The Church Must be Free From Moralism and Ideology

Francis Pearl of the day: The ideologues end up being talentless intellectuals, moralists without goodness. Purity of heart is simple and leads to the path of repentance. Call to Prayer for the Church. By Armin Schwibach

Rome (kath.net / as) The Word of God must be humbly accepted, because it is a word of love. Only then it can enter into the hearts of people and change their lives. With these words Pope Francis turned in his homily for the Mass on Friday of the third week of Easter, to the congregation in the Vatican Guest House "Domus Sanctae Marthae". In the Eucharist, some employees of the Vatican printing press and the newspaper "L'Osservatore Romano" participated.

The Conversion of St. Paul and the discourse of Jesus in the synagogue of Capernaum were based on the readings of the day (Acts 9:1 to 20; Jn 6:52 to 59) the center of the short homily the pope concentrated on the speech of Jesus: Jesus speaking to Saul, who persecuted him, he spoke to Ananias, whom He would call to take Saul, and he was also speaking to the teachers of the law. To them he said: "Who does not eat my flesh and drink my blood, which will not be saved."

The voice of Jesus "goes through our mind and reaches the heart. For Jesus seeks our repentance." Paul and Ananias replied, astonished, but with an open heart. They "respond like the big history of salvation, like Jeremiah, Isaiah. Moses also had his difficulties, 'Lord, I do not understand it, talking about how I should go unto the Egyptians, and tell them that?' And Mary, 'sir, but I'm not married!' This is the response of humility, the response of those who accept the Word of God with the heart. The teachers of the law, however only answer with their heads. You do not know that the word of God goes to the heart, they know nothing of repentance."

But who are those that respond only from the head? Francis said: "These are the great ideologues. The word Jesus goes to the heart because it is the word of love, the beautiful word that love brings, which can love us. The ideologues who "cut the path" even the path of beauty. And they discussed sharply among themselves, 'How can this man give us his flesh to eat?' All of it: a problem of the understanding! And if the ideology feeds into the Church, when the ideology enters into the understanding of the Gospel, it understands nothing. "

There were dealing with those people who follow the "path of duty": "this is the moralism of people, who claim to realize the Gospel only in what they have understood by the mind." Thus, they are not engaged "on the path of repentance, Jesus invites them to take that way".

More than that: "On the path of duty, they load everything onto the shoulders of the faithful. The ideologies distort the gospel. Each ideological interpretation which may come from each side, is a distortion of the Gospel. And these ideologues - we have seen in the history of the Church - they then end up to being talentless intellectuals, moralists without goodness. And we don’t really talk about beauty, because we do not understand it.“

The road of love, however, "the road of the Gospel is simple: it is the path understood by the saints."

"The Saints put the Church ahead!”, said Francis at the end of his sermon: "The road of conversion, the road of humility, of love, of the heart, the beauty of the road ... Let us pray to the Lord for the Church today: Lord deliver them from any ideological interpretation and open the heart of the Church, our Mother Church, and for the simple Gospel, for that pure Gospel that speaks to us of love, that brings love and is so beautiful! And it also makes us beautiful, we, with the beauty of holiness. Today we want to pray for the Church!".

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