CNA Newsroom, 01 December, 2024 / 6:25 pm (ACI Africa).
Pope Francis welcomed the recent Lebanon-Israel ceasefire while urging the faithful to “stand erect and raise your heads” amid global turmoil during his Sunday Angelus address.
Speaking to pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square for the first Sunday of Advent, the pontiff expressed hope that the diplomatic breakthrough between Lebanon and Israel could spark similar ceasefires elsewhere, particularly in Gaza, while delivering a powerful message about maintaining spiritual vigilance in times of tribulation.
“Jesus’ invitation is this: Raise your head high and keep your heart light and awake,” the Holy Father said, addressing a world grappling with what he called “cosmic upheavals and anxiety and fear in humanity.”
The pope noted that many people today, like Jesus’ contemporaries, faced with “catastrophic events they saw happening around them — persecutions, conflicts, natural disasters — are gripped by anxiety and think that the end of the world is coming.”
“Their hearts are weighed down with fear,” Francis observed. “Jesus, however, wants to free them from present anxieties and false convictions, showing them how to stay awake in their hearts, how to read events from the plan of God, who works salvation even within the most dramatic events of history.”