Pope:
avoid the temptation of transforming faith into earthly power
(Vatican Radio)
May the witness of the martyrs help us to avoid the temptation of transforming
our faith into power. Those were Pope Francis’ words during his homily at the
morning Mass in the Casa Santa Marta on Monday, as he reflected on the Gospel
story of the crowds who come searching for Jesus following the multiplication
of the loaves and the fishes.
Noting that the
crowds came looking for Jesus, not out of a sense of religious awe and
adoration, but rather for their own material interests, Pope Francis said when
we take advantage of faith and are tempted towards power, we run the risk of
failing to understand the true mission of Our Lord.
We see this
attitude repeatedly in the Gospels, he said, where so many people follow Jesus
out of their own interests. Even his own apostles, the Pope said, like the sons
of Zebedee who wanted the jobs of “prime minster and finance minister”, they
wanted to have power. Instead of bringing to the poor the Good News that Jesus
came to free prisoners, to give sight to the blind and freedom to the
oppressed, we are tempted to transform this message of healing into a tool of
power and to take advantage of our encounter with Jesus.
Pope Francis
noted that this was also the way that Jesus himself was tempted by the devil.
Firstly by offering him bread to eat, secondly by offering to create a great
show so that people would believe in him and thirdly by urging him to worship
other idols. This is our daily temptation as Christians, the Pope said, not to
believe in the power of the Spirit, but instead to be tempted by worldly power.
In this way we
are drawn increasingly by the ways of the world towards that attitude which
Jesus calls hypocrisy. We become Christians in name but in our hearts we act
out of our own interests, weakening our faith, our mission and the Church
itself. Just as Jesus told the crowds, “you are looking for me, not because you
saw signs, but because you ate the loaves and were filled”.
May the saints
and martyrs, the Pope said, awaken us with their witness of following the path
of Jesus and announcing the year of grace. When the crowds at Capernaum
understand Jesus’ rebuke, they ask him “What can we do to accomplish the works
of God?” Jesus answers, “This is the work of God, that you believe in the one
he sent.” Pope Francis concluded by praying that God may give us the grace not
to fall for the spirit of this world which leads us to live like pagans beneath
a veneer of Christianity, but to believe and trust in God and in the one he
sent to us.
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