During the “Sunday of Mercy” mass today (11), Pope Francis asked the faithful not to live “a half-belief” and to help others, because the sharing of goods “is not communism, it is Christianity in its most pure.”
The Pontiff warned that in a “sterile” faith there is no sharing or attention to the suffering of others.
“If love ends in ourselves, faith evaporates into sterile intimacy. Without others, it becomes disembodied. Without the works of mercy, he dies,” he declared, in the homily at the celebration in the Church of the Holy Spirit, in Sassia, next to Saint Peter’s Square.
The statement recalled the passage from the Acts of the Apostles that talks about the life of the first Christian community, after the resurrection of Jesus, indicating that “no one called what belonged to him his own”, but everything was “common” and “there was no one in need” .
According to Jorge Bergoglio, the disciples became merciful and sharing goods seemed a “natural consequence”. “It is not communism, but Christianity in its pure state”, he highlighted.
the leader of Catholic Church invited Catholics to overcome indifference towards others, so that they do not live a faith “in half, which receives but does not give, which welcomes the gift but does not give itself”.
“Today is the day to ask ourselves: 'I, who have so often received God's peace, his forgiveness, his mercy, am I merciful to others? I, who have fed on your Body so many times, do anything to satisfy the hunger of those who are poor?”
Finally, the Pope defended that Catholics must be “witnesses of mercy”, based on the experience of receiving the mercy of God, for whom each person is “irreplaceable”.
“God believes in us more than we believe in ourselves,” he said. “For God, no one is flawed, no one is useless, no one is excluded.”
The Argentine also recalled the experience of Jesus' disciples, who regained peace after their encounter with the resurrected Christ, moving “from remorse to mission”. With this example, he said that everyone must “open their hearts to allow themselves to be forgiven” and recommended Confession, as a sacrament of “resurrection, pure mercy”. (HANDLE)
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