Christians are measured by how well they follow Jesus Christ and the Gospel, not by their own ideas and self-sufficiency, Pope Francis said on Sunday.
In his Angelus message Aug. 21, the pope reflected on Jesus’ words as recounted in the Gospel of Luke, chapter 13: “Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I tell you, will attempt to enter but will not be strong enough.”
“The Christian gate is a life whose ‘measure is Christ,’ founded and modeled on him,” Francis said. “This means that the rule of measure is Jesus and his Gospel — not what we think, but what he says to us.”
In his address before the Angelus, a traditional Marian prayer, Pope Francis also pointed to Jesus’ teaching in John 10:9: “I am the gate. Whoever enters through me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture.”
Jesus, the pope said, “wants to tell us that to enter into God’s life, into salvation, we need to pass through him, not through another one, through him; to welcome him and his Word.”
The pope’s weekly message was delivered from a window overlooking St. Peter’s Square, where about 12,000 people had gathered, according to the Vatican gendarmes.
The day’s Gospel describes a “narrow gate,” Francis said, “not because only a few are destined to go through it, no, but because to belong to Christ means to follow him, to live one’s life in love, in service, and in giving oneself as he did, who passed through the narrow door of the cross.”
To do this requires less egoism, reducing our presumption of self-sufficiency, lowering our pride and arrogance, and overcoming laziness, he said.
This, he noted, is how Christians can “traverse the risk of love, even when it involves the cross.”
Pope Francis described some of the concrete times people may struggle to choose “daily acts of love:” such as “parents who dedicate themselves to their children, making sacrifices and renouncing time for themselves” or people who serve the elderly, the poor, and the vulnerable.
Pilgrims at Pope Francis’ Angelus Aug. 21, 2022. Vatican Media.
He also spotlighted the sacrifices of those who serve others without concern for their own interests, those who put up with discomfort, or even misunderstanding.
“Let’s think,” he said, “of those who suffer because of their faith, but who continue to pray and love; let’s think of those who, rather than following their own instincts, respond to evil with good, finding the strength to forgive and the courage to begin again.”
These area examples of people “who do not choose the wide door of their own convenience, but the narrow gate of Jesus, of a life spent in loving,” the pope said, as he encouraged people to consider what side they want to be on.
“Do we prefer the easy way of thinking only about ourselves, or do we choose the narrow gate of the Gospel that puts our selfishness into crisis, but which makes us able to welcome the true life that comes from God and makes us happy?” he said, posing the question for self-reflection.
Francis said: “May Our Lady, who followed Jesus all the way to the cross, help us to measure our life with him so as to enter into the fullness of eternal life.”
After the Angelus, Pope Francis commented on the situation in Nicaragua, where the Ortega dictatorship is harassing the Catholic Church.
The newest class of seminarians at the North American College in Rome were greeted by Pope Francis at the Angelus Aug. 21, 2022. Vatican Media.
He also greeted various groups in St. Peter’s Square, including the new students of the Pontifical North American College (NAC), the American seminary in Rome.
“In particular, I greet the Pontifical North American College, especially the new seminarians, just arrived, and I urge them to spiritual commitment and faithfulness to the Gospel and to the Church,” Pope Francis said.
The NAC’s Class of 2026 arrived in Rome Aug. 19.
The Class of 2026 has arrived! After a long flight from the US, the “New Men” shared a meal, toured campus, prayed…
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Born in 1948, Michael O’Brien had a conversion experience at the age of 21, followed by several years of painting and writing. In 1996, Ignatius Press published Father Elijah: An Apocalypse, which became a best-seller […]
Thousands of pro-life advocates gathered outside the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 1, 2021, in conjunction with oral arguments in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization abortion case. / Katie Yoder/CNA
Washington D.C., Dec 2, 2021 / 08:04 am (CNA).
Anna Del Duca and daughter, Frances, woke up at 5 a.m. Wednesday morning to brave the 30-degree weather outside the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C. They arrived hours before oral arguments began in the highly-anticipated abortion case, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.
The case, which involves a Mississippi law restricting most abortions after 15 weeks, challenges two landmark decisions: Roe v. Wade, the 1973 ruling that legalized abortion nationwide, and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, which upheld Roe in 1992.
“We’re looking forward to the end of Roe versus Wade in our country,” Anna, who drove from Pittsburgh Tuesday night, told CNA. In her hands, she held a sign reading, “I regret my abortion.”
Anna Del Duca (right) and her daughter, Frances, traveled from Pittsburgh to attend a pro-life rally outside the U.S. Supreme Court on Dec. 1, 2021, in conjunction with oral arguments for the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization abortion case. Katie Yoder/CNA
“I would like to use my testimony to be a blessing to others,” she said, so that “others will choose life or those who have regretted abortion or had an abortion would turn to Jesus.”
Anna remembered having an abortion when she was just 19. Today, she and her daughter run a group called Restorers of Streets to Dwell In Pittsburgh that offers help to women seeking healing after abortion.
Anna and Frances were among thousands of Americans who rallied outside the Supreme Court before, during, and after the oral arguments. To accommodate them, law enforcement closed the street in front of the court. Capitol police also placed fencing in the space in front of the building in an attempt to physically separate rallies held by abortion supporters and pro-lifers.
At 21-weeks pregnant, pro-life speaker Alison Centofante emceed the pro-life rally, called, “Empower Women Promote Life.” The event featured a slew of pro-life women of diverse backgrounds and numerous politicians.
“It’s funny, there were so many diverse speakers today that the only unifying thread was that we want to protect preborn children,” Centofante told CNA. They included Democrats, Republicans, Christians, Catholics, agnostics, atheists, women who chose life, and women who regretted their abortions, she said.
She recognized women there, including Aimee Murphy, as people who are not the typical “cookie cutter pro-lifer.”
Aimee Murphy, 32, founder of pro-life group Rehumanize International, arrived at the Supreme Court around 6:30 a.m. She drove from Pittsburgh the night before. Her sign read, “Queer Latina feminist rape survivor against abortion.”“At Rehumanize International, we oppose all forms of aggressive violence,” she told CNA. “Even as a secular and non-partisan organization, we understand that abortion is the most urgent cause that we must stand against in our modern day and age because it takes on average over 800,000 lives a year.”
She also had a personal reason for attending.
“When I was 16 years old, I was raped and my rapist then threatened to kill me if I didn’t have an abortion,” she revealed.
“It was when he threatened me that I felt finally a solidarity with unborn children and I understood then that, yeah, the science told me that a life begins at conception, but that I couldn’t be like my abusive ex and pass on the violence and oppression of abortion to another human being — that all that I would be doing in having an abortion would be telling my child, ‘You are an inconvenience to me and to my future, therefore I’m going to kill you,’ which is exactly the same thing that my rapist was telling me when he threatened to kill me.”
On the other side of the police fence, the Center for Reproductive Rights and the National Abortion Access Coalition and NARAL Pro-Choice America participated in another rally. Yellow balloons printed with the words “BANS OFF OUR BODIES” escaped into the sky. Several pro-choice demonstrators declined to speak with CNA.
Voices clashed in the air as people, the majority of whom were women, spoke into their respective microphones at both rallies. Abortion supporters stressed bodily autonomy, while pro-lifers recognized the humanity of the unborn child. Chants arose from both sides at different points, from “Whose choice? My choice!” to “Hey hey, ho ho, Roe v. Wade has got to go!”
At 10 a.m., the pro-life crowd sudddenly went silent as the oral arguments began and the rally paused temporarily as live audio played through speakers.
Hundreds of students from Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia, traveled to Washington, D.C. for a pro-life rally outside the U.S. Supreme Court on Dec. 1, 2021, in conjunction with oral arguments in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization abortion case. Katie Yoder/CNA
During the oral arguments, students from Liberty University knelt in prayer. One student estimated that more than a thousand students from the school made the more than 3-hour trip from Lynchburg, Virginia.
“Talking about our faith is one thing, but actually acting upon it is another,” he said. “We have to be the hands and feet of Jesus Christ. So to me this is part of doing that.”
Sister Mary Karen, who has been with the Sisters of Life for 21 years, also stressed the importance of prayer. She drove from New York earlier that morning because, she said, she felt drawn to attend. She came, she said, to pray for the country and promote the dignity of a human person.
“Our culture is post-abortive,” she explained. “So many people have suffered and the loss of human life is so detrimental, just not knowing that we have value and are precious and sacred.”
Theresa Bonopartis, of Harrison, New York, was among the pro-life demonstrators outside the U.S. Supreme Court on Dec. 1, 2021. She runs a nonprofit group called Entering Canaan that ministers to women and others wounded by abortion. Katie Yoder/CNA
She stood next to Theresa Bonopartis, who traveled from Harrison, New York, and ministers to women and others wounded by abortion.
“I’ve been fighting abortion for 30 years at least,” she told CNA.
Her ministry, called Entering Canaan, began with the Sisters of Life and is observing its 25th anniversary this year. It provides retreats for women, men, and even siblings of aborted babies.
Abortion is personal for Bonopartis, who said she had a coerced abortion when she was just 17.
“I was kicked out of the house by my father and then coerced into getting an abortion,” she said. “Pretty much cut me off from everything, and that’s something people don’t really talk about … they make it try to seem like it’s a woman’s right, it’s a free choice. It’s all this other stuff, but many women are coerced in one way or another.”
She guessed that she was 14 or 15 weeks pregnant at the time.
“I saw my son. I had a saline abortion, so I saw him, which I always considered a blessing because it never allowed me to deny what abortion was,” she said. Afterward, she said she struggled with self-esteem issues, hating herself, guilt, shame, and more. Then, she found healing.
“I know what that pain is like, I know what that experience is like, and you know that you can get past it,” she said. “You just want to be able to give that message to other people, that they’re able to heal.”
Residents of Mississippi, where the Dobbs v. Jackson case originated, also attended.
Marion, who declined to provide her last name, drove from Mississippi to stand outside the Supreme Court. She said she was in her early 20s when Roe v. Wade was decided in 1973.
“At the time, of course, I could care less,” she said. Since then, she had a change of heart.
“We were the generation that allowed it,” she said, “and so we are the generation who will help close that door and reverse it.”
Marion, who declined to provide her last name, was among those who attended a pro-life rally outside the U.S. Supreme Court on Dec. 1, 2021, from Mississippi, where the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization abortion case originated. Katie Yoder/CNA
The crowd at the pro-life rally included all ages, from those who had witnessed Roe to bundled-up babies, children running around, and college students holding up homemade signs.
One group of young friends traveled across the country to stand outside the Supreme Court. They cited their faith and family as reasons for attending.
Mathilde Steenepoorte, 19, from Green Bay, Wisconsin, identified herself as “very pro-life” in large part because of her younger brother with Down syndrome. She said she was saddened by the abortion rates of unborn babies dianosed with Down syndrome.
Juanito Estevez, from Freeport, a village on Long Island, New York, at a pro-life rally outside the U.S. Supreme Court on Dec. 1, 2021. Katie Yoder/CNA
Juanito Estevez, from Freeport, a village on Long Island, New York, arrived Tuesday. He woke up at 6 a.m. to arrive at the Supreme Court with a crucifix in hand.
“I believe that God is the giver of life and we don’t have the right [to decide] whether a baby should live or die,” he said.
He also said that he believed women have been lied to about abortion.
“We say it’s their right, and there’s a choice,” he said. When girls tell him “I have the right,” his response, he said, is to ask back, “You have the right for what?”
Mallory Finch, from Charlotte, North Carolina, was among the pro-life demonstrators outside the U.S. Supreme Court on Dec. 1, 2021.
Mallory Finch, from Charlotte, North Carolina, also woke up early but emphasized “it was worth it.” A pro-life podcast host, she called abortion a “human-rights issue.”
“I hope that it overturns Roe,” she said of the case, “but that doesn’t mean that our job as pro-lifers is done. It makes this, really, just the beginning.”
United States Vice President Mike Pence. / Gino Santa Maria/Shutterstock
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2 Comments
Yes. Francis is absolutely correct. Christ, his Gospel is the rule by which our faith and actions are measured. The narrow gate of the cross, the only entrance into the Kingdom.
Perhaps the best Angelus. Would that this Rule were exacted in our faith and actions. And in context of all else that transpires within Francis’ pontificate. This theology of Francis welcome indeed though questionable in its application. By inference of the Angelus proposition rules, those that are drawn from the first principle, Christ, possessing Apostolic permanence are so roundly disparaged by the Holy Father.
For example, it’s reason that measures the permanence of rules, the commandments of repentance, of a holy life required to walk the narrow, rough path as distinguished from the wider path so easily and happily followed by so many. Few take the rigid, demanding narrow path of repentance, suffering, and mediation for sinners. Looming paradoxically is the great Synodal journey, discursive, searching.
Yes. Francis is absolutely correct. Christ, his Gospel is the rule by which our faith and actions are measured. The narrow gate of the cross, the only entrance into the Kingdom.
Perhaps the best Angelus. Would that this Rule were exacted in our faith and actions. And in context of all else that transpires within Francis’ pontificate. This theology of Francis welcome indeed though questionable in its application. By inference of the Angelus proposition rules, those that are drawn from the first principle, Christ, possessing Apostolic permanence are so roundly disparaged by the Holy Father.
For example, it’s reason that measures the permanence of rules, the commandments of repentance, of a holy life required to walk the narrow, rough path as distinguished from the wider path so easily and happily followed by so many. Few take the rigid, demanding narrow path of repentance, suffering, and mediation for sinners. Looming paradoxically is the great Synodal journey, discursive, searching.
For a genuine believer Christ continues to be the Alpha and Omega in one’s life.