Feb. 7, 2014 Friday:4th Week in Ordinary Time A
Pope Francis invited everyone “to ask for the grace of dying at home: dying at home, within the Church”. He remarked that “this is a grace” that you “cannot buy” because “it is a gift from God”. We “ought to ask: Lord, grant me the gift of dying at home, within the Church”. Even if we are “all sinners”, we must never be “traitors” nor “corrupt”.The Church, the Pope explained, “is a mother and wants it to be so”, even if “at many times dirty”. For it is she who “cleanses us: she is our mother, and she knows how to do so”. But it is up to us to “ask for this grace of dying at home”.
Pope Francis then proposed his second thought about David’s death. “In this story”, he noted “you can see that David is quiet, peaceful, and serene”. To the point where he “calls upon his son and says: I want to go the way of every man on earth”. In other words, David acknowledges: “now it is my turn!”. We then read in Scripture that “David slept with his fathers”. The king, the Pope explained, “accepted his death with hope, in peace”. And “this is another grace: the grace to die with hope”, with the “awareness that this is only a step” and that “we are awaited on the other side”. Indeed, even after death there will be “home, there will be family, I will not be alone!”. It is a grace to be sought especially “in the last moments of life, because we know that life is a struggle and that the evil spirit takes the spoils”.
The Holy Father also recalled the testimony of St Therese of the Child Jesus, who “said that, at the end of her life, there was a struggle in her soul, and when she thought about the future, about what awaited her after death, in heaven, she felt as if a voice was saying: but no, don’t be silly, darkness awaits you, only the darkness of nothing is awaiting you”. That, the Pope said, “was the devil who did not want her to trust in God”.
Therefore it is importance to “ask for the grace to die with hope, trusting in God”. But “trusting in God”, the Pope said, “must begin now, in life’s little things, and also in the big problems: we must always rely on the Lord. In this way, trusting the Lord becomes a habit and hope springs forth”. Therefore “to die at home and to die with hope” are “two things that we can learn from David’s death”.The third reflection Pope Francis shared was that of “the problem of legacy”. In this regard, “the Bible”, he explained, “tells us that when David died, all of the grandchildren and great-grandchildren came to ask for their inheritance!”. There are often “many scandals concerning inheritance, scandals that divide families”. But the inheritance that David leaves behind is not wealth. We read in the Scriptures: “And his kingdom grew strengthened”. David had “left a legacy of 40 years of government to his people and the people were strengthened”.
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Pope Francis then proposed his second thought about David’s death. “In this story”, he noted “you can see that David is quiet, peaceful, and serene”. To the point where he “calls upon his son and says: I want to go the way of every man on earth”. In other words, David acknowledges: “now it is my turn!”. We then read in Scripture that “David slept with his fathers”. The king, the Pope explained, “accepted his death with hope, in peace”. And “this is another grace: the grace to die with hope”, with the “awareness that this is only a step” and that “we are awaited on the other side”. Indeed, even after death there will be “home, there will be family, I will not be alone!”. It is a grace to be sought especially “in the last moments of life, because we know that life is a struggle and that the evil spirit takes the spoils”.
The Holy Father also recalled the testimony of St Therese of the Child Jesus, who “said that, at the end of her life, there was a struggle in her soul, and when she thought about the future, about what awaited her after death, in heaven, she felt as if a voice was saying: but no, don’t be silly, darkness awaits you, only the darkness of nothing is awaiting you”. That, the Pope said, “was the devil who did not want her to trust in God”.
Therefore it is importance to “ask for the grace to die with hope, trusting in God”. But “trusting in God”, the Pope said, “must begin now, in life’s little things, and also in the big problems: we must always rely on the Lord. In this way, trusting the Lord becomes a habit and hope springs forth”. Therefore “to die at home and to die with hope” are “two things that we can learn from David’s death”.The third reflection Pope Francis shared was that of “the problem of legacy”. In this regard, “the Bible”, he explained, “tells us that when David died, all of the grandchildren and great-grandchildren came to ask for their inheritance!”. There are often “many scandals concerning inheritance, scandals that divide families”. But the inheritance that David leaves behind is not wealth. We read in the Scriptures: “And his kingdom grew strengthened”. David had “left a legacy of 40 years of government to his people and the people were strengthened”.
www.news.va
