In his meditation on the Gospel, which he recited before the recitation of the AngelusPope Francis highlighted the reaction of the Jews to Christ’s statement: “I have come down from heaven”. His contemporaries, said the Holy Father, “are convinced that Jesus cannot come from heaven because he is the son of a carpenter and because his mother and brothers are simple people”.
This reaction, Francis continued, shows that “they are blocked in their faith by their preconceived notions about their humble origins and by the assumption that they have nothing to learn from him.” Their prejudices, the Pope said, show a closed heart and a closed mind.
But “they are people who keep the law, give alms, fast and observe prayer times.” Moreover, at the time of the Gospel in which this passage is found, Christ “had already performed several miracles.” So how is it that this does not help them to recognize in him the Messiah,” asked the Pope.
Pope warns against prejudice
“Because they practice their religious practices not so much to listen to the Lord, but rather to find in them a confirmation of what they already think,” was Francis’s forceful response. And he pointed out that the Jews “don’t even bother to ask Jesus for an explanation, but only murmur among themselves against him.”
The Pope therefore urged us to “pay attention to all this, because sometimes the same thing can happen to us too”. He stressed that “true faith and prayer open the mind and the heart, they do not close them”.
The Holy Father asked some final questions for personal reflection: “In my life of faith, am I really able to be silent within myself and listen to God? Am I ready to accept his voice beyond my own plans and, with his help, to overcome my fears?
In conclusion, Pope Francis appealed to the intercession of the Virgin Mary so that “she may help us to listen in faith to the voice of the Lord and to courageously fulfill his will”.
