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POPE FRANCIS

MORNING MEDITATION IN THE CHAPEL OF THE
DOMUS SANCTAE MARTHAE

In the sure hands of God

Tuesday, 12 November 2013

 

(by L'Osservatore Romano, Weekly ed. in English, n. 46, 15 November 2013)

 

In God’s hands we find our true security. They are hands wounded by love, and they guide us along the path of life. This was the heart of the homily Pope Francis delivered during the Holy Mass he celebrated at the Chapel of Santa Marta.

The Holy Father commented on the first Reading of the day, taken from the Book of Wisdom (2:23-3:9), which states that “God created man for incorruption and made him in the image of his own eternity”. “He made us and he is our Father,” Pope Francis said. “He made us beautiful as he is beautiful, more beautiful than the angels, greater than the angels”.

The devil envied the greatness and beauty of God’s rational creature, and “through the devil’s envy, death entered the world”. The devil “could not endure that man be superior to him, that man and woman be made in the image and likeness of God. This is why he made war on them” and laid before them “a road that leads to death”.

And yet “the Lord does not abandon the work of his hands,” the Pope observed. As Wisdom says, “the souls of the just are in the hands of God”. The Pope continued: “We all have to pass through death. Yet it is one thing to pass through this in the hands of the devil, and quite another to pass through it in the hands of God”.

“I love to listen to these words: we are in the hands of God. And this was so from the very beginning. The Bible uses a beautiful image to explain our creation: God who with his hands forms us out of mud, out of the clay of the earth, into his image and likeness. It was God’s hands that fashioned us: God the artist”.

And therefore, God does not abandon us. God, Pope Francis said, acts “like a father with his child and takes him by the hand. God’s hands accompany us on our journey”. The Father “teaches us how to walk, how to travel on the road of life and salvation”. And our Father caresses us, he loves us so much. And oftentimes in these caresses we also find forgiveness”.

“It does us great good to think: Jesus, God still bears his wounds. He shows them to the Father. This is the price: the hands of God are hands pierced by love. And this brings us great comfort. How many times have we heard it said: I don’t know who to trust, all the doors are closed, I shall entrust myself to the hands of God! And this is beautiful, because it is there that we rest secure”.

Pope Francis concluded: “Let us think about the hands of God, who fashioned us as an artist. He has given us eternal life. They are pierced hands. They accompany us along the path of life. Let us entrust ourselves to the hands of God as a child entrusts himself to his father”.

 



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