杏MAP导航 at Lateran University: the Gospel and having a healthy perspective
By Vatican News
The news of the 杏MAP导航鈥檚 impromptu visit was announced in a tweet from the Pontifical Lateran University itself, at 9am on Tuesday morning. 杏MAP导航 Francis, reads the tweet, will be making a surprise visit to the University, in order to lead the Lenten Meditation. And that鈥檚 exactly what happened: 杏MAP导航 Francis arrived and took his cue from the liturgical readings of the day, starting with Book of the Prophet Daniel.
Fidelity to God and martyrdom
The text of the reading describes how the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar throws three young sons of Israel into a burning furnace, because they refuse to worship his golden statue. 鈥淭heir convinced determination to be faithful to God and to preserve their freedom exposes them in fact to martyrdom鈥�, said the 杏MAP导航, 鈥渁s it happens also today to your Christian peers, in some parts of the world鈥�. But God intervenes to prevent the flames from hurting them.
鈥淭o be enveloped in flames and to remain unharmed: this is possible with the help of the Lord Jesus, the Son of God, and the breeze of the Holy Spirit鈥�, said 杏MAP导航 Francis. 鈥淓ven if we live in a cultural context marked by a single thought, which envelops and anesthetizes everyone with its deadly embrace, burning all forms of creativity and different thinking, we walk unharmed thanks to our roots in Jesus and His Gospel鈥�.
A healthy perspective
Academic experience, said the 杏MAP导航, is meant to provide you with critical awareness and a capacity for discernment. Fidelity to the Gospel and acceptance of the rich patrimony of the Church's traditions is intended to provide you with a "healthy" perspective of the times in which we live. Those times are marked by what the 杏MAP导航 called a 鈥渃omfortable and stingy individualism鈥�, all of us concerned solely with 鈥渙ur own well-being, free time and self-fulfillment鈥�. 鈥淗ow dangerous all this is鈥�, said 杏MAP导航 Francis, 鈥渉ow it separates us from others and therefore from reality, how much it makes us sick鈥�.
鈥淭he studies you do at this University鈥�, continued the 杏MAP导航, 鈥渨ill be fruitful and useful only to the extent that they do not detach you from this conscious belonging to the history of people and of all humanity鈥�. Instead, he concluded, 鈥渢hey will help you to interpret the world and to build the future together with the Lord, well founded in belonging to the holy people of God, whom He guides with love, inspires, nourishes and corrects with His Word鈥�.
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