(Vatican Radio) Everyone has "small or not so small" idolatries in their lives, but
the road that leads to God is one of exclusive love for Him, as Jesus taught us.
This was the focus of Pope Francis’ morning Mass at Casa Santa Marta Friday. Emer
McCarthy reports:
As is custom
the Pope reflected on the daily readings and the Gospel episode that recounts the
scribe who approached Jesus to ask which, in his opinion, "is the first of all the
commandments". Pope Francis noted that the scribe’s intentions were probably “far
from innocent”, that he gives the impression of wanting to "test" Christ, if not to
"make him fall into a trap". The scribe approves of Jesus’ answer – where he quotes
from the bible: " Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is Lord alone!"- and Christ
responds with the comment: “You are not far from the kingdom of God". Pope Francis
said that, in essence, with that "you are not far" Jesus wanted to say to the scribe:
"You know the theory very well," but "you are still some distance from the Kingdom
of God", that is, you have to walk to “transform this commandment into reality”, because
we “profess God through our way of life":
"It’s not enough to say: 'But
I believe in God, God is the only God.' That’s fine, but how do you live this out
in your life’s journey? Because we can say, 'The Lord is the only God, there is no
other', but then live as if He was not the only God and have other deities at our
disposal ... There is a danger of ' idolatry: idolatry, which is brought to us through
the spirit of the world. And in this Jesus was clear: the spirit of the world, no.
At the Last Supper he asks the Father to defend us from the spirit of the world, because
the spirit of the world leads us to idolatry. "
Pope Francis continued:
"Idolatry is subtle…we all have our hidden idols" and "the path of life to follow,
to not be far from the kingdom of God" involves "discovering our hidden idols." The
Pope pointed out that this attitude is already present in the Bible, in the episode
in which Rachel, Jacob's wife, pretends she is not carrying idols which instead she
took from her father's house and hid in her saddle. Pope Francis said that we too
“have hid them in our saddle ... But we have to look for them and we have to destroy
them," because to follow God the only path is that of a love based on "loyalty":
"And
loyalty demands we drive out our idols, that we uncover them: they are hidden in
our personality, in our way of life. But these are hidden idols mean that we are not
faithful in love. The Apostle James, when he says, whoever wants to be a lover of
the world makes himself an enemy of God, begins by saying: 'Adulterers!'. He gives
out to us, but with that adjective: adulterers. Why? Because whoever is 'friend'
of the world is an idolater, is not faithful to the love of God! The path that is
not distant, that advances, moves forward in the Kingdom of God, is a path of loyalty
which resembles that of married love. "
Pope Francis then asked, even "with
our small or not so small idolatries" how is it possible not to be faithful "to a
love so great?". To do this, you need to trust in Christ, who is "total loyalty" and
who "loves us so much"
"We can now ask Jesus: 'Lord, you who are so
good, teach me to be this path so that every day I may be less distant from the kingdom
of God, this path to drive out all of my idols'. It is difficult, but we must begin
... The idols hidden in the many saddles, which we have in our personalities, in the
way we live: drive out the idol of worldliness, which leads us to become enemies of
God. We ask this grace of Jesus, today. "
Mass was concelebrated by Archbishop
José Vitti of Curitiba in Brazil, Archbishop Juan Segura of Ibiza, Spain and Archbishop
Chirayath Anthony of Sagar in India. Staff from the Vatican Library were present,
accompanied by vice-prefect Ambrose Paizzoni, and a group of lay personnel of the
Lateran University, accompanied by Vice Rector, Msgr. Patrick Valdrini.