God is not indifferent – he's close and personal, Pope Francis says

Vatican City, May 27, 2018 / 04:04 am

Pope Francis marked the feast of the Holy Trinity stressing the personal love and interest God has in each one of his children, saying the Lord is not ever far away, but is an attentive and loving Father to all.

"God does not want so much to reveal to us that he exists, but rather that he is the 'God with us,' that he loves us, is interested in our personal story and cares for each person, from the smallest to the greatest," the pope said May 27.

Even though God is in heaven, he is also on earth, Francis said, adding that because of this, "we don't believe in a distant, indifferent entity."

"On the contrary, in the love that created the universe and generated a people, became flesh, died and rose for us, and as the Holy Spirit transforms everything and brings it to fullness."

Pope Francis spoke to the nearly 25,000 pilgrims present in St. Peter's Square for his Sunday Angelus address. In his speech, he focused on the day's feast of the Holy Trinity, and the readings from the Book of Romans, as well as the Gospel reading from Matthew.

The feast of the Trinity, Francis said, is not only an invitation to contemplate and praise Jesus Christ, but it is also an opportunity to celebrate "with ever-new wonder the God of love, who freely offers his life to us and asks us to spread it in the world."

He then turned to the second reading from the Letter of St. Paul to the Romans, in which the apostle speaks of how Christians are sons of God, and are able call him "abba," meaning "father."

St. Paul, the pope said, experienced first-hand the deep transformation of the God of love, who allows us to not only call him "Father," but more personally, "dad," and who gives us the ability to call on him "with the total confidence of a child who abandons themselves in the arms of the one who gave them live."

Through his action in each person, the Holy Spirit "makes it so that Jesus Christ is not reduced to a person of the past, but that we feel close to him, our contemporary, and that we experience the joy of being beloved children of God," Francis said.

He noted that Christians are not alone, he said, because the Holy Spirit was sent to guide and accompany them.

And thanks to both the presence of the Spirit and the strength he offers, "we can realize with serenity the mission that he entrusted to us: to announce and bear witness to his Gospel to everyone and so dilate communion with him and the joy that comes from it."

Pope Francis closed his address saying the feast of the Holy Trinity "makes us contemplate the mystery of a God who incessantly creates, redeems and sanctifies, always with love and for love, and to every creature that welcomes him, he gives the gift of reflecting a ray of his beauty, goodness and truth."

He prayed that Mary would help each person to "fulfill with joy the mission of bearing witness to the world, thirsty for love, that the meaning of life is precisely infinite love, the concrete love of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit."

After leading pilgrims in praying the traditional Marian prayer, Francis voiced gratitude for the recent beatification of Sister Leonella Sborbati, a nun with the Consolata Missionaries who was killed in Somalia in 2006.

He asked pilgrims to join him in praying for Africa, "so that there is peace there," and led faithful in praying a Hail Mary for the continent.