During his Mass at Casa Santa Marta, Pope Francis began his homily by meditating on the prophet Isaiah's image of a blooming desert.<\/p>\n
He reminded those present that God is capable of changing everything, even a desert.<\/p>\n
POPE FRANCIS<\/strong> He explained sin is the desire to redeem ourselves. He also asked that the days leading up to Christmas be lived in meditation of the gratuitousness of salvation, life and everything God gives us freely.<\/p>\n SUMMARY OF POPE'S HOMILY:<\/strong><\/p>\n (Source: Vatican News)<\/p>\n Evoking the prophecy of Isaiah, the Pope dwelt on the blooming of the desert, reminding Christians that God is capable of changing everything, gratuitously. God saves us for free, but we sin when we desire to save ourselves.<\/p>\n Speaking about Elizabeth, the pope said she reminds us of the story of Abraham and Sarah. \u201cSterility is a desert,\u201d he explained, because \u201ca sterile woman ends up there, without descendants.\u201d Both Sarah and Elizabeth are \u201cwomen of faith\u201d and trust in the Lord. Both conceive and give birth. The pope pointed out that both conceive because God is capable of changing everything, even the laws of nature. He is capable of making way for His Word.<\/p>\n Pope Francis stressed the meaning of grace, urging all, in the words of St. Augustine, to open their hearts to God\u2019s gratuitousness. He said a person can only be saved if he \u201cbelieves in the gratuitousness of God\u2019s gift.\u201d Everything is grace. All are called to adore the Lord and thank Him for it. <\/p>\n The pope recalled Samson to remind Christians that we are all sinners and that sin is not safeguarding this gratuitousness of God. The pope said, we too can slip down like Samson and believe ourselves to be redeemers of ourselves. This, he stressed, is sin, which is the desire to redeem ourselves. \u201cIn these days before Christmas,\u201d the pope concluded, \u201cwe praise the Lord for the gratuitousness of salvation, for the gratuitousness of life, for everything He gives us for free. Everything is grace.\u201d<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" December 19th, 2019. In the days leading up to Christmas, the pope invited Christians to reflect upon the gratuitousness of salvation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":19099,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[195],"tags":[],"acf":{"video":"https:\/\/youtu.be\/s0CbnIaIrSI","video_descarga":"http:\/\/attuale.romereports.com\/news\/bstamarta1912eng.mp4","international_url":"http:\/\/attuale.romereports.com\/news\/bstamarta1912int.mp4","type":"bn","newsletter":"si"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47224"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47224"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47224\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19099"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n\u201cHowever, am I aware that sin is not safeguarding gratuitousness? When I go to confession, what do I do? Do I say my sins like a parrot or do I say them because I feel I have risked the gift of gratuitousness to have something of my own?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n