Mary’s faith unties the knot of sin (cf. Lumen Gentium, 56). What does that mean? The Fathers of the Second Vatican Council took up a phrase of Saint Irenaeus, who states that "the knot of Eve’s disobedience was untied by the obedience of Mary; what the virgin Eve bound by her unbelief, the Virgin Mary loosened by her faith" (Adversus Haereses, III, 22, 4).
The "knot" of disobedience, the "knot" of unbelief. When children disobey their parents, we can say that a little "knot" is created. This happens if the child acts with an awareness of what he or she is doing, especially if there is a lie involved. At that moment, they break trust with their parents. You know how frequently this happens! Then the relationship with their parents needs to be purified of this fault; the child has to ask forgiveness so that harmony and trust can be restored. Something of the same sort happens in our relationship with God. When we do not listen to him, when we do not follow his will, we do concrete things that demonstrate our lack of trust in him – for that is what sin is – and a kind of knot is created deep within us. These knots take away our peace and serenity. They are dangerous, since many knots can form a tangle which gets more and more painful and difficult to undo.
But we know one thing: nothing is impossible for God’s mercy! Even the most tangled knots are loosened by his grace. And Mary, whose "yes" opened the door for God to undo the knot of the ancient disobedience, is the Mother who patiently and lovingly brings us to God, so that he can untangle the knots of our soul by his fatherly mercy. We all have some of these knots and we can ask in our heart of hearts: What are the knots in my life? "Father, my knots cannot be undone!" It is a mistake to say anything of the sort! All the knots of our heart, every knot of our conscience, can be undone. Do I ask Mary to help me trust in God’s mercy, to undo those knots, to change? She, as a woman of faith, will surely tell you: "Get up, go to the Lord: he understands you". And she leads us by the hand as a Mother, our Mother, to the embrace of our Father, the Father of mercies.
--Pope Francis, 12 October 2013
Mary unties the knots in our life
Paternity in celibacy
Commitment of love, joy and fruitful celibacy
(Pope Francis' Address to Seminarians and Novices who took part in the Year of Faith pilgrimage entitled “I Trust in You”.)
VATICAN CITY, July 07, 2013
Good evening!
I asked Archbishop Fisichella if you understood Italian and he told me that you all have the translation. I am somewhat calmed.
I thank Archbishop Fisichella for his words and I also thank him for his work: he has worked so much not only to do this but for all that he has done and will do in the Year of Faith. Thank you so much! However, Archbishop Fisichella said a word, and I don’t know if it’s true, but I take it up: he said that all of you wished to give your life forever to Christ! Now you applaud, celebrate, because it is the time of nuptials … However, when the honeymoon is over, what happens? I heard a seminarian, a good seminarian who said he wanted to serve Christ, but for ten years, and then he would think of starting another life … This is dangerous! However provisional, but this is dangerous because one does not gamble one’s life once and for all. I marry as long as love lasts; I will be a nun but for a “short time,” for “some time,” and then I’ll see; I will be a seminarian to become a priest, but I don’t know how the story will end. This is not right with Jesus! I will not reproach you, I reproach this culture of the provisional, which beats us all, because it doesn’t do us good: because a definitive choice today is very difficult. In my time it was easier, because the culture favored a definitive choice be it for matrimonial life, or the consecrated or priestly life. However, in this age a definitive choice isn’t easy. We are victims of this culture of the provisional. I would like you to think about learning to close the door of our interior cell from inside. Once a priest, a good priest, who didn’t feel he was a good priest because he was humble, felt himself a sinner and prayed much to Our Lady and said this to Our Lady – I will say it in Spanish because it’s a lovely poem: “This afternoon, Lady, the promise is sincere. Just in case, don’t forget to leave the key outside”. But this is said thinking always of love for the Virgin; it is said to Our Lady. However, when one always leaves the key outside, because of what might happen … This is not right. We must learn to close the door from inside! And if I’m not sure, I must think, must take time, and when I feel secure in Jesus, I understand, because no one is secure without Jesus! – when I feel secure, I close the door. Have you understood this? What is the culture of the provisional?
When I came in, I saw what I had written. I would like to say a word to you, and that word is joy. Wherever there are consecrated persons, seminarians, women and men religious, young people, there is joy, there is always joy. It’s the joy of freshness; it’s the joy of following Jesus; the joy that the Holy Spirit gives us, not the world’s joy. There is joy. But where is joy born? It is born … However, on Saturday evening I will go home and will dance with my old companions. Is joy born from this, the joy of a seminarian, for instance, yes or no?
Some will say: joy is born from the things one has, and so, the search for the latest model of the smartphone, the fastest scooter, the car that attracts attention … But I tell you, really, I feel badly when I see a priest or a nun with the latest model car: but this can’t be! You are thinking this: but, Father, must we now go on bicycles? The bicycle is good! Monsignor Alfred goes on bicycle, he goes with his bicycle. I think a car is necessary, because so much work must be done here and there, but choose a more modest bicycle! And if you like a lovely one, think of how many children die of hunger, think of this alone! Joy is not born, does not come from the things one has! Others say it comes from the most extreme experiences: to feel the thrill of the strongest sensations; youth likes to live on the knife’s edge, it really likes this! Others think it comes from dressing more fashionably, from entertainment in the most fashionable places – but in saying this I’m not saying that nuns go to such places, I say it of young people in general. Others, yet, from success with girls or boys, go perhaps from one to the other. It’s this insecurity of love, which isn’t secure; it’s a “test” of love.” And we could continue … You also are in contact with this reality which you can’t ignore.
We know that all this can extinguish a desire, can create emotions, but in the end it’s a joy that remains superficial, it doesn’t go deep down, it’s not a profound joy: it’s the inebriation of a moment that does not render us truly happy. Joy is not the inebriation of a moment, it’s something else!
True joy doesn’t come from things, from having, no! It’s born from the encounter, from the relation with others. It’s born from feeling accepted, understood, loved and from this acceptance, this understanding and this love, and not because it’s of interest for the moment, but because the other, the other is a person. Joy is born from the gratuitousness of an encounter! And from hearing it said: “You are important to me,” not necessarily in words. This is beautiful … And it is this, in fact, that God makes us understand. In calling us God says to us: “You are important to me, I love you, I count on you.” Jesus says this to each one of us! Joy is born from here, the joy of the moment in which Jesus looked at me. To understand and to feel this is the secret of our joy. To feel loved by God, to feel that for Him we are not numbers, but persons; and to feel that it is He who calls us. To become priests, Religious is not primarily our choice. I don’t trust tet seminarian, the novice who says: “I have chosen this path.” I don’t like this. It’s not right! But it is the response to a call and to a call of love. I hear something within me, which makes me restless, and I answer yes. The Lord makes us feel this love in prayer, but also through so many signs that we can read in our life, so many persons that He puts on our path. And the joy of the encounter with Him and of His call leads not to closing ourselves but to opening ourselves; it leads to service in the Church. Saint Thomas said “bonus est diffusivum sui” – it’s not too difficult Latin! – Good diffuses itself. And joy also diffuses itself. Don’t be afraid to show the joy of having answered the Lord’s call, of the choice to love and witness His Gospel in the service of the Church. And joy, real joy, is contagious; it infects … it makes us go forward. Instead, when one comes across a seminarian who is too serious, too sad, or a similar novice, one thinks: but something is wrong! The joy of the Lord is lacking, the joy that leads one to service, the joy of the encounter with Jesus, which leads one to the encounter with others to proclaim Jesus. This is lacking! There’s no holiness in sadness, there isn’t! Saint Teresa – there are so many Spaniards who know her well – said: “A sad Saint is a sorry Saint!” It’s not much … When one comes across a seminarian, a priest, a nun, a novice, with a long, sad face, who seems as though a very wet covering has been thrown over his/her life, a heavy covering that pulls them down … something is wrong! But please, let us never have nuns, never have priests with the face of a “pepper in vinegar,” never! But with the joy that comes from Jesus. Think of this: when joy is lacking in a priest – I say a priest, but a seminarian also -- when joy is lacking in a nun, when she is sad, you can think: “But it’s a psychiatric problem.” No, it’s true that it could be, it could be, certainly. It happens that some little ones get sick. It can happen, but in general it isn’t a psychiatric problem. Is it a problem of dissatisfaction? Well, yes. But what’s at the bottom of that lack of joy? It’s a problem of celibacy. I shall explain. You, seminarians, nuns, consecrated your love to Jesus, a great love. Your heart is for Jesus, and this leads us to make the vow of chastity, the vow of celibacy. However, the vow of chastity and the vow of celibacy do not end at the moment of the vow; they go on. It’s a journey that matures, which matures towards pastoral paternity, towards pastoral maternity, and when a priest is not the father of his community, when a nun is not the mother of all those with whom she works, they become sad. This is the problem. Given this, I say to you: the root of sadness in pastoral life lies, in fact, in the lack of paternity and maternity that comes from living this consecration badly, which instead should lead us to fruitfulness. We can’t think of priests or nuns who aren’t fruitful: this isn’t Catholic! This isn’t Catholic! This is the beauty of consecration: it is joy, joy …
Celibacy also implies fatherhood
“When a man does not have this desire, something is missing in this man. Something is wrong. All of us, to exist, to become complete, in order to be mature, we need to feel the joy of fatherhood: even those of us who are celibate. Fatherhood is giving life to others, giving life, giving life… For us, it is pastoral paternity, spiritual fatherhood, but this is still giving life, this is still becoming fathers.”
“A father who knows what it means to protect his children. And this is a grace that we priests must ask for ourselves: to be a father, to be a father. The grace of fatherhood, of pastoral paternity, of spiritual paternity. We may have many sins, but this is the 'commune sanctorum': we all have sins. But not having children, never becoming a father, is like having an incomplete life: a life that stops half way through. And therefore we have to be fathers. And that's a grace that the Lord gives us. People say to us: 'Father, Father, Father ...'. They want us to be just that, fathers, with the grace of pastoral fatherhood.”
“We thank God for this grace of fatherhood in the Church, which is passed from father to son, and so on ... And I think, finally, these two icons and one more: the icon of Abram who asks for a child, the icon of Abraham with a stick in his hand, defending his family, and the icon of the elderly Simeon in the Temple, when he receives the new life : this is a spontaneous liturgy, the liturgy of joy , in Him. And to you, the Lord today gifts great joy.”
--Pope Francis, Homily, 26 June 2013
(Vatican Radio)
Fertile chastity: mothers and not old maids
I am happy to meet you today and I wish to greet each one of you, thanking you for what you do to make consecrated life a constant light in the life of the Church
Dear sisters,
First of all I thank my dear brother Cardinal Joao Braz de Aviz, for the words which he has just addressed to me. I am also pleased to see here the secretary of the Congregation: his name is ‘Pepe’…
The theme of your conference seems to me to be particularly important for the task which has been entrusted to you: “The service of leadership according to the Gospel.” In light of this, I would like to propose three simple thoughts which I leave for you to deepen on a personal and community level.
Jesus, at the Last Supper, turns to his Apostles with these words: You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you (John 15.16) which reminds us all, not just us priests, that a vocation is always God’s initiative. It is Christ who has called you to follow Him in the consecrated life and this means making a continual ‘exodus’ from yourselves to centre your existences on Christ and his Gospel, on God’s will, letting go of your projects so that you can say with St Paul “It is no longer I who lives, but Christ who lives in me.” This ‘exodus from oneself means placing oneself on a journey of adoration and service. An exodus which takes us on a journey of adoration of the Lord and service to the Lord in our brothers and sisters. To adore and to serve: two attitudes which can not be separated but which must always go together. Adore the Lord and serve others, without keeping anything for ourselves: this is the ‘letting go’ of those who exercise authority. Always live and recall the centrality of Christ, the evangelical identity of the consecrated life. Help your communities to live ‘the exodus’ of self on the journey of adoration and service, first of all through the three pivots of your existence.
Obedience as listening to God's will, in the interior motion of the Holy Spirit authenticated by the Church, accepting that obedience also passes through human mediations. … Poverty, which teaches solidarity, sharing, and charity and which is also expressed in a soberness and joy of the essential, to put us on guard against the material idols that obscure the true meaning of life. Poverty, which is learned with the humble, the poor, the sick, and all those who are at the existential margins of life. Theoretical poverty doesn't do anything. Poverty is learned by touching the flesh of the poor Christ in the humble, the poor, the sick, and in children.
And then chastity, as a precious charism, that enlarges the freedom of your gift to God and others with Christ's tenderness, mercy, and closeness. Chastity for the Kingdom of Heaven shows how affection has its place in mature freedom and becomes a sign of the future world, to make God's primacy shine forever. But, please, [make it] a 'fertile' chastity, which generates spiritual children in the Church. The consecrated are mothers: they must be mothers and not 'spinsters'! Forgive me if I talk like this but this maternity of consecrated life, this fruitfulness is important! May this joy of spiritual fruitfulness animate your existence. Be mothers, like the images of the Mother Mary and the Mother Church. You cannot understand Mary without her motherhood; you cannot understand the Church without her motherhood, and you are icons of Mary and of the Church.”
We must never forget that true power, at whatever level, is service, which has its bright summit upon the Cross. … 'You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them ... But it shall not be so among you.'—This is precisely the motto of your assembly, isn't it? It shall not be so among you.—'Rather, whoever wishes to be great among you shall be your servant; whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave'.”
“Your vocation is a fundamental charism for the Church's journey and it isn't possible that a consecrated woman or man might 'feel' themselves not to be with the Church. A 'feeling' with the Church that has generated us in Baptism; a 'feeling' with the Church that finds its filial expression in fidelity to the Magisterium, in communion with the Bishops and the Successor of Peter, the Bishop of Rome, a visible sign of that unity,” the pontiff added, citing Paul VI: “It is an absurd dichotomy to think of living with Jesus but without the Church, of following Jesus outside of the Church, of loving Jesus without loving the Church. Feel the responsibility that you have of caring for the formation of your Institutes in sound Church doctrine, in love of the Church, and in an ecclesial spirit.”
“The centrality of Christ and his Gospel, authority as a service of love, and 'feeling' in and with the Mother Church: [these are] three suggestions that I wish to leave you, to which I again add my gratitude for your work, which is not always easy. What would the Church be without you? She would be missing maternity, affection, tenderness! A Mother's intuition.”
--Pope Francis
Text from page http://en.radiovaticana.va/news/2013/05/08/pope_meets_with_heads_of_womens_religious_communities/en1-690219 of the Vatican Radio website