Pope : "You can not serve God and money", "greed is the root of all evil"
Vatican City ( AsiaNews) - "
You can not serve God and money ", " greed , in fact, is the root of
all evil ", "it corrupts" and "its power is so great, it
can make you deviate from [the path of ] faith", it even "robs you of faith, it weakens
it and you lose it". And
when one does something for money that countermands the first commandment, he
or she "is guilty of idolatry."
This
was Pope Francis reflection during his homily at morning mass in Casa Santa
Marta, commenting on the words of St. Paul on the relationship "between
the road of Jesus Christ and that of money".
As reported by Vatican Radio, the Pope noted that there is something in "the attitude of love for money that distances us from God." There are "so many diseases, so many sins , but Jesus greatly emphasizes this one" , "love of money , in fact, is the root of all evil ." Taken by "this desire , some have wandered away from the faith and have brought many torments upon themselves". "Money is so powerful, that it makes us deviate from the faith", it even "robs us of our faith, weakens it and makes us lose it".
"But money also sickens our thoughts, it even sickens our faith and makes it chose another path. These idle words , useless discussions ... It goes even further ... It gives rise to envy, strife , slander , evil suspicions, the conflicts of men with corrupt minds and destitute of the truth , who consider religion as a source of income. ' I'm a Catholic , I go to Mass , because that gives me a certain status . I am well considered... but underneath I take care of my own interests, right? I cultivate money. Here a word is used, which we find very, very frequently in the newspapers : 'Men of corrupt mind . 'Money corrupts! There is no way out" .
If you choose "the road of money," he added , "in the end you will be a corrupt " . Money "is this seductive that it slowly leads you to slip towards perdition".
"You can not serve God and money
.' You can not : either one or the other ! And this is not communism , eh! This
is pure Gospel ! These are the words of Jesus! What happens with money? Money
gives you a degree of prosperity in the beginning. Okay ... but then you begin
to feel important and this is vanity. We read in the Psalm that this is vanity.
This vanity is not needed , but you feel like an important person : that is
vanity. And the pride of vanity, pride. Three steps: wealth, vanity and pride .
"
"No one
can escape with the money". However,
he noted , "the devil always takes this path of temptation :wealth, to
feel sufficient; vanity, to feel important , and , in the end, pride: Pride is
his language".
"But,
Father , I read the Ten Commandments and they do not speak ill of money.
Against which Commandment do we sin when we do something for money? Against the
first! It is the sin of idolatry. Here's
why: because money becomes the
idol you worship! And that is why Jesus tells us: You can not serve the idol money and the Living
God: either one or the other . The early Fathers of the Church - I am speaking
of the third century, more or less 200 or 300 AD - used a strong
word: ' money is the devil's dung. And it is so, because it makes us idolaters,
and sickens our mind with pride and makes us maniacs of idle issues and distances
us from the faith, it corrupts ' . "
St.
Paul tells us to avoid these things, but to strive "for justice,
godliness, faith, love ." And
patience, "against vanity and pride " and "meekness ." This
is "the road of God, not that of the idolatrous power that money can give".
Humility is"the
road to serve God ." "
May the Lord - he concluded - help us all to not fall into the trap of idolatry
of money."
17/05/2020 12:35
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