Pope Francis encouraged people to live and maintain sobriety to be free when announcing the Gospel. He warned that “the superfluous makes you a slave,” during his reflection before the Angelus prayer this Sunday, July 14, in St. Peter’s Square in the Vatican before thousands of faithful present.
“Today the Gospel tells us about Jesus sending his disciples on a mission (cf. Mk 6:7-13). He sends them out ‘two by two’ and recommends one important thing to them: that they take with them only what is necessary,” the Holy Father said at the beginning of his reflection.
“Let us pause for a moment on this image: the disciples are sent out together and mustatake with them only what is necessary. The Gospel is not proclaimed alone, but together, as a community, and to do so it is important to know how to maintain sobriety,” he stressed.
Pope Francis explained that this consists of “knowing how to be sober in the use of things, sharing resources, abilities and gifts, and doing without the superfluous, to be free. The superfluous makes you a slave .”
The Holy Father also encouraged people to “be sober in their thoughts and feelings, abandoning their partial visions, prejudices and rigidities that, like useless baggage, weigh down and hinder the path, in order to favour confrontation and listening instead, thus making their own witness more effective.”
Pope Francis also explained that even when there is little in families or communities, “with God’s help, we can move forward and get along, sharing what we have, giving up something and supporting each other.”
And this, he stressed, “is already a missionary announcement, before and even more than words, because it embodies the beauty of Jesus’ message in the concreteness of life.”
In this way, “a rich atmosphere of love is created, in which it is easier to open oneself to faith and to the novelty of the Gospel and from which one emerges better, more serene.”
If the opposite happens and “everyone goes their own way, if only things count – which are never enough – if we do not listen to each other, if individualism and envy prevail – which is a deadly thing, a poison – the air becomes heavy, life becomes difficult and encounters become more an occasion for anxiety, sadness and discouragement than for joy (cf. Mt 19:22),” he warned.
Pope Francis stressed that communion, “harmony among us,” and sobriety are “indispensable values for a Church that is missionary, at all levels.”
The Holy Father then encouraged each person to ask himself: “Do I have the pleasure of announcing the Gospel, of bringing to my home the joy and light that come from the encounter with the Lord? To do so, do I strive to walk alongside others, sharing ideas and abilities with them, with an open mind and a generous heart?”
He also urged us to ask ourselves: “Do I know how to cultivate a sober lifestyle, a lifestyle attentive to the needs of my brothers and sisters? These are questions that will do us good to ask ourselves.”
“May Mary, Queen of the Apostles, help us to be true missionary disciples, in communion and in sobriety of life,” concluded Pope Francis.