Pope at Regina Coeli: Jesus' love is invincible!

(Vatican Radio) At the Regina Coeli on Sunday, Pope Francis spoke about the day’s Gospel, where Jesus describes Himself as the Good Shepherd.

Listen to Christopher Wells' report:

 

In his reflection, Pope Francis said the words of Jesus – My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me – “help us to understand that no one can call himself a follower of Jesus if he does not listen to his voice.

Listening to Jesus, the Pope continued, does not mean hearing in a superficial way, but engaging with the Lord’s words in order to come to a “generous following,” expressed in the words “and they follow Me.” This listening, he continued, means listening with our hearts, not just with our ears.

The image of the shepherd and the sheep, the Pope said, “indicates the close relationship that Jesus wants to establish with each one of us. He is our guide, our teacher, our friend, our model, but above all He is our Saviour.” When Jesus goes on to say, “I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish, and no one can take them out of My hand,” the Pope said these words “communicate to us a sense of absolute security and of immense tenderness. Our life is fully secure in the hands of Jesus and the Father, which are one single thing: one unique love, a unique mercy, revealed once for all in the sacrifice of the Cross.”

It is at the Eucharistic table, Pope Francis said, that this mystery is renewed: “It is there that the sheep are gathered to nourish themselves; it is there that they become one thing, between themselves and with the Good Shepherd.”

The Holy Father reminded us that nothing and no one can take us out of the hands of Jesus, “because no one can overcome His love – the love of Jesus is invincible!” Although the devil – the evil one, as the Pope called him – attempts to take eternal life from us, he can do nothing if we do not “open to him the doors of our hearts, following his deceitful enticements.”

As usual, the Pope concluded his reflection by turning to Mary, the Mother of God, “who listened to and docilely followed the voice of the Good Shepherd.” He prayed, “May she help us to welcome with joy the invitation of Jesus to become His disciples, and to live always in the certainty of being in the paternal hands of the Father.”

You can find the full text of the Pope's address here.