Pope: Christianity is "concrete": the Word "made flesh, not an idea"
"The Lord gives us all this Easter Spirit, to travel the paths of the Spirit without compromise, without stiffness, with the freedom to proclaim Jesus Christ as He came: in the flesh."
Vatican City (AsiaNews) - Christianity is "concrete": the Word "became flesh, not an idea" and therefore faith is "frankness" that refuses compromises, rigidity and legalism, said Pope Francis at Mass this morning at Casa Santa Marta, commenting on the Gospel passage of Nicodemus's encounter with Jesus. The C9 Cardinals also attended the ceremony, who are meeting from today to April 26 with the Pope.
Francis emphasized how Jesus explains with love and patience to Nicodemus that he must be "born from above", "born of the Spirit" and therefore "pass from one mentality to another". To better understand this, one can only dwell on what the first reading, from the Acts of the Apostles, tells us. Peter and John have cured the cripple, and the Doctors of the law don’t know what to do, how to hide what has become “public knowledge”. The apostles respond to questions “with simplicity" and when they tell him not to talk about it again, Peter replies: "No! We cannot silence what we have seen and heard. And ... we will continue on this way ".
Here, the Pope said, "is the concreteness of a fact," "the concreteness of faith," with respect to Doctors of the law who "want to enter negotiations to reach a compromise": Peter and John "are courageous and frank, they have the frankness of the Spirit," "meaning to speak openly, courageously, truthfully, without compromise. " This is "the point," "the concreteness of faith." "Sometimes we forget that our faith is concrete: the Word has become flesh, not an idea: it has become flesh. And when we recite the Creed, we all say concrete things: 'I believe in God the Father, who made heaven and earth, I believe in Jesus Christ who was born, who is dead ...', these are all concrete things. Our Creed does not say, 'I believe I must do this, that I must do this, that I must do this or that things are for these ...': no! They are concrete things. The concreteness of faith that leads to frankness, witness to martyrdom, which is against compromises or the idealization of faith. "
The Pope continued for these doctors of the law, the Word "did not become flesh: it became law: and this must be done up to this point and no further", "you must do this" and nothing else. "And so they were fooled into this rationalistic mentality, which did not end with them, no? Because in the history of the Church often, the very Church that condemned rationalism, the Enlightenment, often fell into a theology of 'can and cannot', 'up to here, up to there', and forgot the strength, the liberty of the Spirit, this resurrection from the Spirit that gives us freedom, the frankness of the proclamation, the proclamation that Jesus Christ is the Lord.“
"Let us ask the Lord for this experience of the Spirit that goes and comes and leads us forward, the Spirit that gives us the unction of faith, the unity of a concrete faith." "The wind blows where it wills and you hear its voice, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with whoever is born of the Spirit: he hears the voice, follows the wind, follows the voice of the Spirit without knowing where it will end. Because he chose the concreteness of faith and rebirth in the Spirit. May the Lord gift us all this Easter Spirit, to travel the path of the Spirit without compromise, without rigidity, with the freedom to proclaim Jesus Christ as He came: in the flesh."
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19/04/2018 12:59
