Pope Francis: "We're not Christians by chance"




June 25, 2013. (Romereports.com) During his daily morning Mass at the Vatican, Pope Francis explained that God never leaves His people alone and that no-one is ever a Christian by chance. As an example, the Pope talked a reading from the Book of Genesis, where Abram discusses division on earth.

POPE FRANCIS
“God accompanies us, God calls us by name, God promises us we will have a line of heirs. This is a type of 'given' that comes with being a Christian. It is not a coincidence, it's a calling - a calling that keeps us going. Being a Christian is a calling of love, friendship, a calling to become a child of God, brother of Jesus, to become fruitful in the transmission of this calling to others, to become instruments of this call. There are so many problems, so many problems, there are difficult times, Jesus had many of His own! But always with that confidence: ‘The Lord has called me. The Lord is with me. The Lord has made me a promise'”

The Pope also added that if people know God accompanies them, it makes it easier for them to face difficulties with optimism.

PARTIAL HOMILY
(Source: Vatican Radio)
“Abraham departed his land carrying a promise: his entire journey is a going toward this promise. The way he walked his path is a model for how we ought to walk our own. God called Abraham, a single person, and that one person makes an entire people. If we go to the Book of Genesis, to the beginning, to the creation, we find that God creates the stars, creates the plants, creates the animals, creates the these and the that’s and the others ... But He creates Man in the singular, one. God always speaks in the singular to us, because He has created in his image and likeness. And God speaks in the singular. He spoke to Abraham and gave him a promise and invited him to come out of his land. We Christians have been called one-by-one: none of us is Christian by pure chance. No one.”

“God accompanies us, God calls us by name, God promises us we will have a line of heirs. This is something of  'the surety' of being a Christian. It is not a coincidence, it is a calling - a calling that keeps us going. Being a Christian is a calling of love, friendship, a calling to become a child of God, brother of Jesus, to become fruitful in the transmission of this calling to others, to become instruments of this call. There are so many problems, so many problems, there are difficult times, Jesus had many of His own! But always with that confidence: ‘The Lord has called me. The Lord is like me. The Lord has made me a promise”

“Someone will say, ‘Father, I am a sinner’, but we all are, as everyone knows. The problem is: sinners, go forward with the Lord, go forward with that promise that He has made us, with the promise of fruitfulness, and tell others, recount to others others that the Lord is with us, that the Lord has chosen us and that He does not leave us alone, not ever! That certainty of the Christian will do us good. May the Lord give us, all of us, this desire to move forward, which Abram had, in the midst of all his problems: to go forward with the confidence that He who called me, who promised me so many beautiful things, is with me.”

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