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by EDWARD PENTIN 04/15/2013 Comments (6)
– Wikipedia/ Agencia Brasil
VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis’ daily morning Mass homilies in the Domus Sancthae Marthae residence, where he is
currently living, have become increasingly popular, acclaimed for their wisdom,
simplicity and forthrightness.
So notable have these short sermons become that the Vatican
newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, has
summarized almost all of them, and with increasing detail.
At each Mass, groups of Vatican staff, visiting bishops, priests
and religious are invited. Afterwards, the Pope sits at the back of the chapel
to pray with them. He then joins some of the congregation for breakfast in the
residence refectory.
His teaching has been wide-ranging, but with an emphasis on
recurring themes of compassion, patience and mercy.
On March 23, he unsurprisingly chose a topic close to his heart:
concern for the poorest and weakest. He warned that having a heart of stone
leads one to “pick up real stones and stone Jesus Christ in the person of our
brothers and sisters, especially the weakest of them.”
On March 26, Pope Francis dwelled on the mildness and patience of
Jesus, saying God’s patience is a “mystery” that can be seen in Jesus’ attitude
to Judas. God is patient, he said, like the Prodigal Son’s father, who waits
every day for his son’s homecoming. Recognition of this patience, he added,
leads to only one word leaving the heart: thanks.
‘Sweetness of Christ’s Forgiveness’
The following morning, on Spy Wednesday, the Holy Father reflected
on Judas’ betrayal and Peter denying Christ three times. These happened at
night, he noted, but added that everyone knows that beyond darkness lies hope.
He underlined that, in the night of the sinner, the “sweetness of Christ’s
forgiveness” can be found by turning to him. But he stressed that hearts must
be opened to taste that forgiveness.
In the early morning of Holy Thursday, Pope Francis said speaking
poorly of someone else is equivalent to selling them “like a commodity,” not
unlike Judas, who sold out Jesus for 30 pieces of silver.
“There is some arcane pleasure in scandal mongering,” he said,
adding that it is important to pray and ask for God’s grace “for the good of
the other.” It’s important to realize, he said, that the person defamed is no
different than Jesus, our friend, and that should lead to repentance and
forgiveness.
Playing the Complain Game
On April 4, the Holy Father warned that complaining about others
and circumstances damages the heart and takes away hope. Never enter “into this
game of living on complaints,” he said. Reflecting on the disciples on the road
to Emmaus and their overwhelming dismay at the death of Jesus, he noted that
they didn’t stop complaining. Their conversations made them withdraw into
themselves and stew in their dismay. But, at that very moment, the Pope said,
the Lord is “close to us, but we do not recognize him.” Jesus was “patient with
them,” he said, first listening, then explaining, and in the end letting them
see him. Jesus, he added, “does this with us,” even in our darkest moments.
The following morning, the Pope stressed that peace cannot be
bought or sold, but is a gift from God — and we must beg him for it. It is like
“the final step” of spiritual consolation, “which begins with a joyful wonder”
in encountering Christ. But he warned that we should not “trick ourselves with
our or others' fantasies, which lead us to believe that these fantasies are
reality.”
In truth, he said, it is more Christian “to believe that reality
may not be so pretty.”
Divination
At Mass the next morning, April 5, the Pope warned against tarot
readers and fortune tellers, stressing that salvation can only come through
Jesus Christ. He recalled the story of a humble father of eight whom he knew in
the Curia of Buenos Aires. Before going out each morning, he would say,
“Jesus!” Pope Francis asked him why he did this. “When I say 'Jesus' I feel
strong; I feel I can work, and I know that he is with me, that he keeps me
safe,” the man replied.
The man never studied theology, the Pope noted: “He only has the
grace of baptism and the power of the Spirit. And this testimony did me a lot
of good, too, because it reminds us that in this world that offers us so many
saviors it is only the name of Jesus that saves.”
Humility
In his homily on the feast of the Annunciation, the Pope
underlined the importance humility. “Making progress,” he said, means “lowering
oneself” on the road of humility in order allow God’s love to emerge and be
clearly seen. The way of Christian humility raises us up to God, as those who
bear witness to it “stoop low” to make room for charity, he said, adding that
it was the road taken by Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem. This is the “golden
rule” for Christians, he said, but it doesn’t mean traveling the road with
“downcast eyes.” Humility, he said, is “the way by which charity surely
passes,” for, “if there is no humility, love remains blocked, it cannot go
[forward].”
The following morning, Pope Francis again warned about the
temptation to gossip and speak ill of others. Complaining behind each other's backs
is a temptation that comes “from the evil one, who does not want the Spirit to
dwell among us and give peace,” he said. He added that meekness is crucial to
harmony, but it has been “a bit forgotten.”
Meekness, he said, has “many enemies,” and the first is gossip.
“When one prefers gossiping, gossiping about another, it’s like clobbering
another. This is normal; it happens to everyone, including me — it is a
temptation of the evil one. … If, with the grace of the spirit, we were able to
stop gossiping, it would be a huge step forward,” Francis said, and “it would
do everyone good.”
Later that week, Pope Francis preached that Christ through his
resurrection restored man’s dignity that he had
lost, which has given him hope. “This is the road of salvation,
and it is beautiful,” he said. “Only love makes it. We are of worth; we are men
and women of hope.” He therefore warned against trying to save oneself, basing
one’s dignity and hope on riches or vanity and pride, and called on those
present to open their hearts so that God’s “love may enter, fill us and spur us
to love others.”
The following morning, he stressed that God is non-negotiable and
that the faith leaves no room for categories like “lukewarm” or “bad or good.”
It does not seek a “double life” in order to negotiate a state of living with
the world, he said. And he stressed that obedience to God isn’t a kind of
slavery, but means having an open heart to listen to him and follow him, which
sets one free.
He invited those present to ask for the grace of courage to follow
Jesus’ path. “And when we do not,” he said, “let us ask for forgiveness: The
Lord forgives us because he is so good.”
It now appears the Holy Father will stay in the Vatican guest
house for the foreseeable future and continue preaching morning homilies. He is
reported to prefer the residence to the Apostolic Palace because he can be
among the people and finds it “less isolating.”
Edward Pentin is the
Register’s Rome correspondent.
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