A ‘worldly’ Church is weak, Cannot Transmit the Gospel: Pope
Vatican City, 30 April 2013: When the church becomes worldly, she will be weak. The
only way to stop this is to entrust the Church to the Lord through constant prayer.
So said Pope Francis during Mass on Tuesday morning at St. Martha’s Residence. Those
who attended the Mass included the staff from the Administration of the Patrimony
of the Apostolic See, also known as APSA.
"Can we safeguard the Church, can
we cure the Church? Asked the Pope. We do so with our work, said the Pope, adding
but what’s most important is what the Lord does : He is the only One who can look
into the face of evil and overcome it. If we don’t want the prince of this world to
take the Church into his hands, cautioned the Pope, we must entrust it to the One
who can defeat the prince of this world. Here the question arises, he said: do
we pray for the Church, for the entire Church? For our brothers and sisters whom we
do not know, everywhere in the world? It is the Lord's Church and in our prayer we
say to the Lord: Lord, look at your Church. It' s yours. Your Church is made up of
our brothers and sisters. This prayer must come from our heart.
Then, Pope
Francis remarked that "it is easy to pray for the grace of the Lord", "to thank Him"
or when "we need something." But it is fundamental that we also pray to the Lord for
all, for those who have "received the same Baptism," saying "they are Yours, they
are ours, watch over them".
"Entrusting the Church to the Lord is a prayer
that makes the Church grow. It is also an act of faith. We can do nothing. It is He
who keeps her going and holds her and makes her grow, makes her holy, defends and
protects her from the prince of this world. He wants the Church to become, in short,
more and more worldly. This is the greatest danger! When the Church becomes worldly,
when she has the spirit of the world within herself, when that peace which is not
that of the Lord - that peace when Jesus says, 'I leave you peace, my peace I give
you', not as the world gives it - when she has that worldly peace, the Church is a
weak Church, a defeated Church, unable to transmit the Gospel, the message of the
Cross, the scandal of the Cross ... She cannot transmit this if she is worldly”.
"Entrust
the Church to God, entrust the elderly, the sick, the children, the youth ... 'Safeguard
your Church Lord ': she is yours! With this attitude, He will give us, in the midst
of tribulations, the peace that only He can give . This peace which the world cannot
give, that peace that cannot be bought, that peace which is a true gift of the presence
of Jesus in the midst of his Church. Entrusting the Church that is in distress: there
are great tribulations, persecution ... there are. But there are also small tribulations:
the small tribulations of illness or family problems ... entrust all this to the Lord
guard your Church in tribulation, so she does not lose faith, so she does not lose
hope. "
"May the Lord make us strong so we do not lose faith, so we do not
lose hope”. Entrusting the Church to the Lord “will do us and the Church good. It
will give us great peace. It will not rid us of our tribulations, it will make us
stronger in our sufferings”, concluded Pope Francis. Source: VR Sedoc