Pope:
history and service, two traits of Christian identity
(Vatican
Radio) “History and service.” In his homily on Thursday morning, Pope Francis
spoke about these “two traits of Christian identity.”
Beginning
with “history,” Pope Francis said Saint Paul, Saint Peter, and the other disciples
“did not proclaim a Jesus without a history: They proclaimed Jesus in the
history of the people, a people God led through the centuries in order to
arrive… at the fullness of time.” God enters into history and into the journey
with His people:
“The
Christian is a man or woman of history, because he does not pertain to himself
alone – he is inserted into a people, a people that is on a journey. One cannot
imagine a Christian selfishness, no, this won’t fly. The Christian is not a
spiritual man or woman in a laboratory, [the Christian] is a spiritual man or
woman inserted into a people, which has a long history and which continues to
journey until the Lord returns.”
It
is a “history of grace, but also a history of sin”:
“So
many sinners, so many crimes! Today, Paul mentions King David, a saint – but
before he became a saint, he was a great sinner. A great sinner. Our history
must take up both saints and sinners. My own personal history, the history of
each one of us, must take up our sin, our own proper sin, and the grace of the
Lord that is with us, accompanying us in our sin in order to forgive and
accompanying us in grace. There is no Christian identity without history.”
The
second trait of Christian identity is service. “Jesus washes the feet of the
disciples, inviting them to do as He has done: to serve”:
“Christian
identity is service, not selfishness. ‘But Father, we are all selfish.’ Ah,
really? It is a sin, a habit we have to break away from. Ask for forgiveness,
that the Lord will convert us. We are called to service. Being Christian is not
about appearance, or even about social conduct, it’s not a little make-up for
the soul, because it should be a little more beautiful. To be Christian is to
do what Jesus did: serve!”
Pope
Francis called us to ask ourselves, “In my heart, what more can I do? Do I have
other people serve me, do I use others, the community, the parish, my
family, my friends? Or do I serve, am I at the service of others?”
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