By Deborah Castellano Lubov
HOW do I live?
This was the question Pope Francis told pilgrims to ask themselves at his General Audience in the Vatican’s Paul VI Hall on August 18.
This week, Pope Francis continued his catechesis on St Paul’s Letter to the Galatians, focusing specifically on ‘the propedeutic value of the Law.’
Reflecting on the letter, the Jesuit Pontiff recalled how St Paul teaches “that faith in Jesus Christ brings a spiritual freedom that liberates believers from the demands of the Mosaic Law.”
For the apostle, the Law served a “pedagogical” function, “as a merciful gift of God, it demanded obedience to his commandments, while at the same time pointing to the reality of our sinfulness and need for salvation.”
“With the coming of Christ and his redeeming grace, the Law finds its fulfilment in the Gospel message of new life and freedom in the Spirit,” Pope Francis said.
“This teaching on the value of the law is very important, and deserves to be considered carefully so we do not give way to misunderstandings and take false steps,” he said.
“It is good for us to ask ourselves if we still live in the period in which we need the Law, or if instead we are fully aware of having received the grace of becoming children of God so as to live in love.
“How do I live? In the fear that if I do not do this, I will go to hell? Or do I live with that hope too, with that joy of the gratuitousness of salvation in Jesus Christ? It is a good question.
“And also the second: do I disregard the Commandments? No. I observe them, but not as absolutes, because I know that it is Jesus Christ who justifies me.”
Pope Francis did not hold General Audiences during July as popes generally ‘take off’ that month, other than their weekly Sunday Angelus address from the window overlooking St Peter’s Square.
However, always in continuity with the past, Pope Francis is resuming his General Audiences in August, and again from inside Paul VI, due to the intense August Roman heat.
In the past, prior to the pandemic, General Audiences were held in St Peter’s Square, or in the Vatican’s Paul VI Hall.
Since the pandemic, they often were streamed privately in the Pope’s apostolic library, and at times, when in line with health authorities’ recommendations that some gathering was safe, it was held with some faithful in the Courtyard of San Damaso.
This story was republished with permission from Exaudi.org.
