Pope Francis: ‘Rediscover the beauty of being children of God’

Pope Francis on Wednesday urged Catholics to “rediscover the beauty of being children of God.”

Speaking at the general audience in the Vatican’s Paul VI Hall on Sept. 8, the pope said that Christians often took this reality for granted.

“It is decisive even for all of us today to rediscover the beauty of being children of God, to be brothers and sisters among ourselves, because we have been united in Christ, who redeemed us,” he said.

“The differences and contrasts that separation creates should not exist among believers in Christ.”

The pope recalled that the Epistle of James warned Christians against discriminating between the rich and poor in their collective worship.

He said: “We create these differences, many times unconsciously so. No, we are equal! Rather, our vocation is that of making concrete and evident the call to unity of the entire human race. Everything that exacerbates the differences between people, often causing discrimination -- all of this, before God, no longer has any basis, thanks to the salvation effected in Christ.”

The pope’s live-streamed address, dedicated to the theme “We are children of God,” was the eighth in his cycle of catechesis on St. Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians.

The pope reflected on Galatians 3:26-29, in which Paul proclaims that in Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female.

Addressing pilgrims seated in the hall and wearing face coverings to prevent the spread of COVID-19, the pope said that St. Paul sensed that the Galatians were in danger of forgetting the novelty of God’s revelation.

“We Christians often take for granted this reality of being God’s children. Instead, it is good to remember with gratitude the moment in which we became such, the moment of our baptism, so as to live the great gift we received with greater awareness,” he said, encouraging those present to find out and celebrate the date of their baptisms.

The pope said that St. Paul wanted the recipients of his letter to understand that Christ had brought about a “radically new condition” that led to “divine sonship.”

“The sonship of which Paul speaks is no longer a general one involving all men and women insofar as they are sons and daughters of the same Creator,” he said.

“No, in the passage we have heard, he affirms that faith allows us to be children of God ‘in Christ.’ This is what is new. This ‘in Christ’ is what makes the difference. Not just children of God, like everyone: all men and women are children of God, all of them, regardless of the religion we embrace. No. But ‘in Christ,’ this is what makes the difference for Christians, and this happens only by participating in Christ’s redemption, and in us in the sacrament of baptism: this is how it begins.”