Pope at Audience: Beware of
hypocrisy, actions speak louder than words
During his General Audience on Wednesday, Pope Francis reflects
on how the Christian community is born of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and
grows through the mutual sharing of life among the Lord’s disciples.
In his continuing catechesis on the Acts of the Apostles in
the Paul VI hall on Wednesday, Pope Francis spoke of the solidarity between
Christians and how it is essential in building up God’s family. This fraternity
he said, “is nourished by receiving the sacrament of Christ’s Body and Blood.”
Communion and solidarity
The Pope underlined that there is a “dynamism of solidarity
that builds the Church as the family of God, where the experience of koinonia
is central.”
He explained that in the Church of its origins, “this
koinonia, this community, refers first of all to participation in the Body and
Blood of Christ.” For this reason, the Pontiff said, “when we receive communion
we declare "we communicate", we enter into communion with Jesus and
from this communion with Jesus we arrive at communion with our brothers and
sisters.”
Actions and words
If you want to know that you are good Christians, said Pope
Francis, “yes, you must pray, try to approach communion, reconciliation” ...
but that signal that your heart has converted, is when one is generous with
others and who helps the weakest.
The Pope stressed that when it comes to a true conversion,
actions speak louder than words.
Reflecting on the history of the Church, the Pope said that
there have always been Christians who stripped themselves of material things;
things that were not necessary in order to give to those in need.
How many Christians here in Italy volunteer, he noted. “This
is beautiful”, he said, sharing time with others; helping those in need.
In Biblical terms, the Pope highlighted that a concrete
example of sharing and communion of goods can be found in the witness of
Barnabas. “He owns a field and sells it to deliver the proceeds to the
Apostles. But alongside his positive example there is another sadly negative
one: Ananias and his wife Sapphira, who sold a piece of land, decided to hand
over only part of it to the Apostles and to keep the other for themselves.”
The enemy of hypocrisy
“Hypocrisy is the worst enemy of this Christian community”,
commented Pope Francis. “To fail in the sincerity of sharing, in fact, or to
fail in the sincerity of love, means cultivating hypocrisy, distancing oneself
from the truth, becoming selfish, extinguishing the fire of communion and
fating oneself to the chill of inner death,” he said.
The Pope emphasized that “those who behave in this way pass
through the Church like tourists”.
He concluded by saying that, “a life based only on making a
profit and taking advantage of situations to the detriment of others inevitably
causes inner death. How many people say they are close to the Church, friends
of priests, bishops while only seeking their own interests? These are the
hypocrisies that destroy the Church.”
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