Pope: Better faith, imperfect but humble, always returns to Jesus

Today’s gospel shows us the “crisis” of Thomas to tell us that we should not fear the crises of life and faith. Pope Francis repeats it before the prayer of Regina Coeli, on the last day of the octave of Easter, after the Divine Mercy Mass, commenting, like every Sunday, on the Gospel of the day. Focuses on Thomas and Jesus:

First of all, the Apostle Thomas represents us all, who were not present in the attic when the Lord appeared and had no other signs or other physical manifestations of Him. And for us, like this disciple, we sometimes find a difficulty: How do we believe that Jesus has risen, that he accompanies us and that he is the Lord of our lives without us seeing or touching Him? How do you believe this? Why not give us some more obvious signs of his presence and love? Some suggest that I can see better … Here we too, like Thomas, have the same doubts and the same reasoning.

The Holy Father makes it clear that by telling us the story of Thomas, the Gospel tells us that the Lord does not look for perfect Christians, who never doubt and always boast a sure faith. he said no”. “The adventure of faith, like Thomas, is made of lights and shadows. If not, what kind of faith? He knows moments of solace, drive, and excitement, but he also knows moments of exhaustion, loss, doubt, and darkness.”

The Lord is not looking for perfect Christians. I say to them: I am afraid when I see some Christians, and some of the union of Christians who think they are perfect. The Lord is not looking for perfect Christians. The Lord is not looking for Christians who never doubt and who always boast a certain faith. When a Christian is this way, something is wrong.

The best faith is incomplete but humble

It happens, according to the pontiff, that crises of life and faith often make us humble “because they strip us of the idea of ​​being right, of being better than others.” Crises, he says, “are not a sin, they are a path, and we should not be afraid of them.” It helps us realize our need, God’s need, to turn back to the Lord to experience His love: For this reason, “imperfect but humble faith, which always returns to Jesus, is better than strong but arrogant faith, which makes us proud and arrogant.” This is because “He who does not give up, does not tire of us, does not fear our crises and weaknesses,” says Francis, Lord. “It always returns: when the doors are shut it returns; when we hesitate it returns. When, like Thomas, we need to find and touch it closely, it returns.”

He always returns, always knocks at the door, not with strong signs that make us feel insignificant and incompetent, and even shameful, but with his wounds, he comes back and shows us his wounds which are the signs of his love that married our weakness. .

Jesus is Lord of “Other Opportunities”

That is why today the Bishop of Rome also, on the Day of Mercy, does not tire of repeating that Jesus, Risen from the dead, “is only waiting for us to seek Him, to summon Him, and even to invoke, like Thomas, to attend to our needs and our infidels.”

He returns because he is patient and merciful. He comes to open up our fears and disbelief, because he always wants to give us another chance. Jesus is the Lord of “other opportunities”: always giving us another, always.

Let us think, let us also pray to the Holy Father, the last time that, during a difficult moment or a period of crisis, we closed ourselves off, entrenching ourselves in our problems and leaving Jesus out of the house. But let us also “prepare ourselves,” the next time, in our fatigue, to ask Jesus, to turn to Him, to His forgiveness, for those wounds that have healed us. In this way we are also able to empathize, “to approach the wounds of others without rigidity or prejudice.”

Saint Peter’s Square on the Second Sunday of Easter