Pope says meekness, humility help build bridges

January 24, 2014 - It's no problem if "plates fly a few times" in families, communities or neighborhoods. The important thing is to "seek peace as soon as possible", with a word or a gesture, to build a bridge rather than a wall that divided Berlin for many years. This was the exhortation of Pope Francis at Mass Friday morning, in the chapel of the Casa Santa Marta residence in the Vatican. He was commenting on the first reading of the Mass about David sparing the life of King Saul who was trying to kill him.

The Pope said David chose "another path: the road of approach, to clarify the situation, to explain himself. The path of dialogue to make peace". "Dialogue needs meekness, not shouting. We must also think that the other person has something more than me, as did David.” “Humility, meekness, becoming all things to all people - though not written in the Bible - means swallowing humiliation many times. But, we have to do it, because this is how peace is made - with humility, humiliation - always trying to see the image of God in the other". “Humility may be difficult”, Pope Francis acknowledged, but allowing resentment to swell in our hearts is much worse than attempting to build a bridge of dialogue. When we allow resentment to grow, we end up isolated in the “bitter broth” of our own rancour. Instead, to be a Christian means always to build bridges. Hence the Pope offered David as a model of a Christian who overcomes hatred with "an act of humility". This however, is not easy, the Pope said, admitting that even in our hearts it is possible to become the Berlin wall that separates us. But Jesus showed us the way to break the wall by humbling Himself to the end.

The Pope pointed out that we must not prolong when there is problem. Once the storm has passed, at an appropriate time as soon as possible, we must approach the other in dialogue, because over time the wall grows, like the weeds that choke the grain. And when walls grow reconciliation becomes very difficult," the Pope added.