Trials and doubts are part of everyone’s faith journey, “even mine”,
Pope Francis said today, but Christians know they can get through the
hard times with help from God, other Christians and those in heaven.
“Who hasn’t experienced insecurities, losses and even doubts in the
journey of faith?” the Pope asked. “It’s part of life. It should not
shock us because we are human beings, marked by fragility and limits.”
“Don’t be frightened” but ask for help, Pope Francis said at his
weekly general audience, talking about the “communion of saints” as the
Church prepared to celebrate the feasts of All Saints and All Souls.
In times of difficulty, the Pope said, “it is necessary to trust in
God through prayer and, at the same time, it’s important to find the
courage and humility to open yourself to others in order to ask for
help.”
“We are a great big family” through baptism, the Pope told the
estimated 50,000 pilgrims and visitors gathered for the audience in St
Peter’s Square. The communion of saints, he explained, refers not only
to those who have been canonised by the Catholic Church but to all the
baptised.
“The communion of saints goes beyond earthly life,” the Pope said.
“It extends beyond death and lasts forever” to find its fullest
expression when all believers are “reunited in heaven”.
“All the baptised here on earth, the souls in purgatory and the
blessed souls in heaven form one big family,” he added in remarks to
Polish pilgrims.
“This communion between heaven and earth is expressed
particularly in prayers of intercession, which are the greatest form of
solidarity, and is also the basis of the liturgical celebrations of the
feasts of All Saints and All Souls.”
Every Christian, the Pope said, has an obligation to be a responsible
part of the communion of saints, supporting other Christians in their
faith.
A believer’s communion with God and with Jesus must find expression
in communion with all those who also believe, he said. Those who truly
enter “the glowing furnace of the love” of God, love others because
God’s love “burns away our selfishness, our prejudices, our internal and
external divisions”, he said. “The love of God also burns away our
sins.”
Immediately after the audience, Pope Francis met leaders of Iraq’s
Christian, Kurdish Yazidi, Sunni and Shia Muslim communities.
He had
asked pilgrims at the audience to pray for Iraq, which “unfortunately is
struck daily by tragic episodes of violence” and needs “to find the
path to reconciliation, peace, unity and stability”.