In resuming his daily Mass in Santa Marta after the holiday break, Pope Francis spoke about knowing and worshiping Jesus as the center of our life.
POPE FRANCIS
'This is the center of our lives: Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ who is manifested, gives you the opportunity to see Him. We are invited to know Him, to recognize Him in life, in every circumstance of life. To recognize Jesus, to know Jesus... But Father, I know the life of this saint or that saint, or that the holy apparitions from different places are good. But the saints are saints. They are great, but not all apparitions are real. The saints are important. But the center is Jesus Christ, without Jesus Christ there are no saints. This is the question: is Jesus Christ the center of my life? What is my relationship with Jesus Christ?â?
He said there are two ways of worshiping Jesus: one is to silently adore Him and the other is to remove from our hearts that which hinders us from following Him closely.
EXCERPTS OF POPE'S HOMILY
'It was a long path to arrive at the manifestation of Jesus that we celebrate at Christmas time. But it continues to be the center of Christian life: Jesus Christ, the Father's Son, Savior of the world. There is none other, He is the only one. This is the center of our lives: Jesus Christ manifested, you see, and we are invited to know Him, to recognize Him in life, in so many circumstances of life.'
'First of all, recognize Jesus, know and recognize Him. In his day, the apostle John, at the beginning of his Gospel, says that many did not recognize him: the doctors of the law, the chief priests, the scribes, the Sadducees, Pharisees. Moreover, they persecuted him, they killed him. Therefore, the first attitude is to know and recognize Jesus; study how Jesus was: Am I interested in this? It is a question that we all need to ask: Am I interested in getting to know Jesus or am I perhaps more interested in soap operas or the latest gossip or my ambitions or knowing the lives of others?'
'We can think of two ways of worshiping Jesus. There is the silent prayer of adoration: 'You are God, you are the Son of God, I love you.' This is worshiping Jesus. But then we also need to remove from our hearts the other things that we worship. That which interests us the most. There must be one God. The other things can be used if they point us in the direction of God, and serve to worship God alone. Therefore we must worship God and worship Jesus, knowing Jesus from the Gospel, worship Jesus.'
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