Pope Francis on Wednesday highlighted the transformative power of God’s merciful love for those who encounter him at the crossroads of life.
Since being discharged from Rome’s Gemelli Hospital on Sunday, the Holy Father’s weekly general audiences are suspended for the duration of his at-least-two-month convalescence in his Casa Santa Marta home in the Vatican.
In his written March 26 catechesis, titled “Jesus Christ Our Hope” and released by the Vatican, the pope said: “Jesus waits for us and lets himself be found precisely when we think that there is no hope left for us.”
Reflecting on the Gospel of St. John, the Holy Father noted that Jesus had the desire to start a conversation with the Samaritan woman “who has had five husbands and is now with a sixth who is not a husband” who came to draw water at Jacob’s well in the town of Sychar.
“To go to Galilee from Judea, Jesus would have had to choose another road and not pass through Samaria,” the pope said. “It would also have been safer, given the tense relations between the Jews and the Samaritans.”
“Instead, he wants to pass through there, and stops at that very well, right at that time!” he added.
According to the pope, the woman’s “complicated and painful” history and questions on what “divided Jews and Samaritans” did not prevent God from wanting to love her and offer her the fullness of salvation.
“He gives the highest revelation: He speaks to her of the Father, who is to be adored in spirit and truth,” he said. “He tells her: ‘I am he, the one who is speaking with you’ (cf. Jn 4:26).”
“It is like a declaration of love: The one you are waiting for is me, the one who can finally respond to your desire to be loved,” the pope continued.
After the experience of feeling understood, welcomed, and forgiven by God, the woman runs to her village to tell others about her encounter with Jesus.
“It is an image that should make us reflect on our search for new ways to evangelize,” the Holy Father said.
“To go and proclaim the Gospel, we first need to set down the burden of our history at the feet of the Lord, to consign to him the weight of our past,” he said. “Only reconciled people can bring the Gospel.”
Encouraging people to not let their past prevent them from “setting out anew” in the journey of faith, the pope concluded his catechesis saying: “God is merciful and awaits us always!”
This article was originally published on Catholic News Agency.
