VATICAN - Pope Francis, first Angelus after surgery: If we want to be good apostles, we must be like children

Rome (Agenzia Fides) - "If we want to be good apostles, we must be like children". This is the evocative "program" proposed by Pope Francis to all those who are called to proclaim the Gospel of Christ, imitating his first disciples and keeping away from the useless verbiage of the " ‘talkers’, with their endless talk and no action". On Sunday, June 18, the Pope presented his final suggestions on mission and the proclamation of the Gospel to the multitude gathered in St. Peter's Square for the recitation of the Angelus. It was the first public engagement of the Pontiff after his abdominal operation and the nine days of hospitalization at the Agostino Gemelli Hospital. After looking out the window of his office in the Apostolic Palace, and before commenting on the Sunday Gospel, the Bishop of Rome wanted to express his gratitude "to those who, during the days of my stay at the Gemelli Hospital, showed me affection, care and friendship, and assured me of the support of prayer. This human closeness and spiritual closeness were of great help and comfort to me", said the Pope. In his commentary on the Gospel read during the liturgy of the day, Pope Francis started from the passage of the Gospel in which Jesus "calls by name and sends out the twelve Apostles", asking them to proclaim that "the kingdom of heaven is at hand". This - Pope Francis underlined - "is not just one piece of news among others, no, but the fundamental reality of life", and therefore also "the first thing to say to people: God is not far away, but he is a Father".
Proclaiming that God is Father - continued the Bishop of Rome - means "inviting us to think like a child, who walks held by his father’s hand: everything seems different. The world, large and mysterious, becomes familiar and secure, because the child knows he is protected. He is not afraid, and learns how to open up: he meets other people, finds new friends, learns with joy things that he did not know, and then returns home and tells everyone what he has seen, while within him there grows the desire to become grown up and to do the things he has seen his daddy do".
This is why, continued the Pontiff, "if we want to be good apostles, we must be like children: we must sit “on God’s lap” and, from there, look at the world with trust and love, in order to bear witness that God is the Father, that he alone transforms our hearts and gives us that joy and that peace that we ourselves cannot attain". The Pope also pointed out that to testify to the paternity and paternal closeness of God, Jesus himself, in the Gospel, recommends not to multiply useless words, but to make gestures: "Heal the sick - he said - raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons. Freely you have received, give freely". The heart of the proclamation is "witness freely given, service", continued the Pope, who also confided that he is "always very puzzled" by the “talkers” with their endless talk and no action". Among the situations and facts mentioned after the recitation of the Angelus, the Pontiff recalled "with great sorrow and heartache I think of the victims of the serious shipwreck that occurred in recent days off the coast of Greece. And it seemed as though the sea were calm", he added. The Pontiff also prayed and invited to pray for the people of "tormented Ukraine" and for the young students, victims of the brutal attack against a school in the west of Uganda. "This battle, this war everywhere… let us pray for peace", added Pope Francis. (GV) (Agenzia Fides, 18/6/2023)

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