“And imagining ourselves there, in His presence, at the threshold of eternity, we make the decision for today. We must decide in this way: always looking to eternity, looking at Jesus. It may not be the easiest, it may not be the most immediate, but it will be the right one, that is sure,” he said.
At the end of his Angelus address, Pope Francis reminded the crowd that the Church is celebrating the World Day of the Poor this year with the theme: “The poor you will always have with you.”
He said: “And it is true: humanity progresses, develops, but the poor are always with us. There are always the poor, and in them Christ is present. Christ is present in the poor.”
The pope offered a Mass for the World Day of the Poor earlier in the day in the presence of 2,000 people living in poverty and the volunteers who assist them, according to the Vatican.
“The cry of the poor, united with the cry of the Earth, resounded in recent days at the United Nations Climate Change Summit COP26 in Glasgow,” Pope Francis said in the Angelus.
“I encourage all those with political and economic responsibilities to act now with courage and vision; at the same time, I invite all people of good will to exercise active citizenship for the care of the common home.”
Pope Francis noted that he was also praying for people with diabetes and those who care for them on World Diabetes Day.
“To base one’s life on the Word of God … is not an escape from history, but an immersion into earthly realities in order to make them solid, to transform them with love, imprinting on them the sign of eternity, the sign of God,” Pope Francis said.
“May Our Lady help us to make the important choices in life as she did: according to love, according to God,” he said.
Courtney Mares is a Rome Correspondent for Catholic News Agency. A graduate of Harvard University, she has reported from news bureaus on three continents and was awarded the Gardner Fellowship for her work with North Korean refugees.
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