POPE FRANCIS

MORNING MEDITATION IN THE CHAPEL OF THE
DOMUS SANCTAE MARTHAE

How we are changed

Monday, 16 March 2015

(by L'Osservatore Romano, Weekly ed. in English, n. 12, 20 March 2015)

We are the “dream of God” who, truly in love, wants to “change our life”. Through love. He only asks us to have the faith to let Him do so. And thus “we can only cry for joy” before a God who “re-creates” us, Pope Francis said on Monday morning during Mass at Santa Marta.

In the First Reading, a passage from Isaiah (65:17-21), “the Lord tells us that He creates new heavens and a new earth, that is, He re-creates things”, Francis explained, also recalling that “we have spoken many times of these ‘two creations’ of God: the first, which was done in six days, and the second, when the Lord ‘re-makes’ the world, destroyed by sin, in Jesus Christ”. And, the Pontiff emphasized, “we have said so many times that this second one is more marvelous than the first”. Indeed, he explained, “the first is already a marvelous creation; but the second, in Christ, is even more marvelous”.

In his meditation, however, Francis paused “on another aspect”, beginning from the passage of Isaiah in which “the Lord speaks about what He is going to make: a new heaven, a new earth”. And “we find that the Lord has much enthusiasm: He speaks of joy and says a word: ‘I will rejoice in my people’”. Essentially, “the Lord thinks about what He is going to do, He thinks that He, He himself will rejoice with his people”. Thus, “it is as if it were a ‘dream’ of the Lord, as if the Lord ‘were dreaming’ of us: how beautiful it will be when we are all together, when we are there or when that person, or that one, or another one will walk...”.

Further clarifying his rationale, Francis returned to “a metaphor that can help us understand: it is as if a young woman with her boyfriend, or a young man with his girlfriend, were to think: ‘when we are together, when we get married...’”. Thus, “God’s ‘dream’: God thinks about each one of us, loves us, dreams of us, dreams of the joy that He will rejoice with us”. And this is the very reason that “the Lord wants to ‘re-create us’, to make our hearts new, to ‘re-create’ our heart in order to make joy triumph”.

All this led the Pope to ask a few questions: “Have you ever thought: the Lord dreams about me? He thinks about me? I am in the mind, in the heart of the Lord? The Lord is capable of changing my life?”. Isaiah also tells us, Francis added, that the Lord “makes many plans: ‘We will build houses, plant vineyards, and eat together: all those plans typical of one in love’”.

After all, “the Lord manifests himself enamoured of his people” even going so far as to say “I did not choose you because you are the strongest, the biggest, the most powerful; but I chose you because you are the least of all”. Moreover, “it could be said: the poorest of all. I chose you like this, and this is love”.

The Pope indicated that “this will of the Lord continues, this desire of his to change our life. And we are able to say, if we hear this invitation of the Lord: ‘You have changed my mourning into dancing’”, which are “the words that we prayed” in Psalm 29. “I will praise you, Lord, you have rescued me” the Psalm also says, thereby acknowledging that the Lord “is capable of changing us, through love: He is in love with us”.

“I don’t believe any theologian can explain this: it is inexplicable”, Francis remarked. Because this is something “we can only reflect on, feel and cry for joy: the Lord can change us”. He then asked spontaneously: what do I have to do? The answer is simple: “Believe. Believe that the Lord can change me, that He can”. This is exactly what the king’s official in Capernaum did, as told in the Gospel according to John (4:43-54). That man, whose son was ill, asked Jesus “to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death”. And Jesus replied to him: “Go; your son will live”. Thus, that father “believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and went his way. He believed. He believed that Jesus had the power to heal his child. And he was right”.

Faith, Francis explained, “is giving space to this love of God; it is making room for the power, for the power of God, for the power of One who loves me, who is in love with me and who wants this joy with me. This is faith. This is believing: it is making room for the Lord to come and change me”.

The Pope concluded with a meaningful annotation: “It is curious: this was the second miracle that Jesus performed. And He did it in the same place where He had performed the first, in Cana in Galilee”. In today’s Gospel passage we read, in fact: “So he came again to Cana in Galilee, where he had made the water wine”. Again, “in Cana in Galilee, He also changed this boy’s death into life”. Truly, Francis said, “the Lord can change us, He wants to change us, He loves to change us. And this” He does “through love”. And He only asks us for “our faith: in other words, to give space to his love so it may act and bring about a change of life in us”.