Cycle of Catechesis – Jubilee 2025: Jesus Christ Our Hope. IV. The Resurrection of Christ and the Challenges of the Contemporary World. 6. Hoping in life in order to beget life.

Dear brothers and sisters, good morning and welcome!

The Pasch of Christ illuminates the mystery of life and allows us to look at it with hope. This is not always easy or obvious. Many lives, in every part of the world, appear laborious, painful, filled with problems and obstacles to be overcome. Yet human beings receive life as a gift: they do not ask for it, they do not choose it, they experience it in its mystery from the first to the last day. Life has its own extraordinary specificity: it is offered to us, we cannot give it to ourselves, but it must be constantly nurtured: it needs care to maintain, energize, protect and revive it.

One could say that the question about life is one of the most profound concerns of the human heart. We entered life without having done anything to decide to do so. The questions of all ages gush forth from this fact, like an overflowing river: Who are we? Where do we come from? Where are we going? What is the ultimate meaning of this journey?

Indeed, living invokes meaning, direction, hope. And hope acts as the deep-seated drive that keeps us walking in difficulty, that prevents us from giving up in the fatigue of the journey, that makes us certain that the pilgrimage of existence will lead us home. Without hope, life risks appearing to be a parenthesis between two eternal nights, a brief pause between the before and the after of our journey on earth. To hope in life means instead to anticipate the destination, to believe as certain what we still cannot see or touch, to trust and to entrust ourselves to the love of a Father who created us because he wanted us with love, and wants us to be happy.

Dear friends, there is a widespread sickness in the world: the lack of confidence in life. It is as if we have resigned ourselves to a negative fatalism, to renunciation. Life risks no longer representing a gift, but an unknown, almost a threat from which to protect ourselves so as not to end up disappointed. For this reason, the courage to live and to generate life, to bear witness that God is the quintessential “lover of life”, as the Book of Wisdom (11:26) affirms, is today a more urgent call than ever.

In the Gospel, Jesus constantly confirms his concern for healing the sick, restoring wounded bodies and spirits, and giving life back to the dead. By doing so, the incarnate Son reveals the Father: he restores dignity to sinners, grants the forgiveness of sins, and includes everyone, especially the desperate, the excluded, those who are far from his promise of salvation.

Begotten by the Father, Christ is life and has generated life without reserve, to the point of giving his own, and he invites us too to give our lives. To generate means to bring someone else to life. The universe of the living has expanded via this law, which in the symphony of creatures experiences a wonderful “crescendo” culminating in the duet of man and woman: God created them in his own image and entrusted them with the mission of generating in his image, that is, for love and in love.

From the beginning, Sacred Scripture reveals to us that life, precisely in its highest form, the human form, receives the gift of freedom and becomes a tragedy. In this way, human relationships are also marked by contradiction, even to the point of fratricide. Cain perceives his brother Abel as a rival, a threat, and in his frustration, he feels unable to love him and respect him. Here we see jealousy, envy, and bloodshed (Gen 4:1-16). God’s logic, instead, is completely different. God always stays faithful to his plan of love and life; he does not tire of supporting humanity even when, following in Cain’s footsteps, it obeys the blind instinct of violence in war, discrimination, racism, and the many forms of slavery.

To generate, then, means to trust in the God of life and to promote humanity in all its expressions: first and foremost, in the wonderful adventure of motherhood and fatherhood, even in social contexts in which families struggle to bear the burden of daily life, and are often held back in their plans and dreams. According to this same logic, to generate is to be committed to an economy based on solidarity, striving for a common good equally enjoyed by all, respecting and caring for creation, offering comfort through listening, presence, and concrete and selfless help.

Brothers and sisters, the Resurrection of Jesus Christ is the strength that supports us in this challenge, even when the darkness of evil obscures the heart and the mind. When life seems to have been extinguished, obstructed, the Risen Lord still passes by, until the end of time, and walks with us and for us. He is our hope.

____________________________

Special greetings

I extend a warm welcome to the English-speaking pilgrims and visitors taking part in today’s Audience, especially those coming from the United Kingdom, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Nigeria, Uganda, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, the Philippines, Canada and the United States of America. In a particular way, I greet the bishops and priests from England and Wales who are celebrating their fortieth, fiftieth and sixtieth anniversaries of priestly ordination. I also greet the Eparchy of Keren in Eritrea, led by Bishop Kindane Yebio as it celebrates its thirtieth anniversary. May the Lord always guide you in your witness of charity, harmony and peace. In praying that all of you may experience an increase in the virtue of hope during this Jubilee Year, I invoke upon you, and your families, the joy and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ. God bless you!

________________________

Summary of the Holy Father's words

Dear brothers and sisters, today, in our continuing catechesis on the Jubilee theme of “Christ our Hope,” we turn to consider a question that we all hold deep in our hearts: what is the meaning of life? The scripture passage we just heard responds to this question — life is, first and foremost, a gift from God who has created us out of love. One of the temptations prevelant today is a lack of trust in God’s goodness and love. Perhaps we no longer experience life as a gift because we are weighed down by its burdens, but the Risen Christ reminds us that God is always faithful to his plan of love. Trusting in God, we are invited to participate in this plan of life and of love by generating life. For those of you living the vocation of married life, this means discovering the gift and adventure of motherhood and fatherhood, in which you are called to participate in bringing new lives into this world and preparing them for the life that is eternal. Do not be afraid of this adventure, but prayerfully open yourselves to the gift of life, trusting in the God who we know loves us.