POPE_LEO_XIV’S_MESSAGE_ON_THE_DIFFICULTY_OF_ORGANIZING
A gift and a path
“Indeed,” Pope Leo XIV marveled, “they are entrusted to us, who were chosen by Him before we were formed in our mothers’ wombs, reborn in the waters of Baptism and, surpassing our limitations and with no merit of our own, brought here and sent forth from here, so that the Gospel might be proclaimed to every creature.”
Two different attitudes
“Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” the new Holy Father repeated, noting, “If we reflect on the scene we are considering, we might find two possible answers, which characterize two different attitudes.”
First, Pope Leo said, there was the response of the world, which “will not hesitate to reject and eliminate Him” once “His presence becomes irksome” also because of “His stern moral requirements.”
Then there is the other possible response to Jesus’ question, that of ordinary people, who see Him “as an upright man of courage”; but to them “He is only a man, and therefore, in times of danger, during His passion, they too abandon Him and depart disappointed.”
Missionary outreach needed where difficult to preach witness
What is striking about these two attitudes, the Pope said, is their relevance today, for, they, the Holy Father acknowledged, embody notions that we could easily find on the lips of many men and women in our own time, even if, while essentially identical, they are expressed in different language.
“Even today,” he warned, “there are many settings in which the Christian faith is considered absurd, meant for the weak and unintelligent. Settings where other securities are preferred, like technology, money, success, power, or pleasure.”
These are contexts, he highlighted, “where it is not easy to preach the Gospel and bear witness to its truth, where believers are mocked, opposed, despised or at best tolerated and pitied.”
“Yet, precisely for this reason,” he said, “they are the places where our missionary outreach is desperately needed.” [Excerpts from: Pope Leo XIV to Cardinals: ‘We are to bear witness to our joyful faith in Christ’ – Vatican News.]
