Pope Francis - A Gift of Joy and Hope

My wish can be summed up in one word: smile.

Inspiration for this wish comes from Thailand, one of the last countries I visited, also known as the country of the smile. The Thai people have a special kindness about them, a nobility and manner that are captured by this facial expression and present in all their gestures. My journey there had a profound impact on me and has led me to understand the smile as an expression of love, an expression of affection, a deeply human gesture.

When we look at a baby, we smile, and if a small smile blooms on the babys face, we feel a deep, heartfelt emotion stir inside us. While the child may simply be responding to our gaze, their smile is incredibly powerful because it is new, pure, like water from a spring, and it awakens a true nostalgia for childhood in us adults.

This is what took place between Mary, Joseph, and Jesus in a special way. The Virgin and her husband, through their love, made a smile bloom on the lips of their newborn child. And when this happened, their hearts were filled with a new kind of joy, a joy that came from Heaven. And the little manger in Bethlehem was filled with light.

Jesus is Gods smile. Jesus came to us to reveal the love of our heavenly Father, His goodness, and He did so by smiling at His parents, like every newborn child does. They, the Virgin Mary and St. Joseph, because of their great faith, were able to accept that message; in Jesus smile they saw Gods mercy, both for themselves and for all those who awaited His coming, the coming of the Messiah, the Son of God, King of Israel.

We too, my dear friends, can experience this feeling when we look down at the nativity scene; when we look at Baby Jesus, we can feel God smiling at us, smiling down upon the poor of the earth, upon all who await salvation, who hope for a kinder world, a place where war and violence do not exist, a place where men and women can live in dignity as the children of God.

Sometimes it is difficult to smile, and there is no lack of reasons for this. In these hard times, we especially need Gods smile, and only Jesus can help us. Only He is the Savior. Sometimes we experience this concretely in our lives.

Sometimes things go well for us, but then there is the danger of feeling too safe. We must not forget that others are struggling. We need Gods smile then so that we are stripped of our false sense of security and led back to simpler and easier ways of life.

Let us grant each other this wish, whatever the season: let us feel awe and wonder at Gods smile, which Jesus brought to us. He Himself is this smile. Let us welcome Him and allow ourselves to be purified so that we can bring a humble, simple smile to others.

Share this wish with your loved ones at home, especially the sick and the elderly, so they can feel the gentle caress of your smile. Because that is what a smile is: a gentle caress, a caress of the heart, a caress of the soul. And, together, let us remain united in prayer.

The pages that follow outline a manifesto of rebirth, a new era of joy, a period made even more necessary because of these times of illness. The thoughts and words included here represent a journey through the comments, speeches, homilies, apostolic exhortations, and encyclicals articulated by His Holiness.

HOPE NEVER LETS US DOWN

Optimism can let us down, but hope never does! These days our need for hope is great because we feel surrounded by darkness, disoriented by evil and violence, and distressed for the plight of so many of our brothers and sisters. We truly need hope! We feel disoriented, sometimes even discouraged and powerless, as though this darkness will never end.

We must not let hope slip away from us. God and His love walk alongside us. I hope because God is with me. Each of us can say these words.

THE HAPPINESS OF A SHARED HUMANITY

In this fast-paced world, which has no shared roadmap, we increasingly sense that the gap between concern for ones personal well-being and the prosperity of the larger human family is widening; it feels as though there is a schism between the individual and the community of humankind. It is one thing to feel forced to live together, but it is another thing entirely to value the richness and beauty of the seeds of a shared life, which need to be sought out and sown. Yes, technology is constantly advancing, but how wonderful it would be if scientific and technological innovation brought greater equality and social inclusion with it. How wonderful it would be if, while discovering faraway planets, we could also rediscover the needs of our brothers and sisters who orbit around us!

THE NIGHTS OF OUR LIVES

We all have an appointment with God in the dark of night, in the night-time of our lives, in one of the many nights of our life: dark moments, moments of sin, moments of disorientation. We have a standing appointment with God on those nights, always. He will be there to surprise us at the moment we least expect Him, when we find ourselves truly alone. And on those nights, while we struggle with the unknown, we will realize that we are merely poor men and women; but then, in those very moments when we feel as though we are poor creatures, we discover that we need not fear, because God will give us a new name, one that will encompass the meaning of our entire lives. He will change our hearts and offer us the blessing reserved to those who have allowed themselves to be changed by Him. This invitation to let ourselves be changed by God is beautiful; God knows how to do it because He knows each one of us.