2023-05-21 22:46:00
May 21, 2023 / 3:46 p.m
Pope Francis received this Saturday the participants of the 38th General Chapter of the Montfortian Missionaries (Company of Mary), before whom he indicated that the pastoral challenges faced in his time by its founder Saint Louis Maria Grignion still persist.
“Also today, pastoral challenges are not lacking: for example, the individualism that locks each one in his own little world, the relativism and hedonism that make pleasure or personal benefit the criterion of all choices, the consumerist egoism that withers the heart of the rich and creates unfair inequalities to the detriment of the poor,” he said.
In his speech, the Holy Father recalled that the founder of the Society of Mary also lived in a time marked by demanding challenges for the Church and society: the so-called “age of rationalists and libertines” and at the same time “cradle of Jansenism”. .
“Faced with these provocations, Saint Louis Mary asked himself in the first place what was the common root of them, and he identified it in an excessive confidence of men in the wisdom of the world to the detriment of the primacy of the Wisdom of God”, he pointed out. .
The Pontiff indicated that before this, the saint carried out an intense activity of “preaching, with creativity and without fear, even encountering misunderstandings inside and outside the Church.”
However, he did not give up, but continued to preach “and promote love for true Wisdom, through devotion to the Virgin Mary” until his death at the age of 43.
For this reason, the Pope encouraged to follow the life and action program left by Saint Louis Maria Grignion, to “seek, contemplate, reveal the Wisdom in the heart of the world and denounce its false wisdom”, following the example and with the help of Maria.
The Pontiff recalled that “the Gospel shows us Mary as the one who, in order to welcome Jesus, the Wisdom of the Father, courageously accepted to completely change her life, her customs, her dreams and her choices.”
“This is how he preserved and gave to his brothers the love received, in Nazareth, on Calvary and in the Cenacle where, in the light of Easter, he humbly shared the life of the first community,” he said.
In this sense, he invited to exercise acceptance following the example of the Mother of God, because the world needs hospitality and closeness, even in new situations that require urgent responses.
Finally, the Holy Father also encouraged the cultivation of tenderness, which, although it is sweet, is also strong. “Don’t forget that tenderness is one of the three traits of God. God is close, tender and compassionate,” he stated.
Eduardo Berdejo is a graduate of the National University of San Marcos (Peru). He has been part of the ACI Prensa team since 2001.
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