Pope Francis encouraged us to be free like Jesus, that is, to live in the freedom of the children of God, and not be slaves to power, pleasure, money or fame; in his words prior to praying the Marian prayer of the Angelus this Sunday, June 9.
In the context of a sunny midday, in contrast to the cold and rain of last Sunday, and before thousands of faithful present in St. Peter’s Square in the Vatican, the Holy Father offered his reflection on today’s Gospel (Mk 3, 20-35).
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The evangelical text relates that Jesus faces two reactions: “that of his relatives, who were worried and feared that he had gone crazy; and that of the religious authorities, who accused him of acting motivated by an evil spirit.”
In reality, Pope Francis specified, “Jesus preached and healed the sick with the power of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit made him divinely free, that is, capable of loving and serving without measure and without conditions.”
1. Jesus was free regarding wealth
“That is why he left the safety of his town, Nazareth, to embrace a poor life full of uncertainties (cf. Mt 6:25-34), freely healing the sick and anyone who came to ask for help, never asking anything from him. change (cf. Mt 10:8)”, explained the Pontiff.
2. Jesus was free from power
Indeed, “he called many to follow him, but he never forced anyone to do so; and he never sought the support of the powerful, but he was always on the side of the last, and he taught his disciples to do the same,” continued Pope Francis.
3. Jesus was free from the pursuit of fame and approval
“That is why he never gave up telling the truth, even at the cost of not being understood (cf. Mt 3:21) and becoming unpopular, until he died on the cross; and he did not allow himself to be intimidated, bought, or corrupted by anything or anyone (cf. Mt 10:28).”
For all this, Pope Francis highlighted, it can be said that “Jesus was a free man. Free from riches, free from power, free from the pursuit of fame. And this is also important for us.”
“In fact, if we allow ourselves to be conditioned by the search for pleasure, power, money or approval, we become slaves to these things.”
Pope Francis questions you about authentic freedom
In the opposite sense, the Holy Father continued, if “we allow the free love of God to fill and expand our hearts, and if we let it overflow spontaneously, giving it to others, with our entire being, without fear, calculations or conditioning, then We grow in freedom and spread its good perfume around us.”
So, “we can ask ourselves: am I a free person? Or did he tell me to imprison myself by the myths of money, power and success, sacrificing my serenity, my peace and those of others?
“Do I spread, in the environments in which I live and work, fresh air of freedom, sincerity, spontaneity? May the Virgin Mary help us to live and love as Jesus taught us, in the freedom of the children of God,” Pope Francis concluded.
Walter Sánchez Silva
I have been a husband since 2008. My wife and I have three children here and one who went to heaven in 2023, before he was born. Since I joined ACI Prensa in 2005, I have had the opportunity to cover various events of the Catholic Church. Among them, the World Youth Days in Cologne, Madrid and Rio de Janeiro and the apostolic trips of Pope Benedict XVI to Mexico and of Pope Francis to South Korea. I have been sent to the Vatican to cover the Family synods, in 2015; of the Amazon, in 2019 and that of Synodality, in 2023. I closely follow the situation of the Catholic Church in Nicaragua, which suffers persecution from the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega, as well as current ecclesiastical events in the region.