Pope Frances: Everyone has a role in building Church

During the Angelus with pilgrims in St Peter's Square, Pope Francis reflected on the day’s Gospel according to St Matthew, in which the Lord asks the disciples: “Who do you say that I am?” and Peter responds, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.”

Jesus said to Peter in reply, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father. And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”

Pope Francis said the Lord continues to build His Church in our present day: “Even with us today, Christ desires to build His Church, this house solid foundations, which nevertheless does not want for cracks, and which always needs to be reformed, repaired, as in the time of St Francis of Assisi.”

Pope Francis said people who have received the Gospel, and those for whom the Gospel is intended, are like the little stones that often cause us the most trouble when we feel them underfoot, or that appear ill-suited to use in the edification of grand structures, saying that no one is without some part to play, some role to fill as building material.

“No stone is useless,” he said. “Rather, in the hands of Jesus, the littlest stone becomes precious, because he picks it up, looks at it with tenderness, works it with his Spirit and puts it in the right place, where He had ever a mind to put it, and where it can be most useful to the whole building.”

At the end of the Angelus Pope Francis offered prayers for the victims of massive flooding in Bangladesh, Nepal, and northern India over the past several days. “I express my closeness to all the affected populations, and pray for the victims and for all who suffer because of this calamity,” Pope Francis said.