Pope:
“May Holy Week help us accept God’s ways”
(Vatican
Radio) Pope Francis on Tuesday invited all Christians to accept God’s love
without being critical and making objections.
He
was speaking during the homily at morning Mass in the Casa Santa Marta.
Taking
his cue from the Bible reading of the day that speaks of how the children of
Israel complained against God during their journey through the desert and of
how they objected to the “wretched food” provided, the Pope pointed out that
God offers us salvation in a thousand different ways but too often we are
incapable of accepting his “divine ways”.
He
said that as narrated in the reading from the Book of Numbers the Lord sent in
punishment saraph serpents which bit the people and many of them died.
So
Moses prayed for the people and obeying the Lord’s command, mounted a bronze
serpent on a pole giving salvation to anyone who looked at it after being
bitten.
Only
Moses’s intercession, and the symbol of the cross on which Christ will die –
the Pope said – provides salvation from the poison of the snakes.
And
describing the attitude of many Christians today as “spiritually whimsical”,
Francis said that we often commit the same kind of error, “becoming sullen and
grumbly”.
“How
many of us Christians find ourselves ‘poisoned’ by the dissatisfactions of
life. Yes: God is good but… we are Christians but… This kind of Christian ends
up not opening his heart to God’s Salvation, but always posing conditions.
‘Yes, I want to be saved but in this way…’ This attitude poisons the heart”.
Pope
Francis said that to not accept God’s gift in the way it is offered is a sin.
It poisons our soul, deprives it of joy. And Jesus – he said – solved
this problem by climbing Mount Calvary.
“Jesus
himself takes that poison upon himself. This ‘tepidness’ of ‘half-way’
Christians who show enthusiasm at the start of Jesus’ journey only to become
dissatisfied on the way. The only way to heal is to look at the Cross, to look
at God who takes upon himself our sins: my sin is there”.
How
many Christians – the Pope concluded – today “die in the desert of their
sorrow, grumbling and not accepting God’s way”.
“Let’s
look at the serpent, at the poison, there, in the body of Christ. The poison of
all the sins in the world and let us ask for the grace to accept difficult
moments. To accept the divine way of salvation, to accept this ‘wretched food’
that the children of Israel lamented... Let’s accept the paths that the Lord
leads us on. May this Holy Week – that begins on Sunday – help us to turn away
from the temptation to become “Christians yes, but…”.
(Linda Bordoni)
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