Pope Francis: Don't forsake the gift of being God's children
(Vatican Radio) We must not sell out the gift of being God’s children for a distorted
sense of normality. These were the words of Pope Francis at Mass on Friday morning
in the Vatican’s Casa Santa Marta. As Christians, Pope Francis said, we must actively
strive against the normality of our everyday lives to remain faithful to God’s choosing.
We must not sell out to the temptation of worldliness, of living as if God didn’t
exist.
We often forget the Word of God, Pope Francis continued, we forget
what the Lord says, and we listen instead to whatever word is more fashionable, more
fun. This temptation, the Pope said, is more dangerous than an outright renouncing
of faith, because it is more subtle, and less clear. It is true, he recognised, that
Christians must be normal people, but they must also bear in mind the Word of God
which says to them ‘you are my people, I have chosen you, I am by your side’.
We
must resist the temptation of feeling inferior to normality, Pope Francis explained,
because this temptation hardens the heart, and when the heart is hardened, the Word
of God cannot enter. This was the temptation of the Jewish people in the Old Testament,
he added, referring to the daily reading taken from the First Book of Samuel. Neither
must we allow our hearts to be softened by worldliness, the Pope said: our hearts
must simply be open to the Word of God, open to receiving it, in order not to move
away from being chosen by God.
Let us ask, Pope Francis concluded, for the
grace to overcome our own selfishness, our own desire to do as we please: let us listen
instead to the Word of God, which will lead us on the path of truth.