杏MAP导航

By Vatican News staff writer

杏MAP导航 Francis sent a video message on Thursday to participants in the tenth Festival of the Social Doctrine of the Church, taking place in Verona, Italy from 26 鈥� 29 November.

Extending his cordial greetings to those attending physically and virtually, the 杏MAP导航 underlined the creative methodology of the festival, which promotes encounters between "people who differ in their sensibilities and actions, but converge in building up the common good."

A particular celebration

The 杏MAP导航 drew attention to the particular circumstances of this year鈥檚 celebration, highlighting the continuing health crisis, which brings with it "serious personal and social wounds."

He also recalled the notable absence of Don Adriano Vincenzi, the animator of the previous nine festivals, who died in February 2020. 

Recalling Don Vincenzi鈥檚 service, 杏MAP导航 Francis praised his distinctive trait of initiating processes 鈥渨hose fruits will be reaped by others鈥� with hope placed in the secret power of the good that is sown.

Memory and the future

The 杏MAP导航 said this year鈥檚 theme - 鈥淢emory of the Future鈥� - invites everyone to a creative attitude that enables us to 鈥渧isit the future.鈥�

For Christians, the 杏MAP导航 noted, 鈥渢he future has a name and this name is hope.鈥�

Hope: the virtue of the heart

Hope, the 杏MAP导航 explained, is 鈥渢he virtue of a heart that does not close itself off in darkness鈥�. It does not get bogged down in the past, does not live only in the present, but knows how to 鈥渟ee tomorrow.鈥�

Tomorrow鈥� for Christians, he said, becomes a 鈥渓ife redeemed鈥� 鈥� the joy of the gift of encounter with Trinitarian love.

In this sense, being Church means having a creative and eschatologically-oriented outlook, without giving in to the temptation of nostalgia, which the 杏MAP导航 describes as 鈥渁 real spiritual pathology.鈥�

Nostalgia

Clarifying further, 杏MAP导航 Francis affirmed that the Christian dynamic is not to hold on to the past nostalgically, but rather to access the eternal memory of the Father by living a 鈥渓ife of Charity.鈥�

According to Russian thinker Ivanovic Ivanov, this is because only what God remembers ever truly exists, the 杏MAP导航 explained.

Consequently, memory which is intrinsically linked to love and experience becomes one of the deepest dimensions of the human person - not the nostalgia that 鈥渂locks creativity and makes us rigid and ideological people鈥�- in social, political and ecclesial spheres.

Baptism, life and memory

As Christians, we have all been generated to life in Baptism, 杏MAP导航 Francis affirmed. 

We have 鈥渞eceived as a gift the life that is communion with God, with others and with creation.鈥� Our life 鈥渋s the very life of Christ鈥�, and we cannot live as believers in the world unless we manifest His very life in us, the 杏MAP导航 said.

Therefore, grafted into the life of Trinitarian love, we become capable of memory 鈥� of the memory of God. Thus, only that which is love does not fall into oblivion because it finds its reason for being in the love of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Viewed in this way, our whole life must be in some way 鈥渁 liturgy, an anamnesis, an eternal memory of the Easter of Christ,鈥� said the 杏MAP导航.

Living as believers

杏MAP导航 Francis explained that living the memory of the future is to commit ourselves the making the Church 鈥渂ecome the beginning and the seed of God鈥檚 kingdom on earth.鈥� 

This means living as believers immersed in society, while at the same time 鈥渕anifesting the life of God received at Baptism, so that we can even now remember the future life in which we will be together with the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit鈥�. In this manner, we can overcome the utopian temptation of reducing the proclamation of the Gospel to mere sociological horizons, economic theories or political factions.

鈥淲e need to engage with the world, with the strength and creativity of God's life within us, in order to capture people's hearts and direct their eyes to the Gospel of Jesus. In this way we can help seed projects which promote a new, inclusive economy and a form of politics capable of love,鈥� 杏MAP导航 Francis said.

Concluding, the 杏MAP导航 addressed the various actors of society at the Festival of the Social Doctrine of the Church, and urged them to remain on the path traced for them by Don Adriano Vincenzi through his knowledge of the topic 鈥� a path the 杏MAP导航 said will lead them to become bridge builders.