When people are unable to love or accept a child with problems or illness, many times it’s because they are too weak themselves to be able to bear someone else’s vulnerabilities, Pope Francis told a group of children and young people who are wards of the state.
“If I have a giant rock, I can’t put it on top of a cardboard box because the rock will crush the box”, the Pontiff said, explaining how some adults “don’t have sufficient strength to bear fragility because they themselves are fragile”.
The Pope met with the group, which included minors living in foster care or receiving other forms of support and help from the Romanian-based NGO called “FDP: Protagonists in Education”. This week the Vatican released a written transcript of the meeting.
In response to a man’s question about why his mother didn’t want or accept him, the Pope said that the mother didn’t know how to properly express the love she had for him.
“Your mother loves you, but she doesn’t know how to, she doesn’t know how to express it. She can’t because life is hard and unjust, and that love that is trapped inside her, she doesn’t know how to say it or how to caress you,” the Pope said.
He added that that some parents are fragile or weak because they are human beings with their own limitations, sins and vulnerabilities.
“And perhaps they were not lucky to be helped when they were young” to find a person who could take them by the hand and help them grow, become strong and overcome their weaknesses, he said.
“It’s difficult to get help from fragile parents and sometimes it’s us who has to help them” and not blame life for how it turned out, he said, but use one’s own strength so “the rock doesn’t crush the cardboard box”.
Carol Glatz, Catholic News Service