He also says, "What our brothers and sisters often ask of us, perhaps without being able to ask the question, corresponds to their deepest needs: to love and be loved, to be accepted for what one is, to find peace and a joy that is more lasting than entertainment."
For a critique of our fascination with entertainment, see the later Neil Postman's 1985 book Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business (Viking Penguin).
In addition, Pope Francis says, "We who, though fragile and sinful, have been inundated by the river in full flow that is God's goodness, have this mission: to encounter our contemporaries so as to make His love known to them. . . . How important it is to feel challenged by the questions of the men and women of today! Without pretending to have immediate answers and without giving pre-packaged answers, but sharing words of life, not aimed at making proselytes, but at leaving room for the creative force of the Holy Spirit, Who frees the heart from the slavery that oppresses [it] and [thereby] renews it. . . . [O]nce we have met the living God, we must look for Him again" (his emphasis).
In orthodox Christian trinitarian theology, the Holy Spirit that Pope Francis refers to here is thought of as one of the three divine persons in the triune Christian God.
In his conclusion, Pope Francis says, "One last thing I would like to share with you. Since faith is a life that is born and reborn from the encounter with Jesus, that which in life is an encounter helps us to grow in faith: [1] approaching those in need, [2] building bridges, [3] serving those who suffer, [4] caring for the poor, [5] 'anointing with patience' those who are close to us, [6] comforting those who are discouraged, [7] blessing those who harm us. In this way [i.e., in each of these ways of encounter and growth in faith], we become living signs of the Love we proclaim. I thank you, dear brothers and sisters, because you want to spread the joy of being loved by God and of loving as He taught us. I accompany you with my blessing, and, please, do not forget to pray for me. Thank you" (I have added the material in square brackets).
I, for one, have not excelled at each of the seven practices that Pope Francis itemizes here.
Granted, I admittedly have only highlighted the pope's address. Granted, the processes by which the conference participants signed up involved the self-selection of Roman Catholics interested in evangelization, and so the pope was preaching to the already converted, so to speak.
However, if our deepest needs are "to love and be loved, to be accepted for what one is, to find peace of heart and a joy that is more lasting than entertainment," as the pope affirms, then I have to wonder just how many practicing Catholics have had their deepest needs met. But perhaps Pope Francis has already anticipated my point here, at least in part, in his comment about the Catholic who says that he or she has digested Denzinger.
But this brings me to a related point about the pope's vision of Roman Catholic faith. Don't we also need to consider the degree to which practicing Catholics may have experienced "the river in full flow that is God's goodness"? In regard to practicing Catholics, I would point out that "sharing words of life" aimed "at leaving room for the creative force of the Holy Spirit," whatever sharing words of life may mean in various contexts, might be necessary.
Next, I would point out that much of what Pope Francis says in his address strikes me as relevant to many non-Catholic Christians and to Jews and possibly to people in other religious traditions as well. What is known as nature mysticism has reportedly been experienced by people across a wide spectrum of cultures and in different historical periods. Even though experiences of nature mysticism are usually short and fleeting, they nevertheless represent a taste of what Pope Francis refers to as "the river in full flow that is God's goodness."
Now, less fleeting experiences of mysticism have also been experienced by people across a wide spectrum of cultures and in different historical periods. They represent what Pope Francis refers to as "the river in full flow that is God's goodness."
But what can we say that all the other people today who do not claim to have experienced nature mysticism or less fleeting experiences of mysticism? Are there other ways in which people in various religious traditions today and explicitly non-religious people today may experience "the river in full flow that is God's goodness"? Pope Francis seems to imply that there are.
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