Pope Francis: Christ is with us in every challenge

Pope Francis has appealed to people not to allow life’s disappointments to paralyse them and cut them off.

Leading the recitation of the traditional Eastertide Regina Coeli via video-link from his library, the Pope reflected on the Sunday Gospel of the disciples meeting Jesus on the road to Emmaus.

“It is a story which begins and ends on the move”, the Pontiff said. On the way from Jerusalem to Emmaus, the disciples are sad, although the Lord whom they do not recognise, is walking beside them. On the return journey, they are joyful, because, although they no longer see Jesus, they feel his presence near them.

Francis said that these two different paths show us “that in life, we have two opposite directions in front of us” – one is the path of those who “let themselves be paralysed by life’s disappointments”, and the other is that of those who put Jesus, and their brothers and sisters who await them, in first place.

“Here is the turning point”, the Pope said: “to stop orbiting around oneself, the disappointments of the past, the unrealised ideals, and to go on looking at the greatest and truest reality of life: Jesus is alive and loves me”.

Speaking in Italian, Pope Francis used a play on words and urged people to move from ‘if’ (se) to ‘yes’ (sì). We often think “if God had freed us, if God had listened to me, if life had not gone as I wanted, if I had this or that”. That was the disciples’ attitude that first Easter evening. Yet “they pass to the ‘yes’,” the Pope said. “Yes, the Lord is alive, He walks with us. Yes, now, not tomorrow, we are on our way to announce it”.

“In life, we are always journeying”, the Pope said. “And we become what we go towards.

“Let us choose the way of God, not of the self…We will discover that there are no unexpected events, no uphill path, no night that cannot be faced with Jesus”.

After praying the Regina Coeli Pope Francis referred to the ongoing fight against malaria and the international observation of World Malaria Day.

He said that, even in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, “we must continue the effort to prevent and cure malaria, which threatens millions of persons in many countries”.

Francis said he is close to all who are sick and to those working to ensure that “every person might have access to basic health care”.

At the end of the short event, Pope Francis again went to the window of the Apostolic Palace and imparted his blessing upon the world.