Pope Francis explains how to face current emergencies

Pope Francis received in audience at the Vatican the participants in the XIX General Chapter of the Society of the Divine Word, to whom he explained how to face the “current emergencies.”

At the beginning of his speech, the Holy Father invited them to return “to the source of your identity, which is the Lord as the Word of salvation.”

Faithful disciples and creative missionaries

Next, Pope Francis reflected on two aspects that must be taken into account as a “source” within society: being faithful disciples and creative missionaries.

First of all, he highlighted that “experiencing Trinitarian Love and feeding the flame of the Spirit is the central value to grow as disciples and religious missionaries.”

“It is this flame that renews us daily, purifying and transforming us along the way with our sins and in the midst of the seductions of the world,” he noted.

Regarding the mandate to be creative missionaries, he stated that creativity must be “good and healthy” and not “the apparent one, which is self-referential and mundane.”

“It comes from the Word and the Spirit, that is, from Christ alive in you, who makes you participants in his mission in the Holy Spirit. “It is He who attracts hearts, not us,” he expressed.

It is the Spirit who is the protagonist, Pope Francis continued, “and our art is to work with all our strength, spending all our talents, with the certainty that it is always He who works, it is He who creates, and our action is docility, it is instrument”.

The “current emergencies”

Later, Pope Francis spoke to them about some “current emergencies.” One of them is the need to be “builders of peace”, in a world “wounded by conflicts, wars, destruction, including of the environment, violence against life and human dignity, fundamentalist ideologies and other plagues, many”.

“Peace is the cry of the people: let us listen to this cry and become builders of peace!” exclaimed the Pontiff.

In this sense, he urged them to bring the peace of Christ “to everyone, especially to the poor, to emigrants – they suffer so much! -, to discriminated women, to children, to those excluded.”

He also asked to listen to “the enslaved people; “Let us not close our ears to the cry of today’s slaves, and let us be creative in building peace.”

As a second “urgency,” the Holy Father invited them to be “hope for all cultures,” a “great challenge.”

He encouraged them to lean on the Holy Spirit and not be afraid of the conflicts and confusion of today’s culture.

Furthermore, he stressed that “discernment is needed: ask the Holy Spirit for this grace of discernment.”

Finally, he encouraged them to be “missionaries” of synodality. He stressed that “the Church that ‘goes out’ is open to others,” and is a welcoming community, where the Lord lives and the Spirit acts. “The Church that goes out is extroverted, while a sectarian Church is introverted,” he stressed.

He also assured that synodality is not “a fashion” and that “today this Church must grow synodally, listening to everyone, dialoguing with everyone and discerning in the Holy Spirit what the mission is.”

“Therefore, I encourage you to promote synodality in all aspects of your life: let each community grow and enjoy a synodal style in which everyone feels heard and welcomed.”

Finally, he encouraged them to do “what the Spirit says,” while ensuring that “the process in which the Spirit moves gently, among simple people and in the most distant places, is important,” concluded the Pope Francisco.