What we are to "keep"

      I recorded the English voice over on WAOB for Pope Francis' homily for the Ascension on Wednesday of this week.  The Holy Father tells us that Jesus, in his prayer to the Father in the Gospel of John, uses the word "keep".  Pope Francis then points out that there are three things that we must "keep" to live with Christ.

     We must keep FAITH.  We do so to avoid yielding to grief or plunge into the despair of those who no longer see a way out of our difficulties.  Pope Francis says: "To keep faith is to keep our gaze fixed up to heaven ... To keep the faith is to refuse to yield to the logic of hatred and vengeance, but to keep our gaze fixed on the God of love, who calls us to be brothers and sisters to one another."

     We must keep UNITY.  "Jesus asks the Father to preserve the unity of his disciples, so that they may be 'completely one' (Jn 17:21), one family in which love and fraternity reign."  Pope Francis goes on to say that we are to be "completely one, to be a family, to find the courage to live in friendship, in love and fraternity."

    We are called to keep the TRUTH.  The prayer of Jesus is that we may be consecrated in truth as we are sent throughout the world to carry on his mission.  The Holy Father points out that "Truth, for the apostle John, is Christ himself, the revelation of the Father's love."  "To keep the truth means to be a prophet in every situation in life, in other words to be consecrated to the Gospel and bear witness to it even when that means going against the current."  He wants us to be consecrated to the beauty and truth of the Gospel so that we can testify to the joys of God's kingdom even in the dark night of grief, even when evil seems to have the upper hand.

     The Holy Father was addressing at that Mass the Myanmar Community in Rome, a people suffering tremendous violence, conflict, repression and evil.  His message encourages them, and us, to be faithful to what we are being called to be faithful to ... what we are being called to keep.  I thought that they were important words, words that touched my heart.  Maybe they will touch your heart.