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Sunday, November 19, 2017

GOOD WORKS ARE A PASSPORT TO PARADISE! I AM SURE MARTIN LUTHER WOULD AGREE! OR WOULD HE? I ASK; YOU ANSWER.

Pope Francis welcomed the poor, homeless and unemployed as guests of honor for a Mass and gourmet meal in the Vatican on Sunday, saying that helping the needy was one way of obtaining a "passport to paradise".



(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis celebrated Mass on Sunday – the XXXIII Sunday in Ordinary Time and the first-ever World Day of the Poor – in St. Peter’s Basilica. Below, please find the full text of his homily on the occasion, in its official English translation…

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We have the joy of breaking the bread of God’s word, and shortly, we will have the joy of breaking and receiving the Bread of the Eucharist, food for life’s journey. All of us, none excluded, need this, for all of us are beggars when it comes to what is essential: God’s love, which gives meaning to our lives and a life without end. So today too, we lift up our hands to him, asking to receive his gifts.

The Gospel parable speaks of gifts. It tells us that we have received talents from God, “according to ability of each” (Mt 25:15). Before all else, let us realize this: we do have talents; in God’s eyes, we are “talented”. Consequently, no one can think that he or she is useless, so poor as to be incapable of giving something to others. We are chosen and blessed by God, who wants to fill us with his gifts, more than any father or mother does with their own children. And God, in whose eyes no child can be neglected, entrusts to each of us a mission.

Indeed, as the loving and demanding Father that he is, he gives us responsibility. In the parable, we see that each servant is given talents to use wisely. But whereas the first two servants do what they are charged, the third does not make his talents bear fruit; he gives back only what he had received. “I was afraid – he says – and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours” (v. 25). As a result, he is harshly rebuked as “wicked and lazy” (v. 26). What made the Master displeased with him? To use a word that may sound a little old-fashioned but is still timely, I would say it was his omission. His evil was that of failing to do good. All too often, we have the idea that we haven’t done anything wrong, and so we rest content, presuming that we are good and just. But in this way we risk acting like the unworthy servant: he did no wrong, he didn’t waste the talent, in fact he kept it carefully hidden in the ground. But to do no wrong is not enough. God is not an inspector looking for unstamped tickets; he is a Father looking for children to whom he can entrust his property and his plans (cf. v. 14). It is sad when the Father of love does not receive a generous response of love from his children, who do no more than keep the rules and follow the commandments, like hired hands in the house of the Father (cf. Lk 15:17).

The unworthy servant, despite receiving a talent from the Master who loves to share and multiply his gifts, guarded it jealously; he was content to keep it safe. But someone concerned only to preserve and maintain the treasures of the past is not being faithful to God. Instead, the parable tells us, the one who adds new talents is truly “faithful” (vv. 21 and 23), because he sees things as God does; he does not stand still, but instead, out of love, takes risks. He puts his life on the line for others; he is not content to keep things as they are. One thing alone does he overlook: his own interest. That is the only right “omission”.

Omission is also the great sin where the poor are concerned. Here it has a specific name: indifference. It is when we say, “That doesn’t regard me; it’s not my business; it’s society’s problem”. It is when we turn away from a brother or sister in need, when we change channels as soon as a disturbing question comes up, when we grow indignant at evil but do nothing about it. God will not ask us if we felt righteous indignation, but whether we did some good.

How, in practice can we please God? When we want to please someone dear to us, for example by giving a gift, we need first to know that person’s tastes, lest the gift prove more pleasing to the giver than to the recipient. When we want to offer something to the Lord, we can find his tastes in the Gospel. Immediately following the passage that we heard today, Jesus says, “Truly I tell you that, just as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me” (Mt 25:40). These least of our brethren, whom he loves dearly, are the hungry and the sick, the stranger and the prisoner, the poor and the abandoned, the suffering who receive no help, the needy who are cast aside. On their faces we can imagine seeing Jesus’ own face; on their lips, even if pursed in pain, we can hear his words: “This is my body” (Mt 26:26).

In the poor, Jesus knocks on the doors of our heart, thirsting for our love. When we overcome our indifference and, in the name of Jesus, we give of ourselves for the least of his brethren, we are his good and faithful friends, with whom he loves to dwell. God greatly appreciates the attitude described in today’s first reading that of the “good wife”, who “opens her hand to the poor, and reaches out her hands to the needy” (Prov 31:10.20). Here we see true goodness and strength: not in closed fists and crossed arms, but in ready hands outstretched to the poor, to the wounded flesh of the Lord.

There, in the poor, we find the presence of Jesus, who, though rich, became poor (cf. 2 Cor 8:9). For this reason, in them, in their weakness, a “saving power” is present. And if in the eyes of the world they have little value, they are the ones who open to us the way to heaven; they are our “passport to paradise”. For us it is an evangelical duty to care for them, as our real riches, and to do so not only by giving them bread, but also by breaking with them the bread of God’s word, which is addressed first to them. To love the poor means to combat all forms of poverty, spiritual and material.

And it will also do us good. Drawing near to the poor in our midst will touch our lives. It will remind us of what really counts: to love God and our neighbour. Only this lasts forever, everything else passes away. What we invest in love remains, the rest vanishes. Today we might ask ourselves: “What counts for me in life? Where am I making my investments?” In fleeting riches, with which the world is never satisfied, or in the wealth bestowed by God, who gives eternal life? This is the choice before us: to live in order to gain things on earth, or to give things away in order to gain heaven. Where heaven is concerned, what matters is not what we have, but what we give, for “those who store up treasures for themselves, do not grow rich in the sight of God” (Lk 12:21).

So let us not seek for ourselves more than we need, but rather what is good for others, and nothing of value will be lacking to us. May the Lord, who has compassion for our poverty and needs, and bestows his talents upon us, grant us the wisdom to seek what really matters, and the courage to love, not in words but in deeds.


16 comments:

Gene said...

Good works are NOT a passport to Paradise. They are the fruits of salvation.

Victor said...

The Holy Father did not say that good works are a passport to heaven. Poverty is.
"And he (Jesus), lifting up his eyes on his disciples, said: Blessed are ye poor, for yours is the kingdom of God." Luke 6:20.

Anonymous said...

"Then the king will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me." Matthew 25:34-36.

Looks like His Holiness is in good company.

Gene said...

Anon @3:02, That is about the slinkiest Pelagian interpretation of that particular Scripture I have ever heard. It is completely out of context and out of character with the whole Gospel of Matthew. Perhaps you should skip back a few chapters and review the parable of the wedding feast, as well as the one about the laborers in the vineyard for a little perspective. Then, because clearly you have never had one, take a course in NT theology.

George said...

To the comments @ 1:43PM and 3:02PM

It is not part of our faith tradition that we take a scriptural passage per ipsum without considering other parts of the Word of God. It is good to keep this in mind. Christ did not dispense those to whom he was addressing the above words from having to obey the Ten Commandments.

We should accept and embrace the Gospel we have been given and not one that is of our own making. It is important to note for instance that scripture says "Blessed are the poor in spirit", and not "Blessed are the poor". It is not what we have or don't have materially speaking, or what condition we are born into that determines our right relationship to God, but personal holiness is borne of a right, proper ,and necessary spiritual attitude.

With a right relationship to God we will produce good works, each according to his or her ability, if, and according to how we use what is made available to us from the Divine Treasury of grace.

Anonymous said...

Isn't the opposite of Sin, Good Works. So yeah, You need Good Works not bad works. And not no works either, like the guy who did nothing with his talent.

Anonymous said...

Neither the Holy Father, as Victor noted, nor I have said that good works earn salvation. We are not Pelagians.

We are justified by faith and the grace that brings about salvation equips us for good works. As Gene notes, albeit not entirely accurately, good works are the fruit of justification.

Anonymous 2 said...

Some years ago I became convinced that although we should engage in good works, it may be better (and more accurate) to acknowledge that any good that we do does not flow from us but from the activity of the Holy Spirit infused within us as a result of divine grace. My task is to get out of the way so that this can happen and also to avoid the temptation of appropriating any such good works to myself, which of course I can only do with the aid of divine grace too. And the reason my good works are as limited as they are is because I stubbornly and continually get in the way due to my flawed, broken, and fallen nature. I also became convinced that this is true for both believers and nonbelievers, the difference being that believers are aware of the true Source of such good works and nonbelievers are not.

To revert to an earlier exchange with Gene on another thread, I do not see this as inconsistent with a properly understood Christian humanism because this action of the Holy Spirit through grace moves us back in the direction of restoring the imago Dei which represents the true and full humanity that is our proper destiny and vocation but which has become tarnished (Marc’s damaged and dirtied icon) as a result of the Fall and original and particular sin.

But of course I have to keep on reminding myself of all this because it is so easy to forget.

Is this theologically sound?

Gene said...

The opposite of sin is not good works; it is obedience.

Gene said...

Anon 2, I completely agree with your first paragraph.

Anonymous said...

I always wondered, what are good works? Ok charity but isn't it also the sacraments? Isn't Baptism a good work? Don't you need Baptism for heaven? Isn't repentance a good work. Don't you need to confess and do penance?

Gene said...

Anon @ 8:12...good works can only follow repentance and Baptism. These are not good works, rather the conditions for them. The Sacraments are God's "good works" through Christ for us. They are gifts..we have nothing to do with them. Faith is also a gift
toi the Elect. Many protestants and some Catholics tend to want to make Faith a work. Be careful.

Православный физик said...

Charity covers many sins....doesn't say all of them though ;)

George said...

It is in co-operating with the Holy Spirit, with the gift of grace made available to us that we are able to do good works. All good comes from God who is the Source of all that is Good and Holy. A man may be said to be good or do good according to human standards, but only by Divine grace is true good accomplished, only by it do works have merit, and only by the Divine light is true good made manifest.

Anonymous said...

Bee here:

George on November 20, 2017 at 7:34 PM said,
"A man may be said to be good or do good according to human standards, but only by Divine grace is true good accomplished, only by it do works have merit, and only by the Divine light is true good made manifest."

Thank you. This helps me very much.

God bless.
Bee

George said...


Bee:

When I have helped anyone in any way, then I know that I have co-operated in some way,as unworthy as I am, with the grace of God made available to me, and so it is then for me to give thanks for the opportunity provided to me to do so.

May God Bless you also.