Pope prays that Christians avoid 'road of corruption'

Vatican City, Jun 3, 2013 / 04:04 pm (CNA).- Pope Francis on Monday warned about corrupt Christians who think they are “strong” and “independent of God,” emphasizing that Catholics should instead take saints as their models.

“How bad are the corrupt in the Christian community! May the Lord deliver us from sliding down this road of corruption,” the Pope said in his June 3 homily during Mass at the Casa Santa Marta residence in Vatican City.

Attendees at the Mass included priests and collaborators of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints. Cardinal Angelo Amato, who heads the congregation, concelebrated the Mass.

Pope Francis distinguished between saints, sinners and “corrupt persons” in a reflection on the Gospel parable of the wicked tenants in the vineyard. The tenants beat the vineyard owner’s servants who sought to collect rent and ended up killing the owner’s son.

These tenants “slipped on that autonomy, that independence in their relationship with God,” adopting the attitude that “We don’t need that Master,” and he shouldn’t come and disturb us, the Holy Father said.

“These are the corrupt! These were sinners like all of us, but they have taken a step beyond that, as if they were confirmed in their sin: they don’t need God!” he added.

But this is a false illusion, he continued, “for in their genetic code there is this relationship with God. And since they can’t deny this, they make a special god: they themselves are god.”

The Pope said Christians should be mindful of this temptation, warning “this is a danger for us, too.”

He criticized groups in Christian communities that think only of their own group and are “only out for themselves.”

He said that Judas was one of these, a “greedy sinner” who “ended in corruption.”

“The road of autonomy is a dangerous road: the corrupt are very forgetful, have forgotten this love, with which the Lord made the vineyard, has made them! They severed the relationship with this love! And they become worshipers of themselves.”

By contrast, he said, the saints are those who “collect the rent” at the vineyard despite the threats to them.

“They know what is expected of them,” he said, and they “do their duty.”

“The saints are those who obey the Lord, those who worship the Lord, those who have not lost the memory of the love with which the Lord has made the vineyard,” Pope Francis explained, adding that the saints do “much good” for the Church.

He noted that St. John said the corrupt are “the antichrist” and that they are “among us, but they are not of us.” By contrast, Scripture says the saints are “like light” and will be “before the throne of God in adoration.”

The Pope prayed that God would grant Christians the grace to “walk in the paths of holiness” as they seek sanctity in their own lives.

Pope says lamenting suffering is form of prayer

Vatican City, Jun 5, 2013 / 11:20 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis said lamenting suffering is a form of prayer and is not a sin, during his daily morning Mass.

“A priest I know once said to a woman who lamented to God about her misfortune, ‘but, madam, that is a form of prayer, go ahead with it,’” Pope Francis said in his June 5 homily.

“To lament before God is not a sin,” he added.

Pope Francis based his reflections on a reading from the third chapter of Tobit, which was read at Mass today.

It tells the story of Tobit, who was blinded despite a life of good works, and Sarah, who married seven men that all died before their wedding night. They both pray to God to let them die.

“They are people in extreme situations and they seek a way out,” Pope Francis said.
“They complain, but they do not blaspheme.”

He also mentioned malnourished children, refugees and the terminally ill as examples of those suffering.

Pope Francis went on to speak of the day’s Gospel from Mark 12 in which the Sadducees ask Jesus, if a woman is widowed and marries seven times, which man will be her husband in heaven.

He noted the Sadducees were talking about this woman “as if she were a laboratory, all aseptic” and that “hers was an abstract, moral problem.”

“When we think of the people who suffer so much, do we think of them as though they were an abstract, moral conundrum, pure ideas … ?” asked Pope Francis. “Or do we think about them with our hearts, with our flesh, too?”  

“I do not like it when people speak about tough situations in an academic and not a human manner, sometimes with statistics and that’s it,” he remarked. “In the Church there are many people in this situation.”

The Pope advised people to pray for those who suffer, noting “here is the mystery of the communion of saints.”

“They must come into my heart, they must be a cause of restlessness for me, my brother is suffering, my sister suffers,” he stated.

“Pray to the Lord, ‘but, Lord, look at that person, he cries, he is suffering,’” the Pope said.

Pope Francis explained that because of their prayers, God did not let Tobit and Sarah die, but rather healed Tobit and gave a husband to Sarah.

“Prayer always reaches God, as long as it is prayer from the heart,” he said.

“When it is an abstract exercise, such as that the Sadducees were discussing, it never reaches him because it never goes out of ourselves,” he remarked.

In those cases, the Holy Father asserted, it “is an intellectual game” and “we do not care.”

He then asked people to pray for those who live in dramatic situations and suffer as much as Jesus on the cross.

The Mass was attended by members of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, as well as some personnel from the Vatican Apostolic Library.

The prefect of the congregation, Cardinal Antonio Cañizares Llovera, Archbishop Augustine DiNoia, secretary of the same congregation, and Monsignor Cesare Pasini, prefect of the Library, also participated.

Pope to Syrian Christians: you have 'great task' of remaining

Vatican City, Jun 5, 2013 / 05:49 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis vigorously appealed for peace in Syria and told the Christians there that they have “the great task” of remaining in their homeland despite the ongoing war.

“These (communities) have the great task of continuing to offer a Christian presence in the place where they were born and it is our task to ensure that this witness remains there,” he said June 5.

“The participation of the entire Christian community in this important work of assistance and aid is imperative at this time,” he added during the meeting with Catholic aid agencies in the hall of Saint Martha’s House.

The pontiff made his comments at a June 5 gathering organized by the Pontifical Council “Cor Unum” for Catholic charities engaged in helping Syrian refugees within their own country, as well as in neighboring ones.

“Faced with the continuing violence and abuse, I strongly renew my appeal for peace,” he told them.

“I ask you to encourage humanitarian aid to refugees and displaced Syrians, aiming first at the good of the person and the protection of his dignity,” he stated.

Pope Francis noted that in “recent weeks, the international community has reaffirmed its intention to take concrete steps to begin a fruitful dialogue with the aim of putting an end to the war.”

These are “attempts that should be supported and which will hopefully lead to peace,” he said.

The pontiff also reminded Cor Unum members that the Church “feels called to give testimony to the humble” and that it must do so with “concrete and effective charity.”

“We cannot hold back, precisely from those situations where the pain is greatest!” he exclaimed.

“Your presence in the coordination meeting shows the will to continue with loyalty the valuable work of humanitarian assistance in Syria and in neighboring countries that generously accommodate those fleeing war,” the Pope said.

The charities’ work, he said, is “timely and coordinated” and an “expression of that communion which is itself a testimony as suggested by the recent Synod on the Middle East.”

“The work of Catholic Charities agencies to help the Syrian people, beyond ethnic or religious affiliations, is extremely significant for the Holy See,” said the pontiff.

“It is the most direct way to make a contribution to peace and the building up of a society open to all the different components,” he stated.

The Pope then gave them his apostolic blessing, emphasizing that it extends in particular to “the dear faithful who live in Syria and all those Syrians who are currently forced to leave their homes because of the war.”

“You here present are the instrument to tell the dear people of Syria and the Middle East that the Pope accompanies them and is close to them,” he said.