Pope Francis: To get to know Jesus we must pray to him, celebrate him and imitate
him
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis says studying Jesus is not enough to get to know him,
we must also pray to him, celebrate him and imitate him. This was the Pope’s core
message at Mass on Friday in the Santa Marta residence.
Listen to this report
by Susy Hodges:
In his homily
the Pope reflected on the best way for us to get to know Jesus, describing it as the
most important work in our lives. At the same time he warned that studying or having
ideas was not enough on its own to acquire that knowledge of Jesus.
“Ideas
by themselves do not lead anywhere and those who pursue the path of their own ideas
end up in a labyrinth from where they can’t get out again! It’s for this reason that
heresies have existed from the very beginning of the Church. Heresies are this:
trying to understand with our minds and with only our personal light who Jesus is.
A great English writer wrote that a heresy is an idea that’s gone crazy. That’s right!
When they are ideas by themselves they become crazy… This is not the right path!”
Pope
Francis went on to explain that we need to open three doors in order to know Jesus.
“The
first door is praying to Jesus. You must realize that studying without prayers is
no use. We must pray to Jesus to get to know him better. The great theologians did
their theology while kneeling. Pray to Jesus! By studying and praying we get a bit
closer… But we’ll never know Jesus without praying. Never! Never! The second door
is celebrating Jesus. Prayer on its own is not enough, we need the joy of celebration.
We must celebrate Jesus through his Sacraments, because these give us life, they give
us strength, they nourish us, they comfort us, they forge an alliance with us, they
give us a mission. Without celebrating the Sacraments, we’ll never get to know Jesus.
This is what the Church is all about: celebration. The third door is imitating Jesus.
Take the Gospel, what did he do, how was his life, what did he tell us, what did he
teach us and try to imitate him.”
“Entering via these three doors, the
Pope went on, means entering into the mystery of Jesus and it’s only in this way that
we can get to know him and we mustn’t be afraid to do this.
“During the
day, today, we can think about how the door leading to prayer is proceeding in our
life: but prayer from the heart is not like that of a parrot! How is prayer of the
heart? How is the Christian celebration in my life proceeding? And how is the imitation
of Jesus in my life proceeding? How must I imitate him? Do you really not remember!
The reason is because the Book of the Gospel is full of dust as it’s never opened!
Take the Book of the Gospel, open it and you will discover how to imitate Jesus!
Let’s think about how these three doors are positioned in our life and this will be
of benefit to everybody.”