Pope Francis recalled this 22 October that the “style of God” is “closeness, tenderness, compassion”, with which “seeds of the Gospel can be sown on the true frontier of the world, which is the human heart”.
Receiving an audience in the “Frontier Community”, which cares for and gives residence to poor children and young people in southern Italy, the Holy Father stressed that “in this community, we see the imprint of two charisms: that of Saint Francis of Assisi and that of Blessed Giuseppe Puglisi”.
“An ancient charism known to all, the Franciscan, which in the Church has become a great tree with many branches; and a very recent charism, that of the martyred priest Don Pino, who gave his life out of love for his people and especially his children”, he recalled.
Blessed Giuseppe “Pino” Puglisi was a courageous defender of the children used by the mafia in southern Italy for drug trafficking. Organized crime murdered him on September 15, 1993, and he was beatified on 25 May 2013.
The Pope stressed that “both Francis and Don Puglisi lived the Gospel on the ‘border’. But let’s be careful: this word can become a catchphrase, perhaps fashionable.
“No, we don’t want it to be that. “Frontier” is the style of Jesus Christ, who despite being God, came to meet us, a lost, lost, and hopeless sheep,” he said.
“The border is not a slogan, dear brothers and sisters, it is a way of life,” he reiterated.
At the end of his message, Pope Francis asked them to “never lose his style, God’s style: closeness, tenderness, compassion. This is the style of God, so they will sow seeds of the Gospel in the true frontier of the world, which is the human heart”.