, educated or diplomatic, it must be “familiarity with God and with Jesus.” The Pope said, “to enter the house of Jesus: to enter into this atmosphere, to live in this atmosphere, which is in the house of Jesus. To live there, to contemplate, to be free, there. Because children are free, those who dwell in the house of the Lord are free, those who have familiarity with Him are free.” Familiarity with Jesus is “to remain with Him, to watch Him, to listen to His Word, to seek Familiarity with Jesus to put it into practice, to speak with Him,” he continued, “to make this prayer along the way ‘But, Lord, what do you think?’ It’s familiarity … Always. The saints had this attitude with the Lord. Saint Therese of Lisieux is beautiful, because she said that she found the Lord everywhere, she was in familiarity with the Lord everywhere, even in the midst of cooking pots.” Those who do not live in this way are “children of the slave,” they are Christians but they do not dare to approach, they do not dare to have this familiarity with the Lord, and there is always a distance between them and the Lord, the Pope said. Familiarity consists in “dwelling” in the presence of Jesus, not in keeping a distance that assigns “you there and me here.” “Let us ask this grace for all of us, to understand what familiarity with the Lord means,” concluded the Pope. by Pope Francis