June 06, 2013: 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
of vatican Radio 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 loyal" 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.