After a brief vacation during the month of July, Pope Francis resumed his weekly General Audience. However, due to Rome's intense summer heat, it was not held in St. Peter's Square, but in Paul VI Audience Hall.
After this July break, the hall was filled with pilgrims who were ready to hear Pope Francis speak again.
The pope continued his weekly catechesis on hope. On this occasion, he spoke about baptism, which he defined as 'the door of hope.” He said that being baptized means looking into the light even when the world is enveloped in night and darkness.
POPE FRANCIS
“We Christians live in the world, and we are not exempt from obscurities and darkness. However, the grace of Christ received in baptism causes us to leave the night and enter into the day's clarity. The most beautiful exhortation we can make to one another is to remind ourselves of our baptism, because through it we were reborn in God, becoming new creatures.”
Pope Francis also explained that Christians are people who believe that God is the Father, and that Christ walks among men, especially with the poorest and most fragile. Thus, the Christian who knows this, is called to bring this hope to a world that so often does not have it.
POPE FRANCIS
“The Christian is called to be “Cristoforo,” the bearer of Jesus to the world. Through concrete signs, we manifest Jesus' presence and love to others, especially those experiencing difficulties. If we are faithful to our baptism, we will spread the light of God's hope, and transmit the reasons for life to future generations.”
He further expressed this importance by recalling that the life of the Church is found through spreading light, and the propagation of Jesus' Resurrection. To make sure that the Christians do not forget this truth, he made an important request to the pilgrims before they left: for each person to remember the date of his or her baptism, and to celebrate it, because it is the day of the new birth.
