Pope at Mass: The grace not to speak ill of others
June 13, 2013: May the Lord grant us the grace to watch our tongues and be careful
of what we say of others, because through our weakness and sin, we often find it easier
to insult and denigrate than say or do good. This was the lesson at the heart of Pope
Francis’ homily Thursday morning at Mass, which he celebrated in his native Spanish.
Greeting the men and women who work at Argentina’s embassies and consulates to Italy
and the UN Food and Agricultural Organization in Rome, Pope Francis noted “It’s the
first time I have celebrated Mass in Spanish since February 26th!, adding “it feels
good!”.
Pope Francis’ homily was inspired by the Gospel of the day, in particular
Christ’s words to his disciples "unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes
and Pharisees, you will not enter into the Kingdom of heaven."
The Pope noted
how this Gospel follows the Gospel of the Beatitudes and Jesus promise that He had
not come to dissolve the law but to fulfill it. Pope Francis said that Christ wants
“reform in continuity: from the [planting of the ] seed up to the fruit”. Pope Francis
warned that anyone who "enters Christian life" will have “greater demands made of
them than others" and not “greater advantages". He said Jesus mentions some of these
demands, in particular the problem of “bad relations among brethren". If our heart
harbors “bad feelings” towards our brothers, the Pope said, "something is not working
and we must convert, we must change." Pope Francis noted that "anger towards a brother
is an insult, it’s something almost deathly ", "it kills him." He then observed that,
especially in the Latin tradition, there is a "wonderful creativity" in inventing
epithets. But, he cautioned, "when this epithet is friendly this is fine, the problem
is when there is another kind of epithet”, when the "mechanism of insult" comes into
play, which is "a form of denigration of others."
“Y no hace falta ir al psicologo...”
Pope
Francis continued: “There is no need to go to a psychologist to know that when we
denigrates another person it is because we are unable to grow up and need to belittle
others, to feel more important." This, he said, is "an ugly mechanism". Jesus, "with
all the simplicity says: "Do not speak ill of one another. Do not denigrate one another.
Do not belittle one another”. The Pope noted, "in the end we are all travelling on
the same road", "we are all travelling on that road that will take us to the very
end." Therefore "if we do not choose a fraternal path, it will end badly, for the
person who insults and the insulted". The Pope noted that "if we are not able to keep
our tongues in check, we lose”. “Natural aggression, that of Cain toward Abel, repeats
itself throughout history." Pope Francis observed that it is not that we are bad,
rather "we are weak and sinners." That's why it is "much easier", to "resolve a situation
with an insult, with slander, defamation instead of resolving it with good means".
“Yo
quisiera pedir al Señor que...”
Pope Francis concluded: “I would ask the Lord
to give us all the grace to watch our tongues, to watch what we say about others."
“It is a small penance - he added - but it bears a lot of fruit." "Sometimes, we go
hungry and think, ‘What a pity I didn’t taste the fruit of a tasty comment against
another person." But, he said, "that hunger bears fruit in the long run is good for
us." That's why we ask the Lord for this grace: to adapt our lives "to this new law,
which is the law of meekness, the law of love, the law of peace, and at least 'prune'
our tongues a little, ‘prune’ the comments that we make of others and outbursts that
lead us to an easy anger or insult. May the Lord grant us all this grace".