Pontiff explains who God really is

Pope Francis has offered an insight into God’s true character.

Using the parable of the talents in Mathew 25:14–30, he emphasised the importance of really understanding who God is.

According to him, this parable “makes us understand how important it is to have a true idea of God.”

The pontiff encouraged people to stop seeing God as harsh as this “mistaken image of God” stops our lives from being fruitful, “because we will live in fear and this will not lead us to anything constructive.”

In his words, “Fear always immobilizes and often leads us to make bad choices.

“Fear discourages us from taking the initiative, and encourages us to seek refuge in safe and guaranteed solutions, and so we end up doing nothing good.”

“We must not be afraid, but we have to trust,” in order to move ahead in life, he added.

Pope Francis used the Old Testament to explain the true nature of God saying that Exodus describes Him as “merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.”

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He did the same thing with the New Testament when he said that Jesus proves that God is not “a severe and intolerant master,” but a father full of “love and tenderness, a father full of goodness,” adding that “we can and must have immense trust in him.”

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Going back to the parable of the talents, Pope Francis said the story urges us to have “a personal responsibility and fidelity which become capable of continually placing ourselves on new roads, without burying the talent, which is are the gifts that God has entrusted to us and of which he will ask us to account for.”

Catholic News Agency reports that he said all of these on Sunday, November 19, 2017, while addressing pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square.

After his sermon, Pope Francis had lunch with 1,500 poor and needy in Vatican’s Paul VI Hall in honour of the first-ever World Day for the Poor.

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There, he blessed the food asking the Lord “to bless us, to bless the meal, to bless those who prepared it, to bless all of us, our hearts, our families, our desires and our lives, that he give us health and strength. Amen.”