THE POPE DOES IT AGAIN!

Well, he’s done it again!

There is no question that I sometimes become frustrated with Pope Francis, especially when it comes to his constant rebuke of American immigration policy and his overzealous concern with climate change.

Then, just when he gets me hot under my own Priestly collar, this wonderful Pope offers words of wisdom and solace which enlighten my spirit and make me grateful that the Holy Spirit chose him to be the Successor of Peter.

At his General Audience of June 27 (the text of which I just finished reading), Pope Francis stated that obedience to God’s Will should flow from a personal relationship with the Father and from a deeply-rooted sense of gratitude for all the blessings the Lord has poured forth upon us.

On this point, Pope Francis hits upon one of my favorite themes:  being grateful for God's generous and unconditional Love and being submissive to His Divine Will.

“Gratitude is a characteristic trait of the heart visited by the Holy Spirit; to obey God we must first remember His benefits.  Whoever does not let those benefits fall into oblivion, is oriented towards good virtue and to every work of justice,” Poe Francis said, quoting St. Basil.

Speaking at the final General Audience before his two-month summer break, the Holy Father asked Catholics to perform a small exercise, asking themselves, in the silence of their hearts, “How much has God done for me? How many beautiful things has God done for me?”

Christians must exercise their memories to remember “how generous is our Heavenly Father!” he continued, “rather than focusing in on obligations and rules."

Referencing the Book of Exodus, when the Israelites were brought first through the Red Sea before reaching Mount Sinai, where Moses received the Ten Commandments, the Pope said “Christian formation is not based on willpower, but on the acceptance of salvation, on letting oneself be loved: first the Red Sea, then Mount Sinai.”

“Putting the law before the relationship does not help the journey of faith,” Francis said, asking how Catholics can teach young people to desire to be a Christian and live a Christian life if the first reference is always to “obligations, commitments, consistency, and not… liberation?”

“Christian formation is not based on willpower, but on the acceptance of salvation, on letting oneself be loved,” he said.

The Pope pointed to the words of God when he gave Moses the first commandment - “I am the Lord your God.” These words denote the importance of relationship with God, he said, who is not a stranger, but “your God.”

This can enlighten a Catholic’s whole reading of the Ten Commandments, he explained, because it is in the same vein as Jesus’ words in the Book of John: “As the Father has loved me, I have loved you.”

Thank you, Pope Francis, for reminding me and all of us that God is so good to us, provides for all of our needs so generously and unconditionally and remains faithful to us in love in spite of our spiritual fickleness and frailty.

I needed those words, in fact I need them everyday.

God bless you, Pope Francis, for even when you are a source of consternation to me, you never fail to remind me that God is so generous and the wisest spiritually is based upon a humble and submissive acceptance of that all-redeeming Love.