Lighten burdens by making room for the Lord, pope says at Angelus

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Despite the problems and worries in the world, Jesus invites Christians to look toward heaven, trust in his saving love and make room for him in order to find hope again, Pope Francis said.

“Sadness is awful,” he told visitors gathered in St. Peter’s Square for the Angelus Dec. 1, the first Sunday of Advent.

“Indeed, it can happen that the anxiety, fears and worries about our personal lives or about what is happening in the world today weigh down on us like boulders and throw us into discouragement … and induce us to close in on ourselves,” he said.

“Jesus’ invitation is this: raise your head high and keep your hearts light and awake,” he said, reflecting on the day’s Gospel reading from St. Luke, which speaks about “cosmic upheavals and anxiety and fear in humanity.” 

“In this context, Jesus addresses a word of hope to his disciples,” he said, by encouraging them to not let their hearts “become drowsy” and to await the coming of the Son of Man with vigilance.

The disciples’ hearts were “weighed down with fear,” the pope said. “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.”

Jesus’ invitation is important for the faithful today, he said. “Let’s ask ourselves: what can I do to have a light heart, a wakeful heart, a free heart? A heart that does not let itself be crushed by sadness?”

Jesus, he said, “invites us to lift up our heads, to trust in his love that wants to save us and that draws close to us in every situation of our existence; he asks us to make room for him in order to find hope again.”

“May this Advent season be a precious opportunity to lift our gaze to him, who lightens our hearts and sustains us on our way,” Pope Francis said.