Pope Francis: holiness is courage, hope, daily
conversion
(Vatican Radio)
"Walk in the presence of God without reproach." That’s how Pope
Francis says we can journey towards holiness. During the Homily at Mass
at Santa Marta Tuesday, the Pope said that for this commitment to succeed,
Christians must be able to hope with courage, open themselves up to discussion,
and freely welcome God's grace.
Holiness cannot be bought.
Neither can it be earned by human strength. No, "the simple holiness of
all Christians," "ours – the kind we are called to every
day," says the Pope, can only be attained with the help of four essential
elements: courage, hope, grace, and conversion.
The path of courage
Taking the liturgical excerpt
from the First Letter of St. Peter, which he called a "small treatise on
holiness," Pope Francis said holiness means “to walk in the presence of
God without reproach:"
"Holiness is a journey;
holiness cannot be bought. It can’t be sold. It cannot be given away.
Holiness is a journey to God's presence that I must make: no one else can do it
in my name. I can pray for someone to be holy, but he’s the one who has to work
towards [holiness], not me. Walk in God's presence, in an impeccable way.”
Everyday holiness, the Pope
continued, can also be “anonymous.” And the first element needed to achieve it
is courage: “The path to holiness takes courage."
Hope and grace
"Jesus’ Kingdom of
Heaven," the Pope stressed, is for "those who have the courage to go
forward" and courage, he observed, is generated by "hope," the
second element of the journey that leads to holiness. The kind of courage that
hopes "in an encounter with Jesus."
The third element of this
journey towards holiness, the Pope observed, appears in Peter’s words:
"Put all your hope in that grace:”
"We cannot achieve
holiness on our own,” affirmed Pope Francis. “No, it is a grace. Being
good, being saintly, going every day a little 'a step forward in the Christian
life is a grace of God and we have to ask for it. Courage, a journey. A journey
one must take with courage, with hope and with the willingness to receive this
grace. And hope: the hope of the journey.
Here, the Pope urged the
faithful to read the “beautiful” chapter XI of the Letter to the Hebrews, which
recounts the journey of “our forefathers, the first to be called by God.” “Of
our father Abraham, it said: 'But, he went out without knowing where he was
going.' But with hope."
Convert every day
In Peter’s letter, the Pope
continued, we also see the importance of a fourth element: conversion as a
continuous effort towards cleansing the heart.
"Conversion, every day,”
recalled Pope Francis, does not mean one must beat oneself as penance for
committing a wrong: “No, no, no: small conversions... if you're
able to not speak ill of another, you're on the right path to becoming saintly.
It 'so easy! I know that you never speak ill of others, no? Little things ...
'I want to criticize a neighbor, a workmate': bite your tongue a bit. The tongue
will swell a bit, but your spirit will be holier on this journey. Nothing
grand, mortification: no, it's simple. The path to holiness is simple. Do not
go back, but always moving forward, right? And with fortitude."
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