VATICAN CITY (CNS) — St. Joseph is the perfect model of listening to the Lord and quietly putting his word and plan into action, Pope Francis said.
“Joseph trusts in God, he accepts God’s dream for his life and that of his betrothed. He thus enters into the grace of one who knows how to live the divine promise with faith, hope and love,” the pope said Jan. 29 during his weekly general audience in the Paul VI Audience Hall.
Also during the audience, Pope Francis spoke to Polish visitors about International Holocaust Remembrance Day, offered his best wishes to Chinese visitors and others celebrating the Lunar New Year and pleaded for an end to violence in Congo.
The pope remembered the many Poles, “who together with members of other nations, were victims of extermination in German concentration camps during World War II.”
The world marks International Holocaust Remembrance Day on Jan. 27 each year, the anniversary of the day in 1945 when Soviet troops liberated the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp complex. The camp was the largest of the Nazi work and death camps; an estimated 1.1 million of the more than 6 million victims of the Holocaust died there.
As people remember the anniversary, the pope asked his Polish visitors to “be custodians of the truth and memory of this tragedy and its victims, including many Christian martyrs.”
It is a reminder of the need for “a constant commitment to peace and defense of the dignity of human life in every nation and every religion,” he said.
When greeting Chinese-speaking visitors in the audience hall, the pope expressed his hopes that Lunar New Year celebrations would offer “an occasion to experience family and friendships with greater intensity.” The holiday, Jan. 29 this year, is widely celebrated in China, South Korea, Vietnam and countries with a significant number of people from China.
Addressing “dear brothers and sisters in East Asia and in different parts of the world,” he offered his best wishes for the New Year. “May my blessings reach all of you, as I invoke from the Lord peace, serenity and health for each one.”
The pope also expressed his concern over the worsening situation in Congo, which has also seen violent demonstrations in the capital, Kinshasa, protesting a lack of intervention by the international community regarding the deadly conflict in Goma.
“I urge all sides in the conflict to commit to the cessation of hostilities and to the protection of the civilian population of Goma and other areas affected by the military operations,” the pope said at the audience, adding a call to end the violence in the capital as well.
“While I pray for the quick restoration of peace and security, I call on the local authorities and the international community for their full effort to resolve the conflict by peaceful means,” he said.
In his main address, the pope spoke about St. Joseph, spouse of the Virgin Mary and foster father of Jesus, as part of his series of talks on “Jesus Christ our hope,” which is the theme for his weekly catechesis throughout the Jubilee Year.
When Joseph discovered Mary’s pregnancy, he said, “his love is harshly put to the test.” Instead of terminating the betrothal, which would have been allowed by law, “Joseph acts thoughtfully: he does not let himself be overcome by instinctive feelings and fear of accepting Mary with him, but prefers to be guided by divine wisdom.”
“Joseph is a ‘righteous’ man, a man who lives according to the law of the Lord,” he said, and he is “open and docile to the voice of the Lord.”
“He dreams of the miracle that God fulfills in Mary’s life, and also the miracle that he works in his own life: to take on a fatherhood capable of guarding, protecting and passing on” God’s promise of salvation, he said.
“Joseph does not ask for further proof,” the pope said, and fully accepts God’s plan.
“Joseph, in all of this, does not utter a word, but he believes, hopes and loves. He does not express himself with ‘idle words,’ but with concrete deeds,” the pope said.
“Let us, too, ask the Lord for the grace to listen more than we speak, to dream God’s dreams and to welcome responsibly the Christ who, from the moment of baptism, lives and grows in our life,” he said.
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