During his February 4 Angelus address, Pope Francis reflected on the Gospel reading of the day (Mark 1:29-39) and said that the “continual movement of Jesus … tells us something important about God and, at the same time, challenges us with some questions on our faith.”
“It may be that within us there is still the idea of a distant, cold God, indifferent to our fate,” the Pope said to pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square. “On the contrary, the Gospel lets us see that Jesus, after teaching in the synagogue, goes out, so that the Word He has preached may reach, touch and heal people.”
Emphasizing that “God’s attitude can be expressed in three words: closeness, compassion and tenderness,” the Pope said that “our first spiritual task is this: to abandon the God we think we know, and to convert every day to the God Jesus presents to us in the Gospel, who is the Father of love and the Father of compassion.”
“May Mary Most Holy, Woman on the way, help us to proclaim ourselves the witness of the Lord who is close, compassionate and tender,” he concluded.