Faith is touching Jesus and drawing from him the grace that savesVATICAN CITY — “Do we believe that Jesus can heal us and awake us from death?” This, Pope Francis said, is the message of Sunday’s Gospel, which recounts how Jesus healed a woman suffering from a hemorrhage, and raised a young girl from the dead.
Speaking to the faithful at the Sunday Angelus, the Pope said these two episodes “have a single focus: faith.” In fact, he continued, “the whole of the Gospel is written in the light of this faith: Jesus is risen, He has conquered death, and through His victory, we too shall rise.”
As this Sunday's Gospel illustrates, ‘whoever believes 'touches’ Jesus and draws from Him the grace that saves. This is faith: touching Jesus and drawing from Him the grace that saves. He saves us, he saves our spiritual life, he saves us from so many problems,” the Pope said.
But this faith, which for the early Christians was absolutely sure, can sometimes become “tarnished” and uncertain. Sunday’s Gospel, the Pope said, “invites us to live in the certainty of the Resurrection: Jesus is the Lord, he has power over evil and death, and He wants to bring us to the house of the Father, where life reigns.”
Pope Francis said Jesus’ Resurrection is “the principle of renewal and hope” in history. Anyone who feels hopeless or “tired to the point of death, if they entrust themselves to Jesus and His love, can begin again to live.” Those who believe in Christ, he said, should be able to be recognized as believers precisely because “they always promote life in every situation” so that everyone, and especially the weakest among us, can experience the love of God “which frees and saves.”
