During his homily at Casa Santa Marta, Pope Francis recommended that Christians should live with hope and not remain stagnant. They should live “in tension of the Holy Spirit.”
POPE FRANCIS
“Hope is a living tension, always knowing that we cannot make a nest here: the life of a Christian is 'in tension.' If a Christian loses this perspective, his life becomes static and the things that do not move are corrupted. Think of water: when it doesn't run, it doesn't move, it stagnates.”
For Pope Francis, “a Christian who is not capable of being outstretched, of being in tension, is missing something.” He says the Christian will end up stagnant.
He also pointed out that in Christian life if there is no hope, there is no faith.
HOMILY TEXT IN ENGLISH
Source: Vatican News
Hope is this living in tension, always; knowing that we cannot make a nest here: the life of the Christian is 'in ongoing tension'. If a Christian loses this perspective, his life becomes static and things that do not move are motionless. Let's think of water: when the water is still, it doesn't run, it doesn't move, it stagnates. A Christian who is not capable of being out stretched, of being in tension, is missing something: he will end up stagnant. For him, the Christian life will be a philosophical doctrine, he will live it like that, he will say that it is faith but without hope it is not.
If we want to be men and women of hope, we must be poor, poor, not attached to anything. Poor. And open. Hope is humble, and it is a virtue that we work at - so to speak - every day: every day we have to take it back, every day we have to take the rope and see that the anchor is fixed there and I hold it in my hand; every day we have to remember that we have the security, that it is the Spirit who works in us with small things.
For this reason, hope is a virtue that cannot be seen: it works from below; it makes us go and look from below. It is not easy to live in hope, but I would say that it should be the air that a Christian breathes, the air of hope; on the other hand, he cannot walk, he cannot go on because he does not know where to go. Hope - yes, it's true - gives us security: hope does not disappoint. Never. If you hope, you will not be disappointed. We must open ourselves up to that promise of the Lord, leaning towards that promise, but knowing that there is the Spirit that works in us. May the Lord give us, to all of us, this grace of living in tension, in tension but not through nerves, problems, no: in tension through the Holy Spirit who throws us to the other shore and keeps us in hope.
