Christian
life is not a spa therapy "to be at peace until Heaven," but it calls
us to go out into the world to proclaim that Jesus "became the
sinner" to reconcile men with the Father. These were Pope Francis’ words
during his homily at Mass Saturday at the Casa Santa Martha.
(…)The Christian life is not staying in a corner to
carve a road which takes you into heaven, but it's a dynamiunc that encourages
one to stay "on the road" to proclaim that Christ has reconciled us
to God, by becoming sin for us. In his usual profound and direct way, Pope
Francis focuses on a passage from the Letter to the Corinthians, from today's
liturgy, in which St. Paul very insistent, almost "in a hurry", uses
the term "reconciliation"five times.
"What is reconciliation? Taking one from this side,
taking another one for that side and uniting them: no, that’s part of it but
it's not it ... True reconciliation means that God in Christ took on our sins
and He became the sinner for us. When we go to confession, for example, it
isn’t that we say our sin and God forgives us. No, not that! We look for Jesus Christ and say: 'This is
your sin, and I will sin again'. And Jesus likes that, because it was his
mission: to become the sinner for us, to liberate us. (…)"
It is the
beauty and the "scandal" of the redemption brought by Jesus and it is
also the "mystery, says Pope Francis, from which Paul draws" zeal
"that spurs him to" move forward " telling everyone"
something so wonderful "the love of a God" who gave up his Son to death
for me. " Yet, explains Pope Francis, there is a risk of "never
arriving at this truth" in the moment when "we 'devalue a little the
Christian life", reducing it to a list of things to observe and thus
losing the ardour, the force of the '"love that is inside" of it:
"But philosophers say that peace is a
certain ordered tranquillity: everything is tidy and quiet ... That is not the
Christian peace! Christian peace is an uneasy peace, not a quiet peace: it is
an uneasy peace, which goes on to carry this message of reconciliation. The
Christian Peace pushes us to move forward. This is the beginning, the root of
apostolic zeal. Apostolic zeal is not to go forward to persuade and make
statistics: this year Christians in this country have grown, in this movement
... Statistics are good, they help, but that is not what God wants from us, is
to persuade... What the Lord wants from us is to announce this reconciliation,
which is his own core message . "
Concluding his
homily the Pope recalls the inner anxiety of Paul. Pope Francis underlines that
which defines the "pillar" of Christian life, namely, that
"Christ became sin for me! And my sins are there in his body, in his soul!
This - says the Pope - it's crazy, but it's beautiful, it's true! This is the
scandal of the Cross! "
"We ask the Lord to give us this concern to proclaim
Jesus, to give us a bit of 'that Christian wisdom that was born from His
pierced side of love. Just a little to convince us that the Christian life is
not a spa therapy: to be at peace until Heaven ... No, the Christian life is
the road in life with this concern of Paul. The love of Christ urges us on, it
pushes us on, with this emotion that one feels when one sees that God loves us.
We ask this grace. "
(Papa Francesco, homely, 15/06/13)
No comments:
Post a Comment