Christian education in Francisco: “God is mercy and always waiting for us!”

Sebastian Samson Ferrari – Vatican City

“To announce the Bible, we must first put the weight of our history at the feet of the Lord, and provide the weight of our past. Only reconciliation can carry the Bible.” Pope Francis writes in Christian education prepared for the public public on Wednesday, March 26, 2025, which was canceled due to the recovery that the Pope noticed in Casa Santa Marta after his medical discharge to Gemelli Hospital on Sunday 23

In the text, Posted by the Press Office of the Holy SeeThe Holy Father continues his contemplative course entitled “Jesus Christ, our hope”, and in this case he indicates a meeting with Jesus with the Samaritan. The Bishop of Rome reminds us that the meetings with Jesus are not planned by us. On the contrary, they are unexpected moments, which surprise us, and sometimes they confuse us.

The successor of Pedro is reflected on how, at some opportunities, we are trying to find Jesus, as happened with Nicodemus, but in other circumstances, he surprises us in a place and a moment when we did not imagine his interview. The Samaritan Women, mentioned in the Gospel of John (see JN 4,5-26), is a clear example of this type of meeting.

This woman goes to the well in an extraordinary hour, at noon, perhaps to avoid interacting with others because of her personal burden.

Thirst is often the image of desire

After that, Francisco notes that “to go to the Galilee of Judea, Jesus could have chosen another path and not to go to Samaria. It could also be safer, given the tense relations between the Jews and the Samaritans.” “On the other hand, he says, he wants to go there and stop at the same time at the same time! Jesus waits for us and only when we think there is no hope for us. The well, in the old Middle East, is the place of a meeting, where marriages are sometimes anxious, it is the place of commitment. Jesus wants to help this woman to understand the place of looking at the true answer of her desire to be loved.”

The Holy Father notes that the issue of desire is necessary to understand the episode. Details that “Jesus is the first to express his desire:” Give me to drink! “

The Lord is always greater

Referring to Jesus’ meeting with Nicodemus, He contemplated on Wednesday, March 19 in Christian educationThe Pope confirms: “If Nicodemus comes to Jesus at night, then Jesus here meets the Samaritan at noon, and the time when more light is. In fact, it is a moment of revelation. She was released before her as Christ and also helps in sixth place. It is not random, but it usually indicates the deficiency:“ This may be a sign of the seventh husband, who will finally satisfy this woman’s desire to be truly loved. This husband can only be Jesus, “Bergolio suggests.

When he realizes that Jesus knows his life, the bishop of Rome emphasizes that a woman has turned the debate towards the religious issue that divided the Jews and the Samaritans. At this stage, Francisco states that this sometimes happens to us when we pray:

“And when she continues, the Pope continues, she was surprised again, that he was about these things, it is better to wait for Christ, he says:” I am the one who talks to you “(verse 26). It is like the declaration of love: the person you expect is me; the person who can finally respond to your desire to be loved.”

We can always start our way again

At that time, Francisco emphasizes that the woman is evading the city’s members, “because it is exactly the experience of feeling love where the task arises.” “What is the advertisement that he could attend, but your experience in understanding it, welcoming, and forgiving?” The Pope challenges us.

Like a person in love, Bergulio notes that “the Samaritans forgot its amplifiers at the foot of Jesus.” The Pope says that the weight of that excavated on his head, every time he returned home, reminds him of his condition, attributed his life. But now I am on the feet of Jesus. The past is no longer a burden; It has been reconciled.

Finally, the insured ink calls not to losing hope: “Although our history seems sad, complicated, and perhaps even destroyed, we always have the ability to give it to God and start our way again.” “God is mercy and always waiting for us!” Francis.