Pope at Santa Marta: scandal wounds hearts and kills
hope
(Vatican Radio) Scandal wounds hearts and kills hopes: this
was the core of Pope Francis’ remarks to the faithful following the
Gospel at Mass on Monday morning in the chapel of the Domus Sanctae
Marthae. “Things that cause sin will inevitably occur,” the Pope said,
recalling the words of Our Lord in the Gospel reading, “but woe to the one
through whom they occur.” Hence the warning to his disciples: “Be on your guard!”
“So, be careful not to scandalize. Scandal is evil, because
scandal wounds – it wounds God’s Peoplewhere they are most
vulnerable, and strikes the People of God where they are
weakest – and many times, the wounds inflicted by scandal are borne by the
faithful throughout their lives. Not only does it do harm: scandal is capable
of murder – of killing hopes, killing dreams, killing families, killing so many
hearts.”
The Holy Father stressed that Christ’s
warning, “Be on your guard!” is a warning for everyone, and especially to
people who call themselves Christian, but live as Pagans. This is “the scandal
of the People of God.”:
“How many Christians, by their example, with
their inconsistency, drive people away from the Faith: the incoherence of
Christians is one of the readiest weapons the devil has to weaken the People
of God and to divert the People of God from the Lord
– to say one thing and do another.”
This is the “incoherence” which gives scandal, which today
gives us to ask ourselves, “How coherent is my life? How coherent is it with
the Gospel, How coherent is it with the Lord?” The Pope then
offered the example of Christian entrepreneurs who do not pay
just wages and who exploit people for their own gain, or even the scandal given
by pastors in the Church, who, careless of their sheep, see them wander off and
away.
“Jesus tells us that we cannot serve two
masters: both God and money – and when the pastor is one who
is attached to money, he gives scandalize. People are
scandalized: the shepherd, attached to money. Every shepherd must ask: How is
my friendship with money? Or the shepherd who seeks to rise: vanity leads him
to climb, instead of being gentle, humble, because meekness and humility favor
closeness to the people – or the shepherd who feels himself a lord, and lords
it over everyone, proud, and not the servant-pastor of God’s People.”
Pope Francis concluded saying, “Let today be the
propitious day, on which to make this examination of conscience: Do I give
scandal? If so, how? Thus, shall we be able to answer the Lord and
approach Him a little more closely.”
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