Pope Francis called for peace between Christians today as he addressed the crowds of pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square for the weekly General Audience.
Taking his reading from the First Epistle of St Paul’s to Timothy, he asked “What does it mean to be ‘People of God’… Jesus does not tell the Apostles and us to form an exclusive group, an elite group. Jesus says: Go and make disciples of all nations (cf. Mt 28:19). St Paul says that within the people of God, in the Church, “there is neither Jew nor Gentile … for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Gal 3:28).”
Stating that the law of the People of God was one of “love, love for God and love for our neighbor according to the new commandment that the Lord left us”, he lamented: “We have still so far to go to be able to live concretely according to this new law, the law of the Holy Spirit working within us, the law of charity, of love! When we see in the many wars between Christians in the newspapers or on TV, how can the people of God understand this? Within the people of God there are so many wars! And in neighborhoods, in workplaces, so many wars due to envy, jealousy.
“Even within the same family, there are so many internal wars. We must ask the Lord to help us understand this law of love. How good, how nice it is to love each other as true brothers. How nice that is! “
He then called on the crowd to say in a loud voice, that though the Devil makes anger, “God is stronger!”
After the General Audience Pope Francis met the founders of Catholic Voices, Jack Valero and Austen Ivereigh.
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