“Rejoice and exult with all your heart, O daughter Jerusalem!” - Zephaniah 3:14-18. “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” - Philippians 4:4-7Staying intentionally focused on Jesus’s words and plan of salvation will, sooner or later, elevate us into the realm of mystical ecstasy or, if you will, BIG and LASTING JOY. Over the course of history, including my humble life, these passages from Sacred Scripture have proven to be true. So many saints and fellow faithful have witnessed to it. I’ve seen it in my own life; the more time I spend in God’s living word, meditative prayer of intentional gratefulness, the more I can love and feel alive no matter whether I’m helping the needy, sweeping my kitchen floor, or lying ill in bed. Fear – a big obstacle in our way or a gift to harness? A wise monk recently said these words to me: “Fear is very natural to humans – and needed. Regrettably, there is a lot of misplaced fear, especially today. It’s fear of the Lord that we’re wired for.” That kind of fear (more closely associated with wonder or reverence directed at God’s grandeur) is perhaps our most certain path to rock-solid, everlasting joy. We are called to fear the Lord. If we harness properly our inclination to fear (aligning it toward God), it leads to the peace and joy we hear about in this weekend’s readings. But we can only fear or revere God if we get to know him. The mere process of doing so gives us the graces and wisdom we need to not only get through the day but to find this priceless joy. Sadly, the wrong kind of fear is growing these days. Many people and groups are using fear as a strategy for their own gain. There’s even a marketing term being bandied about in boardrooms (and among youth), “FOMO”, or Fear Of Missing Out. Yikes. So what do we do, especially during Advent, to find and spread peace and help people find the joy they are so desperately seeking? The readings of the Advent season offer us indications. Here are some that speak to me:
Pope Francis continued his cycle of catechesis on "Jesus Christ our Hope," as part of the Jubilee 2025. This week he reflected on the visit of the Magi to the infant Jesus, writing that the Magi "are men who do not stay still but, like the great chosen ones of biblical history, feel the need to move, to go forth. They are men who are able to look beyond themselves, who know how to look upwards."
In his Wednesday General Audience, Pope Francis continued this cycle of catechesis on "Jesus Christ our Hope," as part of the Jubilee 2025. This week he reflected on the birth of Christ and the visit of the shepherds, saying that "God, who comes into history, does not dismantle the structures of the world, but wants to illuminate them and recreate them from within."
On January 1, 2025, Pope Francis gave the homily at Mass on the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God in St. Peter's Basilica.
Pope Francis gave the traditional Christmas message and blessing "urbi et orbi" (to the city and to the world) from the central loggia of St. Peter's
Pope Francis gave the homily at Midnight Mass, saying that "Hope is not dead; hope is alive and it embraces our lives forever. Hope does not disappoint!"