After his Angelus on Sept. 15, 2024, Pope Francis appealed for the release of the remaining Hamas hostages and said he is praying for the victims and their families. / Credit: Vatican Media.

Rome Newsroom, Sep 15, 2024 / 09:36 am (CNA).

During his Sunday Angelus, Pope Francis appealed for the release of the remaining Hamas hostages, as he remembered 23-year-old American Hersh Goldberg-Polin and five others whose bodies were recovered by Israeli military in Gaza last month.

“I am praying for the victims and continue to be close to all of the families of the hostages,” the pope said on September 15, after praying the traditional Marian prayer.

The bodies of Goldberg-Polin, Ori Danino, Eden Terushalmi, Almog Sarusi, Alexander Lobanov, and Carmel Gat were found in a tunnel in Gaza by Israel Defense Forces on Aug. 30. The IDF said postmortems indicate the hostages were killed by two gunmen using two separate weapons on the evening of Aug. 29.

Speaking from a window overlooking St. Peter’s Square, Pope Francis recalled meeting Rachel Goldberg, the mother of Goldberg-Polin, together with other family members of Israeli hostages, at the Vatican in November 2023. “I was struck by her humanity. I accompany her in this moment,” the pontiff said.

“Cease the conflict in Palestine and Israel, cease the violence, cease the hatred, release the hostages, continue negotiations, and find peace solutions,” he added.

Before the Angelus, Pope Francis gave a short reflection on the day’s Gospel reading from St. Mark. In the passage, Jesus asks his disciples: “Who do you say that I am?”

“Peter answers on behalf of all the group, saying, ‘You are the Christ,’” the pope said. “However, when Jesus starts to talk about the suffering and death that await him, the same Peter objects, and Jesus harshly rebukes him: ‘Get behind me, Satan! For you are not on the side of God, but of men.’”

Francis said this scene prompts us too, to ask ourselves what it means to really know Jesus.

“The words with which Peter responds are ‘right,’ but his way of thinking has not changed,” the pontiff commented. “He still has to change his mindset; he still has to convert. This is an important message for us too.”

“Indeed, we too have learned something about God, we know the doctrine, we recite the prayers correctly and, perhaps, we respond well to the question ‘Who is Jesus for you?’ with some formula we learned at catechism. But are we sure that this means really knowing Jesus?” he said.

The pope underlined that really knowing the Lord means not just knowing something about him but actually following him and having a relationship with him.

Knowing Jesus is a life-changing encounter, he continued. “It changes your way of being, it changes your way of thinking, the relationships you have with your brothers and sisters, your willingness to accept and forgive, the choices you make in life. Everything changes if you have truly come to know Jesus!”

Pope Francis referenced a quotation from the Lutheran theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was killed for being a Nazi dissident. “What is bothering me incessantly is the question of what Christianity really is, or indeed who Christ really is, for us today,” Bonhoeffer wrote, as published in the book, “Letters and Papers from Prison.”

“Unfortunately, many people no longer pose themselves this question and remain ‘unbothered,’ slumbering, even far from God,” the pontiff noted.

“Instead, it is important to ask ourselves: do I let myself be bothered, do I ask who Jesus is for me, and what place he occupies in my life? Do I follow Jesus only in word, continuing to have a worldly mentality, or do I set out to follow him, allowing the encounter with him to transform my life?”