L’Osservatore Romano<\/a><\/strong><\/span>)<\/p>\nShowroom Christians \u2014 whether selfish, businessmen, worldly or rigorists \u2014 try to push away people seeking Jesus. Pope Francis warned of this temptation during Mass at Santa Marta on Thursday morning, 28 May. Inviting each person to perform \u201can examination of conscience\u201d, the Pope recalled that Christians must be able to hear the people\u2019s \u201ccry for help\u201d and to support them on their journey to get close to the Lord.<\/p>\n
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Francis began his homily by highlighting the events in the day\u2019s Reading from the Gospel according to Mark (10: 46-52). \u201cJesus went with his disciples and with the people\u201d, he said, \u201cwho followed Him because He spoke like a master, with real authority\u201d. Bartimaeus, a blind man, \u201cheard the noise and asked, \u2018What\u2019s happening?\u2019. It was Jesus\u201d. Thus, Bartimaeus \u201cbegan to cry out and, in an act of faith, he cried out loudly \u2018Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!\u2019\u201d. His words were \u201ctruly an act of faith\u201d, the Pontiff noted.<\/p>\n
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But, \u201camong the people who were there with Jesus, each one had his own personality, his own way of seeing life, of feeling life\u201d, the Pope explained. First of all, \u201cthere is a group of people who didn\u2019t hear the cry\u201d of the blind man. It is \u201cthat group of people who, even today, don\u2019t hear the cry of the many who are in need of Jesus\u201d. In short, it is a group of people who are \u201cindifferent: they don\u2019t hear, they believe that life is their little group there; they are happy, they are deaf to the clamour of so many people in need of salvation, in need of Jesus\u2019 help, in need of the Church\u201d. However, Francis remarked, \u201cthese are selfish people, they live for themselves\u201d, unable \u201cto hear the voice of Jesus\u201d.<\/p>\n
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The Pope continued, saying \u201cthen there are those who hear this cry that pleads for help, but they want to silence it\u201d. In fact, in the Gospel, Mark indicates that many people rebuked Bartimaeus to silence him, telling him \u201cnot to cry out\u201d, and to leave the master \u201cin peace\u201d. Indeed, \u201ceven the disciples\u201d do so. The Pope recalled that \u201cthe disciples keep the children away\u201d as well, \u201cso they don\u2019t disturb the master\u201d. Thus, the disciples also tried to silence Bartimaeus, \u201cbecause the master was their own, He was for them, not for everyone\u201d. In so doing, \u201cthese people keep separate from Jesus those who cry out, who are in need of faith, who need salvation\u201d.<\/p>\n
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Then, Francis affirmed, there is another group, composed of the \u201cbusinessmen: they were religious, it seems, but Jesus cast them out of the temple because they were doing business there, in the house of God\u201d. These are people \u201cwho don\u2019t hear, don\u2019t want to hear the cry for help, but prefer to conduct their business and use the People of God, use the Church, to conduct their business\u201d. Even \u201cthese businessmen distance the people of Jesus\u201d and do not allow the people to \u201cask for help\u201d.<\/p>\n
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\u201cAnother group who push away the people of Jesus\u201d, the Pope continued, are those who are \u201cChristians in name only, without witness, who do not bear the witness of Christians\u201d. Yes, \u201cthey are Christians in name, showroom Christians, reception Christians, but their inner life is not Christian, it\u2019s worldly\u201d. And \u201cone who calls himself a Christian but lives as a socialite distances those who cry \u2018help\u2019 to Jesus\u201d.<\/p>\n
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Finally, \u201cthere are the rigorists\u201d, the Pope added, \u201cthose whom Jesus rebukes\u201d because \u201cthey lay such heavy burdens on the people\u2019s shoulders\u201d. And \u201cto them Jesus dedicates all of Chapter 23 of St Matthew\u201d. He says to them: \u201chypocrites, you exploit the people!\u201d. In fact, \u201cinstead of responding to the cry for salvation, they push the people away\u201d.<\/p>\n
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The \u201cfirst group\u201d, the Pontiff summarized, is comprised of \u201cthose who do not hear\u201d. The second, however, includes \u201cmany different, diverse people\u201d who \u201chear the call, but separate\u201d the people from Jesus. And \u201cthere is also a third group\u201d and they are those \u201cwho help\u201d the people \u201cto approach Jesus\u201d and who say to Bartimaeus: \u201cBe brave, get up, he\u2019s calling you!\u201d. This is \u201cthe group of Christians who have coherence between what they believe and what they live\u201d. It is the group of Christians who help \u201cthe people who cry out, asking for salvation, asking for grace, asking for spiritual health for their soul\u201d, helping them to get close to Jesus.<\/p>\n
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In light of this reflection, Francis proposed \u201can examination of conscience\u201d that \u201cwill do us good\u201d, through a series of direct questions: \u201cWhich group am I in? In the first, with those who don\u2019t hear the many cries asking for the help of salvation? Am I concerned with only my relationship with Jesus, closed, selfish? Do I belong to the second group, with those who separate people from Jesus, whether by lacking coherence in life, lacking testimony, whether by being too attached to money, or through rigidness?\u201d. He continued: \u201cDo I distance people from Jesus? Or do I belong to the third group, with those who hear the cry of so many people and help them to approach Jesus?\u201d. These are questions that, the Pope concluded, \u201ceach of us can answer in our heart\u201d.<\/p>\n
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Pope invites everyone to make an “examination of concsience”.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2627,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44,36,47],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/armenianchurchco.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2630"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/armenianchurchco.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/armenianchurchco.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/armenianchurchco.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/armenianchurchco.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2630"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/armenianchurchco.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2630\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2640,"href":"http:\/\/armenianchurchco.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2630\/revisions\/2640"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/armenianchurchco.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/armenianchurchco.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/armenianchurchco.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/armenianchurchco.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}