"There is a danger of forgetting that He saved us individually, but as part of a people. A people. Always the Lord saves us as part of a people”. We must not "privatize" salvation, "I have to ask myself whether I speak and communicate the faith; whether I speak and communicate hope; whether I speak, do and communicate charity”.

Vatican City (AsiaNews) - God saves everyone personally, but as "a people", not "just me" and "my group", my " ecclesial elite ". Because salvation must not to be privatized, warned Pope Francis at Mass this morning in Casa Santa Marta, commenting on a passage from the Letter to the Hebrews.

Jesus, he noted, is "the new and living path" that we must follow, "the way He wants". And Jesus "gives us the criteria to avoid following the wrong models. And one of these wrong models is privatizing Salvation." "It's true, Jesus has saved us all, but not in generically. Everyone, but each individual, first and last name. And this is personal salvation. Really I am saved, the Lord looked at me, He gave His life for me , opened this door, this new path for me, and each of us can say 'for me'. but there is a danger of forgetting that He saved us individually, but as part of a people. A people. The Lord always saves the people. From the moment when He called Abraham, when He promised to make a people. And the Lord saves us as part of a people. This is why the author of this letter tells us: 'we must encourage one another'. There is no salvation for me alone. If I understand salvation in this way, I am wrong, I have taken the wrong path. The privatization of salvation is the wrong path".

There are three criteria to avoid privatizing salvation: "faith in Jesus that cleanses us", hope that "makes us look at the promises and move forward" and "charity: that is, we pay attention to each other, to encourage each other in charity and good works". "And when I'm in a parish, in a community - whatever it may be- I'm there, I can privatize t salvation and be there just on a social level. But to avoid privatizing (salvation), I have to ask myself whether I speak and communicate the faith; whether I speak and communicate hope; whether I speak, do and communicate charity. If we do not speak to each other in community, if we do not encourage each other in these three virtues, the members of that community have privatized faith. Each one seeks his own salvation, not the salvation of all, the salvation of the people. And Jesus has saved everyone, but as part of a people, of a Church".

The author of the Letter to the Hebrews - continued the Pope - gives very important "practical" advice " We should not stay away from our assembly, as is the custom of some". This happens "when we are in a meeting - in our parish, in our group - and judge others", "there is a kind of contempt for the other. And this is not the door, the new and living path which the Lord opens, has opened". "They despise others; deserting the whole community; deserting the people of God; they have privatized salvation: salvation is for me and for my group, but not for all the people of God. And this is a very big mistake. This is what we call and what we see: 'ecclesial elites '. When these little groups are created among the people of God, think they are good Christians, even - perhaps - they have good intentions, but they are small groups that have privatized salvation".

"God - the Pope said - saves us in a people, not in the elites, that we have created in our philosophies or the our understanding of the faith. And these are not the graces of God." Then ask yourself if "I have a tendency to privatize salvation for me, for my group, for my elite or  whether I desert all the people of God, do I walk away from the people of God or am I always in the community, family, with the language of faith, hope, and the language of the works of charity? ". "May the Lord give us the grace to increasingly feel ourselves part of the people of God, personally saved. That's true: He saves us by name, but we are saved as a people, not in the group that I make for myself".

 

• VATICAN
• pope
• francis
• mass
• homily
• ecclesial
• elites
• casa
• santa
• marta