Pope at Angelus: Show how beautiful it is to love the Lord

By Deborah Castellano Lubov

Like the Lord had much patience with His disciples, He has with us. Nevertheless, we are just as called upon to witness through our joy and our lives, how beautiful it is to love Jesus.

This was the comforting message Pope Francis offered during his Sunday Angelus address at noon to the faithful and pilgrims gathered in St. Peter's Square.

The Holy Father had drawn inspiration from today's Gospel reading according to St. Mark, which recounts the vocation of the first disciples, being recruited by the Lord, to "become fishers of men."

Jesus' patience with His disciples

Recalling how calling upon others to join His mission was one of the first things Jesus does at the beginning of His public life, the Pope said this reveals something significant, namely that "the Lord loves to involve us in His work of salvation, He wants us to be active with Him," and to be "responsible and protagonists."

The Pope observed that He includes us, and included His disciples, in this endeavour, despite all our limitations.

"Let us look, for example," Pope Francis marveled, "at how much patience He had with His disciples: often they did not understand His words, sometimes they did not get along with each other, for a long time, they could not accept essential aspects of His preaching, such as service." Yet, he highlighted, Jesus chose them and continued to believe in them.

Jesus' greatest happiness

"In fact, bringing God's salvation to all was Jesus' greatest joy, his mission" the Pope said.

"In every word and action with which we unite ourselves to Him, in the beautiful adventure of giving love," the Pope said, "light and joy are multiplied, not only around us, but also within us." 

To proclaim the Gospel, Pope Francis went on to insist, "is not wasted time." Rather, he encouraged, "it is to be happier by helping others to be happy; to free oneself by helping others to be free; to become better by helping others to be better!"

How beautiful to love, witness Jesus

The Pope stressed to the faithful that each of us has received a call to evangelise, in the state of life in which we find ourselves.

"Let us ask ourselves then: do I pause every now and then to remember the joy that grew in me and around me when I accepted the call to know and witness to Jesus? And when I pray, do I thank the Lord for having called me to make others happy? Finally: do I wish to make someone savour, through my testimony and my joy, how beautiful it is to love Jesus?"

Pope Francis concluded by praying, may "the Virgin Mary help us to taste the joy of the Gospel."