The members of Italian Catholic Action welcomed Francis in St. Peter’s Square for the meeting entitled “With open arms”: there are many hugs, those that were missing and because of many conflicts “in these days before our eyes”, the hugs that save and those that change lives.
Mariangela Jaguraba – Vatican News
Around sixty thousand members of Italian Catholic Action gathered in St. Peter’s Square to meet Pope Francis as part of the XVIII General Assembly of the Catholic organization that begins this Thursday (25/04).
In his speech, the Holy Father recalled the title of the national meeting chosen by the members of Italian Catholic Action: “With open arms”. According to the Pope, “the hug is one of the most spontaneous expressions of the human experience. The life of a human being opens with a hug, that of the parents, the first gesture of welcome, which is followed by many others, which give meaning and value to days and years, until the last, that of saying goodbye to the earthly path. And above all, it is enveloped in the great embrace of God, who loves us first and never stops keeping us close to him, especially when we return after having been lost, as the parable of the merciful Father shows us”. “What would our lives be and how could the mission of the Church be carried out without these hugs?” asked the Pope, who then proposed a reflection on three types of hugs: the hug that is missing, the hug that saves and the hug that changes life.
When the hug turns into a fist, it is very dangerous
The missing hug. “The enthusiasm that they expressed today in such a festive way is not always well received in our world: sometimes it encounters closures and, at other times, it encounters resistance, so that the arms become rigid and the hands close in a threatening way, not becoming more vehicles of fraternity, but of rejection, of opposition, often even violent, also a sign of distrust towards others, near and far, to the point of leading to conflict”, said the Pope, adding:
When the hug turns into a fist, it is very dangerous. At the origin of wars there are usually missed hugs or rejected hugs, which are followed by prejudices, misunderstandings and suspicions, to the point of seeing the other as an enemy. All this, unfortunately, is before our eyes today, in many parts of the world! With your presence and your work, however, you witness to everyone that the path of embrace is the path of life.
God’s merciful embrace that saves
The hug that saves. “From a human point of view, embracing one another means expressing positive and fundamental values such as affection, esteem, trust, encouragement, reconciliation. But it becomes even more vital when it is lived in the dimension of faith. At the center of our existence is the merciful embrace of God who saves, the embrace of the good Father who revealed himself in Christ Jesus, and whose face is reflected in every gesture of forgiveness, healing, liberation, service, and whose revelation reaches its peak in the Eucharist and on the Cross, when Christ offers his life for the salvation of the world, for the good of everyone who welcomes him with a sincere heart, forgiving even his crucifiers”, said Francis, inviting everyone to let themselves be embraced by the Lord “as like children”, because “each of us has something like a child in our heart that needs a hug. In the Lord’s embrace we learn to embrace others”.
Show paths of hope
The hug that changes your life. “A hug can change a life, show new paths, paths of hope”, underlined Francisco. There are many saints in whose existence the hug marked a decisive turning point, like Saint Francis, who left everything to follow the Lord after having hugged a leper, as he himself remembers in his will”, said the Pope, recalling that the “embrace of charity” is the “single essential sign of Christ’s disciples, rule, form and end of all means of sanctification and apostolate”.
Friends, you will be all the more the presence of Christ the more you know how to embrace and support each brother in need with merciful and compassionate arms, as lay people engaged in the events of the world and history, rich in a great tradition, trained and competent with regard to their responsibilities, and at the same time humble and fervent in the path of the spirit. In this way, you will be able to make concrete signs of change according to the Gospel at a social, cultural, political and economic level in the contexts in which you work.
Promote the “hug culture”
Francis encouraged members of Catholic Action to promote the “culture of embrace” that “will grow in the Church and in society, renewing family and educational relationships, renewing processes of reconciliation and justice, renewing efforts at communion and co-responsibility, building ties for a future of peace”.
Taking synodality forward
Finally, seeing everyone gathered in Saint Peter’s Square, the Pope remembered “the Synod in progress, which reaches its third stage, the most challenging and important: the prophetic”. “Now, it is a matter of translating the work of previous phases into choices that give impetus and new life to the mission of the Church in our time. However, the most important thing about this Synod is the synodality. The themes must carry forward this expression of the Church, which is the synodality“, he said. “Therefore, there is a need for people shaped by the Spirit, for “pilgrims of hope“, of synodal men and women, who know how to dialogue, interact, seek together, as the theme of the Jubilee that is approaching says, men and women capable of tracing and traveling new and challenging paths”, he concluded.
