Pope Francis: obstinate Christians are rebels and
idolaters
(Vatican Radio) Christians
who stop at “it’s always been done that way” have hearts closed to the
surprises of the Holy Spirit. They are idolaters and rebels will never arrive
at the fullness of the truth. That was the message of Pope Francis at Mass on
Monday morning at the chapel in the Casa Santa Marta.
In the first reading, Saul
was rejected by God as King of Israel because he disobeyed, preferring to
listen to the people rather than the will of God. The people, after a victory
in battle, wanted to offer a sacrifice of the best animals to God, because, he
said, “it’s always been done that way.” But God, this time, did not want that.
The prophet Samuel rebuked Saul: “Does the Lord so delight in burnt offerings
and sacrifices as in obedience to the command of the Lord?” Jesus teaches us
the same thing in the Gospel, the Pope explained. When the doctors of the law
criticized Him because His disciples did not fast “as had always been done,”
Jesus responded with these examples from daily life: “No one sews a piece of
unshrunken cloth on an old cloak. If he does, its fullness pulls away, the new
from the old, and the tear gets worse. Likewise, no one pours new wine into old
wineskins. Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the
skins are ruined. Rather, new wine is poured into fresh wineskins.”
“What does this mean? That
He changes the law? No! That the law is at the service of man, who is at the
service of God – and so man ought to have an open heart. ‘It’s always been done
this way’ is a closed heart, and Jesus tells us, ‘I will send you the Holy
Spirit and He will lead you into the fullness of truth.’ If you have a heart
closed to the newness of the Spirit, you will never reach the full truth. And
your Christian life will be a half-and-half life, a patched life, mended with
new things, but on a structure that is not open to the voice of the Lord—a
closed heart, so that you are not able to change others.”
This, the Pope emphasized,
was the sin of Saul, for which he was rejected. “It is the sin of so many
Christians who cling to what has always been done and who do not allow others
to change. And they end up with half a life, [a life that is] patched, mended,
meaningless.” The sin, he said, “is a closed heart,” that “does not hear the
voice of the Lord, that is not open to the newness of the Lord, to the Spirit
that always surprises us.” This rebellion, says Samuel, is “the sin of
divination,” and obstinacy is the sin of idolatry:
“Christians who
obstinately maintain ‘it’s always been done this way,' this is the path, this
is the street—they sin: the sin of divination. It’s as if they went about by
guessing: ‘What has been said and what doesn’t change is what’s important; what
I hear—from myself and my closed heart—more than the Word of the Lord.’
Obstinacy is also the sin of idolatry: the Christian who is obstinate sins! The
sin of idolatry. ‘And what is the way, Father?’ Open the heart to the Holy
Spirit, discern what is the will of God.”
Pope Francis noted that in
Jesus’ time, good Israelites were in the habit of fasting. “But there is
another reality,” he said. “There is the Holy Spirit who leads us into the full
truth. And for this reason he needs an open heart, a heart that will not
stubbornly remain in the sin of idolatry of oneself,” imagining that my own
opinion is more important than the surprise of the Holy Spirit.
“This is the message the
Church gives us today. This is what Jesus says so forcefully: ‘New wine in new
wineskins.’ Habits must be renewed in the newness of the Spirit, in the
surprises of God. May the Lord grant us the grace of an open heart, of a heart
open to the voice of the Spirit, which knows how to discern what should not
change, because it is fundamental, from what should change in order to be able
to receive the newness of the Spirit.”
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