Pope:
Times change and Christians must change continually
(Vatican
Radio) Pope Francis said on Friday (23rd October) that the times are
changing and we Christians must change continually, freely but within the truth
of the faith. He urged Christians to look at the signs of the times and warned
them against succumbing to the comfort of conformity. The Pope’s remarks came
during his homily at the morning Mass celebrated at the Santa Marta residence.
Reading
the signs of the times
Taking
his cue from the reading of St Paul’s letter to the Romans, Pope Francis’s
homily reflected on the discernment that the Church needs to employ whilst
looking at the signs of the times and doing what Christ wants. He noted how St
Paul’s preaching stressed the freedom which has saved us from sin whilst Christ
himself spoke of reading the signs of the times. God set us free, the Pope
explained, and in order to have this freedom, we must open ourselves to the
power of the Holy Spirit and clearly understand what is happening within and
around us through discernment.
“We
have this freedom to judge whatever is happening around us. But in order
to judge, we must have a good knowledge of that is happening around us.
And how can we do this? How can we do this, which the Church calls
‘recognizing the signs of the times?’ Times are changing. And it’s
precisely Christian wisdom that recognizes these changes, recognizes the
changing times and recognizes the signs of the times. What one thing and
another thing means. And do this freely, without fear.”
Pope
Francis conceded that this is not an easy thing to do on account of the
external conditioning that pressures Christians as well, encouraging many of
them to seek comfort in doing nothing.
“This
is something that we usually don’t do: we stick with conformity, we reassure
ourselves with (words like) ‘they told us, I heard, people said they read….’ In
this way we are reassured. But what is the truth? What is the
message that the Lord wants to give me with this sign of the times? First
of all, in order to understand the signs of the times we need silence: to be
silent and observe. And afterwards we need to reflect within ourselves. One
example: why are there so many wars nowadays? Why did something happen?
And pray… silence, reflection and prayer. It’s only in this way that we
can understand the signs of the times, what Jesus wants to tell us.”
Freedom
within the truth of the Gospel
Understanding
the signs of the times, noted the Pope, should not be confined to an elite
cultural group. He recalled how Jesus didn’t tell us to look at how the
professors, the doctors and the intellectuals do things but instead urged us to
look at the farm labourer who knows how to “separate the wheat from the chaff.”
“Times
are changing and we Christians must change continually. We must change whilst
remaining fixed to our faith in Jesus Christ, fixed to the truth of the Gospel
but we must adapt our attitude continuously according to the signs of the
times. We are free. We are free thanks to the gift of freedom given to us by
Jesus Christ. But our job is to look at what is happening within us, discern
our feelings, our thoughts and what is happening around us and discern the
signs of the times – through silence, reflection and prayer.”
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