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Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - "I have lost my heart to Jesus of Nazareth", is how the young Charles de Foucauld, who lived as a monk in the desert and was canonized by Pope Francis on May 15, 2022, describes to a friend the attraction that changed his life after years spent among ephemeral pleasures far from the Church. The Bishop of Rome re-proposed the spiritual experience of Saint Charles de Foucauld during today's general audience, Wednesday, October 18, continuing the series of catecheses dedicated to men and women who have shown particular passion for the proclamation of the Gospel. “Brother Charles” said the Pope, echoing the words of de Foucauld “thus reminds us that the first step in evangelizing is to have Jesus inside one's heart; it is to “fall head over heels” for Him. If this does not happen, we can hardly show it with our lives. we risk talking about ourselves, the group to which we belong, a morality or, even worse, a set of rules, but not about Jesus, his love, his mercy. This - continued the Pontiff - "I see in some new movements that are emerging: they talk about their vision of humanity, they talk about their spirituality and they feel theirs is a new path… But why do you not talk about Jesus? They talk about many things, about organization, about spiritual journeys, but they do not know how to talk about Jesus".
"The experience of Charles de Foucauld – continued Pope Francis – shows that only the attraction of Christ himself, and not human effort, can lead to following and imitating Him, and arouse the desire to make Him known to others". “Advised by his confessor,” said the Pope, Charles “goes to the Holy Land to visit the places where the Lord lived and to walk where the Master walked. In particular, it is in Nazareth that he realises he must be formed in the school of Christ. He experiences an intense relationship with the Lord, spends long hours reading the Gospels, and feels like his little brother. And as he gets to know Jesus, the desire to make Jesus known arises in him; it always happens like this. When one of us gets to know Jesus better, the desire to make him known, to share this treasure, arises". A desire that does not transform into activism: Charles follows the path witnessed by Mary in the mystery of her Visitation to her cousin Elizabeth: "in silence, by example, by life". He "goes to the Sahara desert" and there he allows himself to be enveloped in the mystery of the divine Eucharist. Charles recalled the Pope – “lets Jesus act silently, convinced that the “Eucharistic life” evangelizes. Indeed, he believes that Christ is the first evangelizer. And so he remains in prayer at Jesus’ feet, before the Tabernacle, for a dozen hours a day, sure that the evangelizing force resides there and feeling that it is Jesus who will bring him close to so many distant brothers" The Pontiff, referring to the present, said he was convinced of the fact "that we have lost the sense of adoration: we must regain it, starting with us consecrated persons, bishops, priests, nuns and all consecrated persons. “Waste” time before the tabernacle, regain the sense of adoration”. Charles de Foucauld - continued the Pontiff - also recalled that "every Christian is an apostle", and reminds a lay friend that "there need to be laypeople close to priests, to see what the priest does not see, who evangelize with a proximity of charity, with goodness for everyone, with affection always ready to be given". The saintly laypeople”, continued Pope Francis, “not climbers, but those laypeople, that layman, that laywoman, who love Jesus, make the priest understand that he is not a functionary, he is a mediator, a priest. How we priests need to have beside us those laypeople who truly believe, and who teach us the way by their witness. Charles de Foucauld, with this lay experience, foreshadows the times of Vatican Council II, he intuits the importance of the laity and understands that the proclamation of the Gospel is up to the entire people of God. But how can we increase this participation? The way Charles de Foucauld did: by kneeling and welcoming the action of the Spirit, who always inspires new ways to engage, meet, listen and dialogue, always in collaboration and trust, always in communion with the Church and pastors".
Living Jesus’ goodness continued the Bishop of Rome, underlining other traits of the spiritual life of Saint Charles de Foucauld "led him to forge fraternal friendships with the bonds of friendship with the poor, with the Tuareg, with those furthest from his mentality. Gradually these bonds generated fraternity, inclusion, appreciation of the other’s culture". (GV) (Agenzia Fides, 18/10/2023)
