EVANGELII GAUDIUM - page 101

101
incarnated in the culture of the lowly”.
104
Nor
is it devoid of content; rather it discovers and
expresses that content more by way of symbols
than by discursive reasoning, and in the act of
faith greater accent is placed on
credere in Deum
than on
credere Deum
.
105
It is “a legitimate way
of living the faith, a way of feeling part of the
Church and a manner of being missionaries”;
106
it brings with itself the grace of being a mission-
ary, of coming out of oneself and setting out on
pilgrimage: “Journeying together to shrines and
taking part in other manifestations of popular pi-
ety, also by taking one’s children or inviting oth-
ers, is in itself an evangelizing gesture”.
107
Let us
not stifle or presume to control this missionary
power!
125. To understand this reality we need to ap-
proach it with the gaze of the Good Shepherd,
who seeks not to judge but to love. Only from
the affective connaturality born of love can we
appreciate the theological life present in the pi-
ety of Christian peoples, especially among their
poor. I think of the steadfast faith of those
mothers tending their sick children who, though
perhaps barely familiar with the articles of the
creed, cling to a rosary; or of all the hope poured
into a candle lighted in a humble home with a
104
 Ibid., 263.
105
 Cf. S
aint
T
homas
A
quinas
,
S. Th
., II-II, q. 2, a. 2.
106
 F
ifth
G
eneral
C
onference
of
the
L
atin
A
merican
and
C
aribbean
B
ishops
,
Aparecida Document
, 29 June 2007, 264.
107
 Ibid.
1...,91,92,93,94,95,96,97,98,99,100 102,103,104,105,106,107,108,109,110,111,...224
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