At 12 noon today, the Holy Father Francis appeared at the window of the study in the Vatican Apostolic Palace to recite the Angelus with the faithful and pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square.
These are the words of the Pope in introducing the Marian prayer:
Dear brothers and sisters, good morning!
This Sunday’s Gospel ( cf.Mt15.21-28) describes the encounter between Jesus and a Canaanite woman. Jesus is in the north of Galilee, in foreign territory to be with his disciples a little away from the crowds, who are looking for him more and more. And here comes a woman who begs for help for her sick daughter: “Have mercy on me, Lord!” (v. 22). It is the cry that comes from a life marked by suffering, by the sense of helplessness of a mother who sees her daughter tormented by evil and cannot heal her. Jesus initially ignores her, but this mother insists, insists, even when the Master tells the disciples that his mission is addressed only to the “lost sheep of the house of Israel” (v. 24) and not to the pagans. She keeps begging him, and he, at this point, tests her by quoting a proverb – this seems almost a bit cruel -: “It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs” (v. 26). And the woman immediately, quick, anguished replies: “It is true, Lord, yet the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table” (v. 27).
With these words this mother demonstrates that she has intuited that the goodness of the Most High God, present in Jesus, is open to every need of his creatures. This wisdom full of trust strikes the heart of Jesus and snatches words of admiration from him: «Woman, great is your faith! Be it for you as you wish “(v. 28). What is the great faith? The great faith is that which brings its own history, also marked by wounds, to the feet of the Lord asking him to heal it, to give it meaning. Each of us has our own story and it is not always a clean story; many times it is a difficult story, with so many pains, so many troubles and so many sins. What do I do with my story? Do I hide it? No! We must bring it before the Lord: “Lord, if You want, you can heal me!”. This is what this woman, this good mother teaches us: the courage to bring one’s own story of pain before God, before Jesus; touch the tenderness of God, the tenderness of Jesus. Let us make the proof of this history, of this prayer: each one thinks of his own story. There are always bad things in a story, always. Let’s go to Jesus, let’s knock on Jesus’ heart and tell him: “Lord, if you are, you can heal me!”. And we will be able to do this if we always have the face of Jesus before us, if we understand what the heart of Christ is like: a heart that has compassion, that carries our pains upon itself, that carries our sins upon itself, our mistakes, our failures. There are always bad things in a story, always. Let’s go to Jesus, let’s knock on Jesus’ heart and tell him: “Lord, if you are, you can heal me!”. And we will be able to do this if we always have the face of Jesus before us, if we understand what the heart of Christ is like: a heart that has compassion, that carries our pains upon itself, that carries our sins upon itself, our mistakes, our failures. There are always bad things in a story, always. Let’s go to Jesus, let’s knock on Jesus’ heart and tell him: “Lord, if you are, you can heal me!”. And we will be able to do this if we always have the face of Jesus before us, if we understand what the heart of Christ is like: a heart that has compassion, that carries our pains upon itself, that carries our sins upon itself, our mistakes, our failures.
But it is a heart that loves us as we are, without makeup. “Lord, if You want, you can heal me!”. And for this it is necessary to understand Jesus, to be familiar with Jesus. And I always return to the advice I give you: always carry a small pocket Gospel and read a passage every day. Bring the Gospel: in your purse, in your pocket and even in your mobile phone, to see Jesus. And there you will find Jesus as He is, as He presents Himself; you will find Jesus who loves us, who loves us so much, who loves us so much. Let’s remember the prayer: “Lord, if You want, you can heal me!”. Beautiful prayer. May the Lord help us, all of us, to pray this beautiful prayer that a pagan woman teaches us: not Christian, not Jewish, but pagan.
May the Virgin Mary intercede with her prayer, so that the joy of faith and the desire to communicate it with the witness of a coherent life may increase in every baptized person, which gives us the courage to draw close to Jesus and tell him: “Lord, if you want, you can heal me! ”.
[00950-EN.02] [Original text: Italian]
Taken from the Vatican News – Daily Bulletin
