ANGELUS POPE
FRANCIS
Saint Peter's Square
Sunday, 8 November 2015
Dear
Brothers and Sisters, Good morning... on this beautiful, sunny day!
This Sunday’s Gospel passage
is composed of two parts: one that describes how not to be followers of Christ; the other offers an example of a Christian.
Let’s start with the first:
what not to do. In the first part, Jesus accuses the scribes, the teachers of
the law, of having three defects in their lifestyle: pride, greed and
hypocrisy. They like “to have salutations in the market places and the best seats
in the synagogues and the places of honor at feasts” (Mk 12:38-39). But beneath
such solemn appearances they are hiding falsehood and injustice.
While flaunting themselves in
public, they use their authority — as Jesus says — to devour “the houses of widows”
(cf. v. 40); those who, along with orphans and foreigners, were considered to
be the people most vulnerable and least protected. Lastly, Jesus says that the
scribes, “for a pretence make long prayers” (v. 40). Even today we risk taking
on these attitudes. For example, when prayer is separate from justice so that
God cannot be worshiped, and causing harm to the poor. Or when one claims to
love God, but instead offers him only grandiosity for one’s own advantage.
The second part of the Gospel
follows this line of thinking. The scene is set in the temple of Jerusalem,
precisely in the place where people are tossing coins as offerings. There are
many rich people putting in large sums, and there is a poor woman, a widow, who
contributes only two bits, two small coins. Jesus observes the woman carefully
and calls the disciples’ attention to the sharp contrast of the scene.
The wealthy contributed with
great ostentation what for them was superfluous, while the widow, Jesus says,
“put in everything she had, her whole living” (v. 44). For this reason, Jesus
says, she gave the most of all. Because of her extreme poverty, she could have
offered a single coin to the temple and kept the other for herself. But she did
not want to give just half to God; she divested herself of everything. In her
poverty she understood that in having God, she had everything; she felt
completely loved by him and in turn loved him completely. What a beautiful
example this little old woman offers us!
Today Jesus also tells us that
the benchmark is not quantity but fullness. There is a difference between
quantity and fullness. You can have a lot of money and still be empty. There is
no fullness in your heart. This week, think about the difference there is
between quantity and fullness. It is not a matter of the wallet, but of the
heart. There is a difference between the wallet and the heart.... There are diseases
of the heart, which reduce the heart to the wallet.... This is not good! To
love God “with all your heart” means to trust in him, in his providence, and to
serve him in the poorest brothers and sisters without expecting anything in
return.
Allow me to tell you a story,
which happened in my previous diocese. A mother and her three children were at
the table, the father was at work. They were eating Milan-style cutlets....
There was a knock at the door and one of the children — they were young, 5, 6 and
the oldest was 7 — comes and says: “Mom, there is a beggar asking for something
to eat”. And the mom, a good Christian, asks them: “What shall we do?” — “Let’s
give him something, mom…” – “Ok”. She takes her fork and knife and cuts the
cutlets in half. “Ah no, mom, no! Not like this! Take something from the
fridge” — “No! Let’s make three sandwiches with this!”. The children learned
that true charity is given, not with what is left over, but with what we need.
That afternoon I am sure that the children were a bit hungry.... But this is
how it’s done!
Faced with the needs of our
neighbours, we are called — like these children and the halved cutlets — to
deprive ourselves of essential things, not only the superfluous; we are called
to give the time that is necessary, not only what is extra; we are called to
give immediately and unconditionally some of our talent, not after using it for
our own purposes or for our own group.
Let us ask the Lord to admit
us to the school of this poor widow, whom Jesus places in the cathedra and
presents as a teacher of the living Gospel even to the astonishment of the
disciples. Through the intercession of Mary, the poor woman who gave her entire
life to God for us, let us ask for a heart that is poor, but rich in glad and
freely given generosity.
After
the Angelus:
Dear brothers and sisters, I
know that many of you have been troubled by the news circulating in recent days
concerning the Holy See’s confidential documents that were taken and published.
For this reason I want to tell
you, first of all, that stealing those documents is a crime. It’s a deplorable
act that is of no help. I personally had asked for that study to be carried out
and both my advisors and I were well acquainted with those documents, and steps
have been taken that have begun to bear fruits, some of them even visible.
Therefore I wish to reassure
you that this sad event certainly does not deter me from the reform project
that we are carrying out, together with my advisors and with the support of all
of you. Yes, with the support of the whole Church because the Church is renewed
with prayer and the daily holiness of each baptized person.
I therefore thank you and ask
you to continue to pray for the Pope and for the Church, without being troubled
but proceeding with faith and hope.
*
* *
Tomorrow the fifth National
Ecclesial Convention will begin in Florence with the presence of bishops and
delegates of every Italian diocese. It is an important event of communion and
reflection in which I too will have the joy of participating on Tuesday, after
a short stop in Prato.
I wish everyone a happy
Sunday. Do not forget to pray for me! Have a good lunch. Arrivederci.
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