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”And God Gave You Filipinos Infectious Joy!” – Pope Francis

Filipinos, if you read the full text of the homily of Pope Francis during the Mass at 10 AM, Sunday, 14 March 2021, at the Vatican for the 500th year of Christianity in the Philippines, exuberantly you will rejoice and be glad in it! 
(both images[1] from Rappler)

New to me, Pope Francis said:

If hearing the Gospel and practicing our faith don’t enlarge our hearts and make us grasp the immensity of God’s love – maybe because we prefer a glum, sorrowful, and self-absorbed religiosity – then this is a sign that we need to stop and listen once more to the preaching of the Good News.

Note what Pope Francis says: “Hearing the Gospel and practicing our faith.” Hearing Mass is not enough; Reading the Bible is not enough – Practicing our faith completes it!

God “gave” his Son. Precisely because he loves us so much, God gives himself; he offers us his life. Those who love always go out of themselves. Don’t forget this: those who love go out of themselves. Love always offers itself, gives itself, expends itself.

If you love with reservation, that is not love!

The more we love, the more we become capable of giving. That is also the key to understanding our life. It is wonderful to meet people who love one another and share their lives in love… It is not only what we can make or earn that matters; in the end, it is the love we are able to give.

“The more we love, the more we become capable of giving.” Practice makes perfect!

Dear brothers and sisters, five hundred years have passed since the Christian message first arrived in the Philippines. You received the joy of the Gospel: the good news that God so loved us that he gave his Son for us. And this joy is evident in your people. We see it in your eyes, on your faces, in your songs and in your prayers. In the joy with which you bring your faith to other lands… It is part of your genes, a blessed “infectiousness” that I urge you to preserve. (Keep) bringing the faith, the good news you received 500 years ago, to others. I want to thank you, then, for the joy you bring to the whole world and to our Christian communities. I think, as I mentioned, of the many beautiful experiences in families here in Rome – but also throughout the world – where your discreet and hardworking presence (has become) a testimony of faith.

500 years have passed since Christianity was brought to us Filipinos. What did we receive? “The Joy of the Gospel.” And we infect people all over the world with that joy!

On this very important anniversary for God’s holy people in the Philippines, I also want to urge you to persevere in the work of evangelization – not proselytism, which is something else. The Christian proclamation that you have received needs constantly to be brought to others.

Filipinos, evangelizing, let us persevere in the hard work, not harsh words!@517


[1]https://www.rappler.com/nation/full-text-pope-francis-homily-500th-year-christianity-philippines

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