Pope prays for artists: We cannot understand the Gospel without beauty

In homily, Francis reflects on history of Christianity as history of the Chosen People: We need awareness of belonging to God's People!

Yesterday I received a letter from a group of artists, thankful for the prayer we offered for them. I would like to ask the Lord to bless them, because artists enable us to understand what beauty is, and that without beauty, the Gospel cannot be understood. Let us pray again for artists.

This was Pope Francis’ intention at morning Mass of May 7.

In his homily the Pope commented on the passage from the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 13, 13-25). In it, Paul, having arrived in Antioch in Pisidia, goes to the synagogue and tells the history of the people of Israel and proclaims Jesus, our Saviour.

“When Paul explains the new doctrine, he speaks of the history of salvation,” Francis said. Preceding Jesus there is a history of grace, of election, there is the Covenant.

Paul does not begin with Jesus, he begins with history, because “Christianity is not only a doctrine, but a history that leads to this doctrine.”

He explained that Christianity is not just made up of ethical and moral principles: “Christianity is more.”

“Being Christian means belonging to a people ‘freely’ chosen by God.”

If we do not have this awareness, this consciousness of belonging to a people, he said, we run the risk of falling into ideologies.

The Pope invited the faithful to always be aware of being part of a people, to transmit the history of our salvation, to preserve the memory of the people of God.

“Remember your ancestors,” says the author of the Letter to the Hebrews. “The most dangerous deviation of Christians is lack of memory of belonging to a people.”

The Holy Father encouraged asking God for the grace of this awareness, as Our Lady proclaimed in the Magnificat, and as Zachariah expressed: “Awareness of being a people: We are the holy and faithful people of God.”