(Vatican Radio) Jesus does not condemn wealth, but the attachment to wealth that divides families and causes wars: this was the focus of Pope Francis’ remarks to the faithful at Mass on Monday morning in the chapel of the Casa Santa Marta.
Let not religion become an “insurance agency”
Reflecting on the readings of the day that had just been proclaimed at Mass on Monday morning in the Santa Marta chapel, Pope Francis bluntly reminded the gathered faithful that we cannot serve two masters: either one serves God, or one serves wealth. Jesus, “is not against wealth as such,” but he warns against staking one’s safety in money – something he said risks, “turning religion into an insurance agency.” In addition, attachment to money is divisive, as illustrated by the Gospel tale of the “the two brothers arguing over the inheritance”:
“Let us consider how many families we know, whose members have fought, who are fighting, who don’t [even] say ‘Hello!’ to each other, who hate each other – all for an inheritance. This is just one of the cases: the love of family, love of children, siblings, parents – none of these is the most important thing – no, it’s money – and this destroys – even wars, wars that we see today: yes, sure there is an ideal [over which people fight], but behind that, there is money; money for arms dealers, the money of those who profit from the war. This, then, is [just] one family, but all of us, I’m sure, know at least one family so divided. Jesus is clear: ‘Be careful and stay away from all kinds of greed: it is dangerous.’ Greed: for, it gives us a security that is not true and it brings you to pray – yes, you can pray, go to church – but also have a heart that is attached [to material wealth], and that always ends badly.”
A wealthy entrepreneur who does not share the wealth with his workers
Jesus tells the parable of a rich man, “A good entrepreneur,” whose “fields had yielded an abundant harvest,” and who was, “full of riches,” and, “instead of thinking: ‘But I will share this with my workers, with my employees, that they also might have a little more for their families,’ thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, seeing that I have nowhere to put my crops? Ah, so I will pull down my barns and build bigger ones.’ More and more: the thirst that comes from attachment to riches never ends. If you have your heart attached to wealth – when you have so much – you want more. This is the god of the person who is attached to riches.”
Give alms, giving even of what one needs for oneself, with love
Pope Francis went on to say that the road, which leads to salvation, is that of the Beatitudes. “The first is poverty of spirit,” which is not attached to riches that, if one has them, are to be placed in the service of others, “to share, to help many people to make their way.” The sign that tells us we have not fallen into “this sin of idolatry” is almsgiving, giving to those in need – and not giving merely of our abundance, but giving until it costs me “some privation” perhaps because “it is necessary for me. The Holy Father said, “That’s a good sign: it means it that one’s love for God is greater than one’s attachment to wealth.” So there are three questions that we can ask ourselves:
“First question: ‘Do I give?’. Second: ‘How much do I give?’ Third question: ‘How do I give?’ Do I give as Jesus gives, with the caress of love, or as one who pays a tax? How do I give? ‘But father, what do you mean by that?’ When you help someone, do you look that person in the eye? Do you touch that person’s hand? Theirs is Christ’s own flesh, that person is your brother, your sister. At that moment you are like the Father who does not leave the birds of the air to go without food. With what love the Father gives! Let us ask God for the grace to be free of this idolatry, the attachment to wealth: let us ask the grace to look at Him, so rich in His love and so rich in generosity, in His mercy; and let us ask the grace to help others with the exercise of almsgiving, but as He does it. ‘But, Father, He has not let Himself be deprived of anything! Jesus Christ, being equal to God, deprived Himself of this: He lowered Himself, He made Himself nothing – [yes,] He too deprived Himself of something.”
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) The Synod of Bishops on the family moves into its third and final week on Monday with participants meeting in small language groups to discuss further changes they’d like to see in the concluding document.
Over the first two weeks the Church leaders have been seeking to resolve tensions between two different visions of family life and ministry, one focused more on the traditional teaching of the Church and the other searching for new ways of engaging with people in relationships or situations that do not conform to Catholic doctrine.
To find out about how the Church leaders are hoping to reconcile these two visions, Philippa Hitchen spoke to the bishop of Northampton in central England, Peter Doyle…..
Listen:
Bishop Peter says he came out to Rome conscious of that ”gap that has to be bridged” but he adds that some of the small groups are moving in that direction through seeing Jesus as both truth as well as compassion and mercy.
He expresses concern that some bishops sense “a little fear” of reconciling what he describes as “a Church upholding the eternal truth of faith” and “a Church offering healing and mercy to those who have failed to live up to that teaching”. He says those who are wanting to explore “what is God’s will for us are in no way trying to undermine the traditional teaching of the Church”, but adds it’s essential to find a way of responding to those in difficult situations…
Bishop Peter says that in preparation for the Synod he was in contact with supporters of sides of the debate. Regarding the concerns of Catholics from the LGBT community in the UK, he says he’s concerned that the Synod “doesn’t seem to have faced up to those issues”, but rather to have pushed them “into a siding” because the bishops do not know how to respond. He says we cannot “leave people in limbo” yet the biblical understanding of male and female does “not leave room at the moment for same-sex relationships”.
While hoping there may be some further discussion of this topic, Bishop Doyle suggests that issues around homosexuality might merit a Synod of their own, accompanied by further exploration of the theological understanding of anthropology.
In England and Wales, Bishop Peter says, Church leaders are learning to be much more open and recognise people in different situations. “Perhaps we can encourage people to face up to these issues in open dialouge”, he adds
(from Vatican Radio)…
Vatican City, 19 October 2015 (VIS) – On the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the institution of the Synod of Bishops, the Holy Father addressed the Synod Fathers in the Vatican’s Paul VI Hall. An introduction was given by Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri, and the president of the Episcopal Conference of Austria and cardinal archbishop of Vienna Christoph Schonborn pronounced a commemorative discourse. Below are extensive extracts from the Holy Father’s discourse, in which he reiterated that the very name “Synod” – “walking together” – indicates what the Lord asks of us. “From Vatican Council II to the current Synod Assembly on the family, we have experienced in an increasingly intense way the beauty of ‘walking together’. … We must continue on this road. The world in which we live, and which we are called upon to love and serve even in its contradictions, demands of the Church a strengthening of synergies in all areas of her mission. The path of synodality is the path that God expects from the Church in the third millennium. … In the Apostolic Exhortation ‘Evangelii Gaudium’ I underlined how ‘the People of God is holy thanks to this anointing, which makes it infallible in credendo’, adding that ‘all the baptised, whatever their position in the Church or their level of instruction in the faith, are agents of evangelisation, and it would be insufficient to envisage a plan of evangelisation to be carried out by professionals while the rest of the faithful would simply be passive recipients’. … It was this conviction that guided me in my wish that the People of God be consulted in the preparation of the dual Synod on the family. … How would it be possible to speak of the family without speaking with families, listening to their joys and hopes, their sorrows and their troubles?”. “A Synodal Church is a Church who listens, aware that listening is more than hearing. It is a process of mutual listening in which each person has something to learn. The faithful, the Episcopal College, the bishop of Rome: each one listening to the others, and all listening to the Holy Spirit, the ‘Spirit of truth’. … Synodality, as a constitutive dimension of the Church, offers us the best interpretative framework for understanding her hierarchical ministry … in which no-one may be ‘higher’ than the others. On the contrary, within the Church it is necessary to stoop to put oneself in service to one’s brothers along the way. Jesus constituted the Church, placing at the summit the apostolic College, in which the apostle Peter is the ‘rock’, he who must ‘confirm’ his brothers in the faith. But in this Church, as in an upturned pyramid, the summit is below the base. Therefore, those who exercise authority are called ‘ministers’: because in accordance with the original meaning of the word, they are the least of all”. “In an synodal Church, the Synod of Bishops is only the most evident manifestation of a dynamism of communion that inspires all ecclesial dimensions. The first level of the exercise of synodality occurs in the particular Churches. … The Code of Canon Law reserves ample space to those who are usually referred to as the ‘organs of communion’ of the particular Church: the presbyteral Council, the College of Consultors, the Chapter of Canons and the pastoral Council. These instruments, that at times proceed wearily, must be accorded their due value as offering opportunities for listening and sharing. … The second level is that of the Ecclesiastical Provinces or Regions, the Particular Councils and, in special way, the Episcopal Conferences. … In a synodal Church, as I have already stated, ‘it is not advisable for the Pope to take the place of local bishops in the discernment of every issue which arises in their territory. In this sense, I am conscious of the need to promote a sound decentralisation’. … The final level is that of the universal Church. Here the Synod of Bishops, representing the entire Catholic episcopate, becomes an expression of episcopal collegiality within an entirely synodal Church”. “I am convinced that, in a synodal Church, more light could also be cast on the exercise of the Petrine primacy. The Pope is not alone and above the Church, but rather within her, baptised among the baptised, and within the episcopal College as a bishop among bishops, called upon at the same time, as the Successor of the apostle Peter, to guide the Church of Rome who presides in love among all the Churches. While I repeat the need and urgency to think of a ‘conversion of the papacy’ … I am convinced that I have, in this respect, a particular responsibility, above all in ascertaining the ecumenical aspiration of the majority of Christian communities and in listening to the request that is presented to me to find a way of exercising this primacy that, while not renouncing in any way the essence of its mission, is open to a new situation”. “Our gaze also extends to humanity. A synodal Church is like a standard borne among the nations in a world that, while invoking participation, solidarity and transparency in public administration, frequently leaves the destiny of entire populations in the rapacious hands of small powerful groups. As a Church who ‘walks together’ with mankind, participating in the labours of history, we cultivate the dream that the rediscovery of the inviolable dignity of peoples and the function of the service of authority may also help in the edification of civil society in justice and fraternity, giving rise to a world that is more beautiful and worthier of humanity for the generations to follow us”….
(Vatican Radio) Message of Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, Prefect of the Congregation for the Eastern Churches at the Memorial Lecture in honor of Archbishop Benedict Mar Gregorios – Pontifical Urbanianum College, Rome, Saturday, 17 October 2015.
Your Beatitudes Cardinal George Alencherry and Cardinal Mar Cleemis,
Honorable Ambassador Sreenivasan,
Your Excellencies,
Reverend Father Rector and brother Priests, Sisters, my dear friends,
We have gathered together for a most propitious occasion: to recall the person of Archbishop Benedict Mar Gregorios, second Metropolitan of the Syro-Malankara Church in view of the approaching Centenary celebration of his birth. The visit of the Major Archbishops to Rome for the Synod of Bishops has made this possible, along with the generous participation of the honorable Ambassador.
1. It is not my purpose to expound upon the life and vision of Mar Gregorios; I myself have come to learn about this revered figure. I would like to note, however, how very important it is to celebrate such great figures in the life of the Church. A Church is the communion of believers, who receive and transmit the precious gift of faith in many diverse ways. A bishop holds a unique place in this process of extending the life of the Church throughout time and space. In a still more particular way does the Head and Father of sui iuris Church exercise this responsibility. Not only did the man we remember today, Archbishop Mar Gregorios, lead the Syro-Malankara Church for four decades, but he led it through a key time of growth and formation.
2. In a certain sense, Mar Gregorios reflects the early life of the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church; he was himself a fruit of the Reunion Movement. The young Varghese Thangalathil was inspired by Mar Ivanios, who ordained him to the holy priesthood and entrusted to him the care of the newborn Church. It became, by the end of the Mar Gregorios’s life, a mature and integrated part of the Catholic Church both in India, as manifested his Presidency of the Catholic Bishop’s Conference, and in the world, as manifested by his participation at the Second Vatican Council and reception of Pope St John Paul II in Trivandrum.
3. Every true pastor is a bridge: from man to God, from the past to the future, from the local community to the rest of the Body of Christ. Archbishop Mar Gregorios can surely be seen as a consummate bridge for souls. In particular, he can be an intercessor for the ecumenical movement and, through his promotion of education, for secularists to faith in Christ. These are the tasks, which Providence has assigned especially to the Syro-Malankara Church, in light of its historical and social circumstances. For all her faithful, then, Benedict Mar Gregorios should remain a guide.
4. Lastly, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, I note that the late Archbishop’s legendary love of nature, combined with his solicitude for the material needs of the poor, is particularly timely and relevant to us all. As Pope Francis has reminded us in the Encyclical Letter Laudato Si: “Today, however, we have to realize that a true ecological approach always becomes a social approach; it must integrate questions of justice in debates on the environment, so as to hear both the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor” (n. 49). With great interest, I look forward to hearing details about the man whom God called forth nearly a hundred years ago to play such a key role in the Church, especially in our beloved Malankara Catholic Church. Thank you.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Speaking ahead of the Angelus at the conclusion of the Holy Mass on Sunday, Pope Francis appealed once again for peace in the Holy Land. “I am following with great concern the situation of high tension and violence that afflicts the Holy Land,” he said. “In this moment,” he continued, “there is need of great courage and great strength of soul in order to say ‘No’ to hatred and vengeance, and to carry out acts of peace.”
Pope Francis prayed that God might strengthen both political leaders and people, that they might have to courage to oppose violence and to take concrete steps aimed at decreasing tensions. In the present middle-east context, he said, peace in the Holy Land is more crucial than ever: “God, and the good of humanity, seek this of us.”
(from Vatican Radio)…