Pope in audience: God is not a violent judge, but full of mercy and tenderness – Vatican News

(Vatican News Network) Pope Francis presided over the Wednesday public audience on the morning of December 21, and continued to make spiritual discernment the theme of today’s catechism. The pope said that daily discernment must be made in choosing what to eat, what to see, how to work and how to be with people. If we don’t consciously choose, eventually “life chooses for us and takes us where we don’t want to go.”

However, discernment is not something we can do alone, we need help. The first is the “comparison with the Word of God and with the teaching of the Church”, which “help us to see what is happening in us”, from which we learn to recognize the voice of God and to distinguish it from other noises. God’s voice, the Pope said, is soft and subdued. “Only in peace can we access the depths of our hearts and recognize the true desires that the Lord has placed in our hearts”.

The Pope acknowledged that it is often not easy to enter into inner peace because we are so busy that we stay here and there all day. To enter, pause for two minutes and see what is going on in your mind. In moments of calm, the Pope said, we can hear the voice of God and better understand our attitudes and our choices.

“For the believer, the Word of God is not just a work to be recited, it is a living presence, an act of the Holy Spirit that soothes, teaches, and gives light, strength, healing, and life. It’s fun. Read the Bible, you read a passage and a paragraph or two of the Bible immediately enters your mind like a short telegram. God’s Word is a bit of a real early arrival from heaven, isn’t that an exaggeration?”

We can often mistake God for a harsh and fiery judge, ready to criticize us, the Pope said. Jesus revealed to us a God full of mercy and tenderness, who sacrificed himself whenever he could to help us, just like the father in the parable of the Prodigal Son. (See: Luke 11:13)

The Pope recounted an episode from many years ago when he was in Argentina. Once he heard confession for young people who came on pilgrimage to the Shrine of Our Lady of Luhan. A young man confided to him that he had followed his mother’s advice in making the pilgrimage. His mother told him that he would understand many things when he went to Our Lady. The young man confessed that during the pilgrimage the word of God really touched his heart and made him understand what to do.

This example, the Pope explained, shows the effect of the word of God on every human being, “because God does not want to destroy us, he wants us to be stronger and better every day”. Looking at the crucifix we will feel “a new peace” and we will learn “not to fear God”. “The word of God always makes you look the other way: here is the cross, which is not a good thing, but there is something else, there is hope, there is the resurrection. The word of God opens all the doors to you, because he is the door, he is the Lord».

The relationship with God is a relationship that grows day by day, the Pope said: “The relationship with God can change the heart; it is a great gift of the Holy Spirit, piety, which makes us recognize a paternal aspect in God. having a tender father, a warm father, a loving father who always loves us: once we have had this experience, the heart melts and the doubts, fears, feelings of inadequacy are gone. Nothing can stand in the way of this love for I meet God.”

Another aid to spiritual discernment is “the grace of the Holy Spirit who is present in us. The Holy Spirit teaches us, helps us to live the Word of God we read, reminds us of the newness in it, opens doors for us that seem to be closed. , and show us the paths of life that seem to be only darkness and confusion.”

The Pope concluded by emphasizing that the Holy Spirit is always with us and by our side. We need to cultivate dialogue with him, go forward “with courage and joy”.

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