Christians who seem close to the church but are hypocrites because they don’t care for others are like aimless tourists, Pope Francis said last week.
They “are always passing by but never enter the church in a fully communal way” Francis told those at his weekly general audience.
Saying these Christians are like tourists visiting catacombs (ie burial places), Francis added:
“A life based only on profiting and taking advantage of situations to the detriment of others inevitably causes inner death.
“And how many people say they are close to the church, friends of priests and bishops yet only seek their own interests. These are the hypocrisies that destroy the church.”
His homily took an unexpected turn when a girl walked up the steps towards him.
Francis told his security staff to “let her be. God speaks” through children and reflected on the girl – who seemed oblivious to the occasion – saying she is “a victim of an illness and doesn’t know what she is doing.
“I ask one thing, but everyone should respond in their heart: ‘Did I pray for her; looking at her, did I pray so that the Lord would heal her, would protect her?
“Did I pray for her parents and for family?
“When we see any person suffering, we must always pray. This situation helps us to ask this question:
‘Did I pray for this person that I have seen, (this person) that is suffering?’” he asked.
“Hypocrisy is the worst enemy of this Christian community, of this Christian love: that way of pretending to love one another but only seeking one’s own interest,” he said.
If we fail in the sincerity of sharing or … love means to cultivate hypocrisy, to distance oneself from the truth, to become selfish, to extinguish the fire of communion and to destine oneself to the chill of inner death.”
While prayer and the Eucharist unite believers “in one heart and one soul,” Francis said sharing goods … ‘koinonia,’ or communion, … establishes a bond between brothers and sisters … makes believers responsible for one another.
“…To fail in the sincerity of sharing or to fail in the sincerity of love means to cultivate hypocrisy, to distance oneself from the truth, to become selfish, to extinguish the fire of communion and to destine oneself to the chill of inner death.”
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