0
0
Pope Francis’ address to the members of the national confederation of
artisans and small- and medium-sized enterprises (CNA)
Clementine Hall – Friday, 15. November 2024
“Behind our wealth there is not only skill, but also a Providence that takes us by the hand and leads us”.
Dear brothers and sisters,
I am pleased to welcome you on the annual assembly of the CNA.
I greet the President and all the members of your trade association, which is very widespread throughout Italy.
Craftsmanship is very dear to me because it is a good example of the value of human work.
When we create with our hands, we activate head and our feet:
action is always the fruit of a thought and a movement towards others.
Craftsmanship is a tribute to creativity; indeed, the artisan must be able to discern in inert matter, a particular shape that others cannot see.
And this makes you collaborators in the creative work of God.
We need your talent to give meaning to human activity and to put it at the service of projects that promote the common good.
I would like to return with you to a well-known page of the Gospel: the parable of the talents
(see Mt 25:14-30 on five talents, two talents and one talent).
A master gives talents to his three servants, to put to good use.
The one who received five showed himself to be enterprising and earns another five.
The one who received two did the same and earned another two.
Both were praised by the master in the same way.
It is not the quantity that counts, but the effort;
what counts is the effort in making the gifts received bear fruit.
This is exactly what the third servant lacks. who out of fear and laziness hides his talent underground. He has given up his ingenuity because he had not cultivated a relationship of trust with his master, with life, and towards others.
A relationship of trust with others.
This parable is a hymn to trust in God, and an invitation to a healthy, positive “complicity” – if I may say this word – a “complicity” with God, who makes us sharers in His goods and counts on us, counts on our responsibility.
In order to grow in life, it is necessary to leave fear behind and have confidence.
Sometimes, especially when difficulties increase, we are tempted to think that the Lord is a referee or an implacable controller, rather than the One who encourages us to take our life into our own hands.
But the Gospel always calls us to have an outlook of faith; not to think that what we achieve is only the fruit of our capabilities or our merits.
It is also the fruit of the history of each one of us,
it is the fruit of many people who have taught us to go forward in life, starting from parents.
The work I do is the fruit of a history, that has made us capable of doing this.
You too, if you are passionate about your work, and sometimes rightly complain that it is not sufficiently recognized, It is because you are aware of the value of what God has placed in your hands, not only for you but for everyone.
We all need to shed the fear that paralyses and destroys creativity.
We can do this even in the way we live our daily work, feeling that we are part of a great project of God, who is able to surprise us with his gifts.
Behind our wealth there is not only skill, but also a Providence that takes us by the hand and leads us. Craftwork can express all this well, if it is accompanied day by day by the awareness that God never abandons us, that we are masterpieces of His hands, and therefore we are capable of creating original works.
I also want to praise your work because it makes the world beautiful.
We live in times of war, and of violence…
The news is everywhere, and this seems to make us lose faith in the capacity of human beings.
Looking at your activities consoles us and gives us hope.
To beautify the world is to build peace.
An economist told me that in Italy today, the most profitable investments are arms factories.
This does not make the world beautiful; it makes it ugly.
If you want to earn more, you must invest in killing. Think about this.
Do not forget – I repeat– to beautify the world is to build peace.
The Encyclical Fratelli tutti defines peacemakers as artisans capable of initiating processes of healing and encounter, with courage and creativity (cf. no. 225).
It is with the same creativity and courage that you carry out the many works destined to enrich the world.
God calls all men and women to be craftsmen, like Him, and to work on His project of peace.
That is why He distributes His talents in abundance, so that, unlike the wars fomented by the enemy of God, they may be put at the service of life and not buried in the barrenness of death and destruction.
Dear friends, thank you for what you are able to achieve through your work,
and thank you also for your social commitment:
this too is a task that requires patience, that requires planning!
May Saint Joseph the Worker always inspire you to live work with creativity and passion.
I cordially bless all of you, I bless your families.
And please, do not forget to pray for me. Thank you!
