The pope said that their memorial is an opportunity to give grandparents “a big round of applause.” Connection with one’s roots is important, he said, quoting the Argentine poet Francisco Luis Bernárdez, who wrote: “The blossom of a tree comes from what it has underground.”
Reflecting on Sunday’s Gospel, Pope Francis said that Jesus “proposes to involve us in the building of the Kingdom of Heaven.”
He pointed to the example of the merchant who finds the pearl of great price and the person who finds treasure buried in a field in Jesus’ parables in the Gospel of Matthew.
“Both the man and the merchant in these two parables sell everything they have, thus renouncing their material security,” he said. “From this it can be understood that the building of the Kingdom requires not only the grace of God, but also the active willingness of humanity.”
“Everything is done by grace, everything! We need only have the willingness to receive it, not to resist grace: grace does everything, but it takes my responsibility, my willingness,” he said.
Today people’s lives can become “mediocre and dull” when a person is content with “attractive but fleeting things” and does not go in search of real treasure, the pope said.
“The Kingdom of Heaven is the opposite of the superfluous things that the world offers, the opposite of a dull life: it is a treasure that renews life every day and leads it to extend towards wider horizons. Indeed, those who have found this treasure have a creative and inquisitive heart, which does not repeat but rather invents, tracing and setting out on new paths which lead us to love God, to love others, and to truly love ourselves,” Pope Francis said.
“We are called upon to assume the attitude of these two Gospel figures, so that we too may become healthily restless seekers of the Kingdom of Heaven. It is a matter of abandoning the heavy burden of our worldly sureties that prevent us from searching and building up the Kingdom: the covetousness for possession, the thirst for profit and power, and thinking only of ourselves,” he said.
One sign that a person is on the path to the Kingdom of Heaven is “creativity,” the pope explained. “Creativity is what … gives life,” he said, “And it gives, and gives, and gives... It always looks for many other ways to give life.”
“Jesus, who is the hidden treasure and the pearl of great value, cannot but inspire joy, all the joy of the world: the joy of discovering a meaning in life, the joy of committing oneself to the adventure of holiness,” Pope Francis said.
