Pope Francis: Christians who fear the joy of the Resurrection
April 24, 2014: There are Christians who are afraid of the joy of the Resurrection,
"we could say in good humour that they are bat-like Christians who prefer the shadows
to the light of the Lord's presence". This was Pope Francis message during Mass c
this morning at Casa Santa Marta, commenting on today's Gospel passage that recounts
the appearance of the risen Jesus to the apostles. But the disciples instead of rejoicing
are "shocked and frightened" thinking "that they have seen a ghost".
The Pope
said, “Jesus tries to make them understand that what they see is reality, he invites
them to touch his body, he asks for food. He wants to lead them to the "joy of the
Resurrection, the joy of his presence among them". But the disciples - the Pope observes
- they did not believe, they could not believe, because they were afraid of joy".
“This is a Christian’s disease. We’re afraid of joy. It’s better to think: Yes, yes,
God exists, but He is there. Jesus has risen and He is there. Somewhat distant. We’re
afraid of being close to Jesus because this gives us joy. And this is why there are
so many ‘funeral’ (mournful) Christians, isn’t it? Those whose lives seem to be a
perpetual funeral. They prefer sadness to joy. They move about better in the shadows,
not in the light of joy, like those animals who only come out at night, not in the
light of day, who can’t see anything. Like bats. And with a little sense of humour
we can say that there are Christian bats who prefer the shadows to the light of the
presence of the Lord.”
But, the Pope continued, Jesus through his resurrection
gives us joy: the joy of being Christians; the joy of following him closely; the joy
of travelling on the path of the Beatitudes, the joy of being with Him".
“So
often, we are either upset by this joy or fearful or we think we have seen a ghost
or believe that Jesus is just a way of behaving. ‘We are Christians and so we must
behave like this.’ But where is Jesus? ‘No, Jesus is in Heaven.’ Do you talk with
Jesus? Do you say to Jesus: ‘I believe that You are alive, that You are risen, that
You’re near me. That You will never abandon me’? A Christian life should be this:
a dialogue with Jesus, because – this is true – Jesus is always with us, always there
alongside us with our problems and our difficulties, with our good works.”
Pope
Francis concluded by noting how many times we Christians are not joyful because we
are afraid! We’re Christians who have been defeated by the cross. In my country there
is a saying that goes like this: ‘When you get burnt by boiling milk, later when you
see a cow you start crying.’ These people were burnt by the drama of the Cross and
said, ‘No, let’s stop here. He’s in Heaven: that’s all well and good. He is Risen
but it’s better that he doesn’t come again because we couldn’t handle it.’ We ask
the Lord to do for all of us what he did for the disciples who were afraid of joy:
to open our minds: ‘He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures;’ Let him open
our minds and help us understand that He is a living reality, that He has a body,
that He is with us, that he accompanies us and that He has won. We ask the Lord for
the grace to not be afraid of joy.”