00:00Psalm 33
00:30The purpose of this course, beyond the knowledge acquired, was to experience that God who constantly wants to enter into communication with his people and who wants above all to manifest his divine plan of salvation through his Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.
00:49Through this message we have been able to recognize a God who is not foreign to our reality nor distant from his people, but who throughout history has been permanently by their side, speaking to them, instructing them, accompanying them, defending them, providing for them, giving everything for them, even his own Son.
01:13If we recall, Pope Francis told us that nowadays many Christians are as if they have one foot in and one foot out of the church, that they do not feel it as their home.
01:25For them it's a rental.
01:28From this point of view it is easy to understand why there is a lack of involvement of Christians in the Catholic Church in the work of evangelization, why, having received the mandate from Jesus to go and evangelize, we do not do it.
01:44We need to identify ourselves as inhabitants of this beautiful house that is the church.
01:50Only those who know themselves to be part of it can act in accordance with their Christian vocation.
01:55We hope that after taking this course and having this wonderful encounter with God through his word, you have been able to see yourself as a protagonist in the history of salvation, and no longer just as a mere spectator.
02:10That through the experience of God's people, throughout their journey, you have been able to gradually enter into that pilgrimage and discover yourself not only as someone who feels part of it, but as someone who from now on feels like God's people.
02:29That holy people, that consecrated nation of which Saint Peter spoke to us in his first letter.
02:35Brother, sister, being God's people brings abundant blessing and grace, but it also entails responsibilities.
02:45Being God's people makes us a different kind of people.
02:48It gives us distinctiveness, but not one that leads us to feel superior to others, but one that leads us to manifest ourselves in a different way to the world.
02:59Knowing themselves to be the chosen people, they recognize in their own person the call of Christ to his church, which consists, as His Holiness Benedict XVI tells us, in rescuing men from the desert and leading them to the place of life, towards friendship with the Son of God, towards the one who gives us life and a life in fullness.
03:22This distinguishability as the people of God consists primarily in the fact that those who observe us and live with us cannot help but be attracted to the lifestyle of those who know themselves to be loved and chosen by God to manifest his love to the world.
03:43So when people distinguish us from the rest, they can say, like they did of that first community, "Look how they love one another."
03:51The people of God are that ever-moving community that continues its pilgrimage on this earth, manifesting to men of every race the kingdom of God that is present among us, but which, nevertheless, lives alert and vigilant until the return of our Lord Jesus Christ, when he is to be manifested in all his glory and majesty.
04:13We are that people who await the fulfillment of the Lord's promise when he said, yes, I am coming soon, and who respond to these words, amen, maranatha, come Lord Jesus.
04:28We are God's people.
04:31May the Lord pour out his grace upon all.
04:34May the Lord pour out his grace upon all.
