‘We should always convert,’ says Pope

December 07, 2015

Reflecting on St. John the Baptist’s call to repentance in the Sunday Gospel reading, Pope Francis said during his December 6 Angelus address that “we’re not all right. We should always convert, to have the sentiments that Jesus had.”

The Pope asked:

When we suffer some evil or some affront, can we react without animosity and forgive from the heart those who ask us for forgiveness? How difficult it is to forgive, eh? How difficult! “You’re going to pay for this”—that phrase comes spontaneously, yes? Or when we are called to share joys and sadnesses, do we know how to truly cry with the one who cries and rejoice with the one who rejoices? Or when we should share our faith, do we know how to do it with courage and simplicity, without being ashamed of the Gospel?

“The voice of the Baptist still cries in humanity’s deserts of today, which are—what are the deserts of today?—they are the closed minds and the hardened hearts,” he continued. “And [his voice] calls us so that we ask ourselves if we actually are following the right path, living a life according to the Gospel.”

“Each one of us is called to make Jesus known to those who still do not know him,” he added. “But this is not to proselytize … If Our Lord Jesus has changed our lives, and he changes it every time we draw close to him, how can we not feel a passion to make him known to those we find at work, at school, in our communities, in the hospital, in meeting places?”

 

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Further information:

• Angelus Domini 2015.12.06 (Vatican YouTube)
• Le parole del Papa alla recita dell’Angelus, 06.12.2015 (Holy See Press Office)
• ANGELUS ADDRESS: On My Own Need for Conversion (Zenit)
• Understanding Proselytism (Catholic Culture)