A Christian who chooses to follow his own moralistic ideology “has lost the faith” and is no longer a disciple of Jesus, Pope Francis has declared.
Worse still, the attitude of ideological Christians frightens other people and chases them away from the Church, he said.
“When a Christian becomes a disciple of an ideology, he has lost his faith; he is no longer a disciple of Jesus, but of this way of thinking,” the Pope said.
“Jesus isn’t there, nor is his tenderness, love and meekness. And ideologies are always rigid, always.”
The Pope was giving a homily at Mass in the chapel of Domus Sanctae Marthae, where he lives.
He reiterated Jesus’ words to the scholars in the day’s Gospel, taken from Luke, in which he tells them that they have taken the key of knowledge, reflecting that in this scene Jesus speaks about the “image of the lock”.
It is, he said, “the image of those Christians who have the key in their hand, but take it away, without opening the door”, and who “keep the door closed”.
It is a “lack of Christian witness” that does this, he said, and “when this Christian is a priest, a bishop or a pope it is worse”.
“It is a serious illness, this Christian ideology. It is an illness, but it is not new,” he said, recalling how the apostle John alluded to this mentality in his first letter.
“But why is it that a Christian can become like this? Just one thing: this Christian does not pray. And if there is no prayer, you always close the door.”
The Pope said the key that opens the door to the faith is prayer, and “when a Christian does not pray, this happens. And his witness is an arrogant witness.”
The Christian who does not pray, he added, is “arrogant, is proud, is sure of himself. He is not humble. He seeks his own advancement.… When a Christian prays, he is not far from the faith; he speaks with Jesus.”
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Image: Catholic News Agency