This pope keeps preaching about the devil! From His Vatican Motel 6 chapel place of residence, Saturday's homily:
"There can be no dialogue with the prince of this world: let this be clear!
Pope Francis at Mass: fighting evil with meekness and humility
(Vatican Radio) “Let us always remain meek and humble, that we might defeat the empty promises and the hatred of the world.” This was the message of Pope Francis on Saturday morning during the homily at Mass in the chapel of the Domus Sanctae Marthae. Humility and meekness are the weapons we have to defend ourselves from the hatred of the world. This was the focus of Pope Francis during his homily, which centered on the struggle between the love of Christ and the hatred of the prince of this world. The Lord, he said, tells us to be not afraid when the world hates us as it hated Him:
“The way of the Christians is the way of Jesus,” he said. “If we want to be followers of Jesus, there is no other way: none other than that, which He indicated to us - and one of the consequences of this is hatred – it is the hatred of the world, and also the prince of this world. The world would love that which belongs to it. [But Jesus tells us], ‘I have chosen you, from the world’: it was precisely He, who rescued us from the world, who chose us - pure grace! With His death, His resurrection, He redeemed us from the power of the world, from the power of the devil, from the power of the prince of this world. The origin of the hate [we experience], then is this: that we are saved. It is that prince who does not want that we should have been saved, who hates.”
Here then is the reason that the hatred and persecution continue from the early days of the Church even unto the present day. There are, “Many persecuted Christian communities in the world,” said Pope Francis, noting with bitterness, “indeed there are more persecuted communities in this time than in the early days: today, right now, in this day and in this hour.” Asking himself why this is the case, the Pope said, “Because the spirit of the world hates.” From this comes a perennially valid admonishment:
"There can be no dialogue with the prince of this world: let this be clear! Today, dialogue is necessary among us humans, it is necessary for peace. Dialogue is a habit, it is an attitude that we must have among us to feel and understand each other…and that [dialogue] must be maintained forever. Dialogue comes from charity, from love. But with that prince, it is impossible to dialogue: one can only respond with the Word of God who defends us, for the world hates us – and just as he did with Jesus, so will he do with us. ‘Only look,’ he will say, ‘just do this one small little scam…it is a small matter, nothing really – and so he begins to lead us on a road that is slightly off. This is a pious lie: ‘Do it, do it, do it: there is no problem,' and it begins little by little, always, no? Then [he says]: ‘But ... you're good, you're a good person: You [get away with] it.’ It is flattering – and he softens us by flattery: and then, we fall into the trap.”
Pope Francis went on to say that the Lord asks us to remain sheep, because if one decides to quit the fold, then he does not have, “a shepherd to defend him and he falls into the clutches of these wolves.”
“You may ask the question,” continued Pope Francis, ‘Father, what is the weapon to defend against these seductions, from these blandishments, these enticements that the prince of this world offers?’. The weapon is the same weapon of Jesus, the Word of God - not dialogue - but always the Word of God, and then humility and meekness. We think of Jesus, when they give that slap: what humility! What meekness! He could have insulted him, no? One question, meek and humble. We think of Jesus in His Passion. His Prophet says: ‘As a sheep going to the slaughter.’ He does not cry out, not at all: humility. Humility and meekness. These are the weapons that the prince and spirit of this world does not tolerate, for his proposals are proposals for worldly power, proposals of vanity, proposals for ill-gotten riches.”
“Today,” continued Pope Francis, “Jesus reminds us of this hatred that the world has against us, against the followers of Jesus.” The world hates us, he repeated, “because He has saved us, redeemed us.” Recalling the “weapons to defend ourselves” he added that we must remain sheep, “because sheep are meek and humble, [and when we are sheep] we have a shepherd.” The Pope concluded with an invocation to the Virgin Mary, asking her, “to help us become meek and humble in the way of Jesus.”
The Mass on Saturday morning was concelebrated by the Secretary of the Congregation for Bishops, Archbishop Lorenzo Baldisseri, with a contingent of the Pontifical Swiss Guard in attendance.
Pope Francis offered the soldiers a greeting of affection and gratitude. "The Church,” he said, “loves you so much,” and, “so do I.”
14 comments:
I was at a friend's dairy farm recently where there are some sheep. Several dogs got into the field and began barking at the sheep and running at them. The sheep (there were four of them) formed a circle facing out, lowered their heads much like a bull might, and began to stamp the ground with their front hooves in unison. They lifted their feet high and stamped with much force. Those hooves are sharp, and I was impressed with the damage they might do if they hit one of those dogs...the dogs must have been similarly impressed because they soon lost interest and ran off. I have seen rams chase pigs and dogs and, certainly, no one would mess with a Dahl Ram or some of the other wild species. So, sheep, it is necessary to do actual battle sometimes...sharpen your hooves.
"There can be no dialogue with the prince of this world: let this be clear!"
And yet top Vatican hierarchy are recently quoted implying approval of same sex civil unions. Hopefully the pope is preaching this to his curia, because they are either hypocrites, or flipping him off.
the statement about appeals to vanity and compliments is so true. I see it everyday. It is what is hurting the Catholic universities and Catholic leaders.
JM, I think they are flipping him off. Examples need to be made...heads need to roll.
Aye, it's hard for me as a layman take Pope Francis seriously when cardinals and bishops ignore him and dialogue with the devil on same sex civil unions and other issues. Even you, FrAJM, seemed to be dialoging with the devil in the way you were defending same sex civil unions as an option to gay marriage.
Liam, I don't think that's what Fr. McD is doing. His argument, with which I happen to agree, is thatthe state is going to do whatthe state is going to do, and while we don't like it, we can't stop it. What we can (and must) do is refuse to be a party to it by sacramentally blessing such unions.
I see this as different from what the cardinals and archbishops in question are doing, which is essentially saying that civil unions are some sort of positive good even though they aren't marriages. That runs counter to centuries of Catholic teaching.
A-5 and Liam, it isn't about even blessing such unions, it is say quite bluntly to the state, you may call it a marriage, but it isn't a marriage and the Church isn't going to call it a marriage, the Church is going to call it what it is, a legal, civil union which has absolutely no bearing in religion and in fact the sexual component is immoral and unnatural, or because it is unnatural according to natural law it is immoral.
A little Irish boy goes to his dad one morning and says, "Dad, I had a terrible dream."
The father replies, "Well, son, tell me about it."
The son says, "I dreamed I died and went to the bad place."
The father said, "Well, what was it like?"
Boy replies, "I nearly froze to death."
Father says, "I thought the bad place was supposed to be hot."
Boy says, "Yes, but I couldn't get to the fire for all the Bishops."
How do you think the Church would respond if Catholic couples refused to have civil unions but instead chad Church blessed marriages and set up contracts between the persons involved that were better than the current cicvil marriage laws?
I suppose that Pope Francis is saying we should wrap ourselves in the armor of Christ, especially the armor of meekness and humility. The true Enemy has a thousand and more ensnaring strategies, and thus there are a thousand and more corresponding ways to sin. And we are all ensnared, and we all sin – every day. At least I am, and do.
The Enemy’s snares are everywhere. Part of the genius of Pope Francis is to make us even more aware of that. He does this partly by not focusing exclusively or predominantly on sexual matters and instead covering the waterfront. Thus the proposals made by the prince of this world include “proposals for worldly power, proposals for vanity, proposals for ill-gotten riches” (we can be tempted down the road of ruin with: “just do this one small little scam”). And he does it partly by inviting us to consider what it means_not_to be wrapped in meekness and humility in addition to being seduced by worldly power, vanity, and ill-gotten riches. We may have the Word of God in the armory but are we meek and humble with it, for example?
In my own case, for example, as a member of the legal profession, meekness does not come easily and the skills and dispositions appropriate in one setting are not so easily limited and prevented from spilling over into other settings where they are not appropriate. That said, I think I still do better with meekness than with humility. On that, I face another occupational hazard – being an academic. Even writing this comment may be an act of pride.
So, those are some of my particular challenges. I suppose the form taken by the temptations away from meekness and humility will be different for each of us? Thank you, Pope Francis for reminding us of that.
This is the type of stuff we are up against:
http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20130503/LIFESTYLE04/305030354
"We believe there's room in our church for everybody. We can disagree on these issues and still worship together in peace. It's tragic that some folks would choose to disrupt our right to practice our faith."
You hear that? There's room in the Catholic Church for EVERYBODY. To hell with doctrine, faith, and morals.
God help us all.
Gene, that story would be funny if it weren't so sad.
Anon 2, I am sympathetic to what you are saying...I have been trying to think of a way to humbly and meekly punch modernists in the mouth. LOL!
Anon in Detroit, I notice the sign in that picture of the homo supporters says, "Love has no limits..." Ain't that the truth...LOL!
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