2013-11-12 Vatican Radio
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis reflects on the loving nature of God's hands, saying even when scolding us, these hands never give a slap but instead a caress. This was the focus of his homily at the Tuesday morning mass at the Santa Marta Guest House.
Listen to this report by Susy Hodges: 
In his homily Pope Francis reflected on the reading from the Book of Wisdom that recalls how we are created from the soil by God's hands, "those hands which have never abandoned us." "God created man to be incorruptible," said the Pope but the devil entered the world and those who belong to him know all about it.
He went on: "We all have to undergo death but it's one thing to undergo this experience when belonging to the devil and it's another to undergo this experience when in the hands of God." "Our God, like a Father with his child, teaches us to walk, teaches us to walk along the path of life and salvation. It's God's hands who caress us in our moments of pain and who comforts us." God's hands, the Pope continued, "are hands that are wounded from love" and who heal us. "I could never imagine those hands giving us a slap, Never. Never." "Even when he scolds us, he does it with a caress."
The Pope ended his homily by urging those present to reflect on "God's hands who created us like a craftsman." They are wounded hands and they accompany us throughout life. Let us, he said, "entrust ourselves into God's hands like a child put its hand into the hand of its father. It's a safe hand."