Facing the unknown, faithful can trust in God’s salvation, pope says

ROME (CNS) — God always comes to save and free his children and to help them say “yes,” like Mary, to his will, Pope Leo XIV said.

“Even though we do not know what the future holds,” he said, “like Mary, we can always be trustful and grateful for his work of salvation.”

Celebrating vespers in the chapel of the Domus Australia in Rome Oct. 6, the eve of the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary of Pompeii, the pope said, “this devotion to Our Blessed Mother holds a special place in my heart.”

The pope visited the guesthouse owned by the Catholic Church in Australia to celebrate the feast day and to bless a recently restored image of Our Lady of Pompeii, which was donated by Blessed Bartolo Longo, a lawyer and former satanic priest who lived 1841-1926 and founded the Shrine of Our Lady of the Rosary in Pompeii. Pope Leo is scheduled to canonize him Oct. 19.

Mary embodied the theological virtue of hope “through her trust that God would fulfil his promises,” the pope said. “This hope, in turn, gave her the strength and courage to spend her life willingly for the sake of the Gospel and abandon herself entirely to God’s will.”

Even though “Mary did not know precisely how or when God would save his people,” he said, she remained faithful to God every day, living “in abandonment to God’s will, trusting that he would save his people according to his design.”

“God never delays; we are the ones who have to learn to trust, even if it requires patience and perseverance,” Pope Leo said. “God’s timing is always perfect.”

“God always comes to save and liberate us,” he said, as his plan has been brought to fulfilment in the mission of Jesus.

“Moreover, he did not come simply to redeem us from slavery to sin, but to free our hearts to say ‘yes’ to him, just as Our Blessed Mother did,” he added.

God the Father chose and “destined us in love to be his sons and daughters through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will,” which is “to bring us to eternal life,” he said.

As St. Augustine wrote, he said, “God created us without us, but he will not save us without us,” which means “we are called to cooperate with him by living out a life of grace as his sons and daughters, making our own contribution to the plan of salvation.”

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