In his message to pilgrims in the Vatican's Paul VI Hall on Wednesday, Pope Francis shared the heartbreaking story of a woman who let go of her baby just because her looks and figure were much more important to her.
"It's terrible, it hurts the soul what I heard one time years ago in the diocese of Buenos Aires: a woman, a good woman, very, very beautiful and who bragged about her beauty, commented as if it were natural: 'Yeah, I had to have an abortion because my figure is so important,'" he said, according to the Catholic News Agency.
The pope then warned people against the false hope that beauty, wealth and power can give people happiness. He said these things deliver empty promises, "and they take you on the wrong path and they don't bring you happiness."
On the other hand, when people trust in God, they will experience true hope and joy.
Pope Francis highlighted the "primary need for man" during his message. He said this need is "to hope in the future, to believe in life, the so-called 'thinking positive.'"
However, he said people's hope must be rooted in "what can actually help in living and giving meaning to our existence," instead of just relying on false illusions that are useless and meaningless.
He stressed that people must have faith in God. He noted that whenever people face difficulties, "man experiences the fragility of that trust and feels the need of various certainties, tangible, concrete securities."
These "securities," such as wealth, power and worldliness, seem to fill the void of solitude that people feel. But he warned that these are "impotent and deceitful."
On the other hand, when people trust in the Lord, they become like Him and "His blessing transforms us into his children, who share in his life."
"Hope in God makes us enter, so to say, into the range of His memory, His memory that blesses us and saves us," he said.
