Courtney McGrail
Pope Francis God sees beyond our sins, and does not identify us with what we have done wrong, Pope Francis said on the third anniversary of his election as Pontiff.
Addressing the crowds in St Peter’s Square after his usual Sunday recitation of the Angelus, the Pope did not mention the anniversary, instead focusing wholly on God’s forgiveness and mercy, after the fashion of his very first Angelus address three years ago.
“God does not nail us to our sins; he does not identify us with the evil we have committed,” the Holy Father said, continuing, “We have a name, and God does not identify this name with the sin we have committed. He wants to free us, and desires that we want to be together with him.”
Free
“God wants to free us,” the Pope stressed, explaining that God wants people to use their freedom to do good and not evil. “This is possible,” he said, “it’s possible – with his grace.”
Preaching on the story of the woman caught in adultery, the Gospel narrative of the day, Pope Francis said “this woman represents all of us, that we are sinners, adulterers before God, traitors of his loyalty”. Her experience, he said, likewise reflects God’s will for each of us – “not our condemnation, but our salvation through Jesus”.
The scribes and Pharisees, planning to stone the woman in accordance with the law, had brought her to Jesus in an attempt to trick him, he said. Caught between mercy and a need to fulfil the law, he instead challenged his interlocutors, saying, “Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.”
Response
This response, the Pope said, disarmed the accusers who left one by one, starting with the eldest among them, who were “more aware of not being without sin”.
Such an awareness of our sinfulness would be good for us, the Pontiff said, adding “How good it would be if we had the courage to let fall to the ground the stones we have for throwing at others and rather to think about our own sins.”
After the address, thousands of gathered pilgrims and tourists were given pocket-sized copies of the Gospel according to St Luke. Citing how Jesus’ words, as reported by Luke, “Be merciful, as your Father” had inspired the theme of the Jubilee Year of Mercy, Pope Francis urged those gathered to read the Gospel “in order that the mercy of the Father will dwell in your heart and you will bring it to everyone you meet”.
Copies of the Gospel were handed out by retired workers from an Italian telephone company and members of a national association of retirees. The Pope thanked the volunteers, singling out those “grandfathers and grandmothers who transmit the Faith to their grandchildren”.