During his morning Mass at Casa Santa Marta, Pope Francis told the faithful that the Church should always be joyful as Jesus was.
Commenting on the first reading from the prophet Isaiah, which spoke of the peace that the Messiah will bring, the Holy Father said that it gives a glimpse into the joyful soul of Jesus. The Church, he said, is called to transmit this joy to all.
“We are not so used to thinking of Jesus smiling, joyful,” he said. “Jesus was full of joy – full of joy. In that intimacy with his Father: ‘He rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and praised the Father.’ It is the inner mystery of Jesus, that relationship with the Father in the Spirit. It is His inner joy, his interior joy that he gives to us.”
Christian joy, he continued, is the same joy of Christ. Christ also wants His spouse, the Church, to have that same joy.
“We cannot think of a Church without joy and the joy of the Church is this: announcing the name of Jesus. To say: ‘He is the Lord’, the Pope said. “‘My spouse is the Lord. It is God.’ He saves us, He walks with us.’ And that is the joy of the Church, who in this joy of a wife becomes a mother.”
Speaking on today’s Gospel, which recalls Jesus praising God for revealing Himself not to the wise but to the little ones, the Pope said that Christ’s prayer is a “dogmatic declaration” on the peace and joy that comes from praying and evangelizing.
“May the Lord give us all this joy, this joy of Jesus, praising the Father in the Spirit. This joy of our mother Church in evangelizing, in announcing Her Spouse,” the Pope concluded.
