Pope Francis introduced morning Mass on Monday of the Third Week of Easter, with special thoughts for artists.
“Let us pray today for artists, for those who have this great capacity for creativity,” and for showing us the way to beauty. He continued: “May the Lord give us all the grace of creativity at this time.”
He then reflected on the Gospel reading of the day (Jn 6:22-29) in which Jesus redirects the crowd for seeking Him after the multiplication of the loaves and fishes only because their stomachs had been filled by exhorting them “not to work for food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life.”
Being good people, the Pope said, they asked him how to accomplish this and Jesus replied: “This is the work of God, that you believe in the one he sent.”
Pope Francis explained that the crowd listened to Jesus “without getting tired.” Once sated, they thought they would make Him king, “but they had forgotten their first enthusiasm for His Word.”
Remembering the first encounter with Jesus
So, he continued, the Lord reminded the crowd of their first encounter with the Word, and “He corrected the path of the people who had taken a more worldly, rather than evangelical path.”
This happens to us too, the Pope warned, when we move away from the path of the Gospel and we lose the memory of our first enthusiasm for the Word of the Lord… Read more »
