Pope: saints are not heroes, the difference is they follow the path of Jesus, of humiliation, of the Cross
Vatican City (AsiaNews) - The Saints are not heroes, but they are sinners who follow Jesus "The difference between the heroes and the saints is their witness, their imitation of Jesus Christ". "Travelling the path of Jesus Christ" and the humiliation of the cross. Like St. John Paul II at the end of his life: "We all saw him." "He could not speak, the great athlete of God, the great warrior of God, ended up like this: destroyed by disease, humbled like Jesus".
Holiness and what it means to say that "the Church is holy," although made up of sinners, was the subject of which Pope Francis spoke at Mass this morning at Casa Santa Marta, commenting on the reading on the conversion of St. Paul.
"But how can she be holy if we are all within [her]? We are
all sinners here. Yet the Church is holy! We are sinners, but she is holy. She
is the spouse of Jesus Christ, and He loves her, He sanctifies her, He
sanctifies her every day with His Eucharistic sacrifice, because He loves her
so much. And we are sinners, but in a holy Church. And we too are sanctified
with this belonging to the Church: we are children of Church, and Mother Church
sanctifies us, with her love, with the Sacraments of her Spouse."
In his letters, the Pope said,
"Saint Paul speaks to the saints, to us: sinners, but children of the holy
Church, sanctified by the Body and the Blood of Jesus": "In this holy Church
the Lord chooses certain people so that holiness can be better seen, to show
that it is He who sanctifies, that no one sanctifies himself, that there's no
course to become a saint, that it's not being a religious fraud or something of
that sort... No! It's not that! Holiness is a gift of Jesus to His Church
and to show this He chooses people in whom His work of sanctifying is clearly
seen."
In the Gospel, the Pope said, there are many examples of saints: there is Mary
Magdalene, from whom Jesus cast out seven demons; there's Matthew "who was a
traitor to his people and took money to give it to the Romans;" there's
Zacchaeus and so many others who show everyone "the first rule of sanctity: it
is necessary that Christ increases and that we decrease. It is the rule of
sanctity: we become humble, so that the Lord might increase."
And so, Christ chooses Saul, who is a persecutor of the Church: "but the Lord
awaits him. The Lord awaits him, and makes him feel His power." Saul "becomes blind
and obeys," and from the old man that he was, "he becomes like a child: he
obeys!" His heart is changed: "it is another life!" But Paul does not become a hero,
the Pope explained, because he who had preached the Gospel throughout the world
"ended his life with a little group of friends, here in Rome, a victim of his
disciples." "One morning, 3, 4, 5 soldiers came to him.. they took him away and
cut off his head. Simply. The great man, who had gone out into the whole world,
ended his life in this way." He diminished, the Pope said. "The difference
between heroes and saints," Pope Francis affirmed, "is the witness, the imitation
of Jesus Christ, going along the way of Jesus Christ," [the way] of the Cross. And
many saints "end their lives so humbly. The great saints! I think of the last
days of Saint John Paul II," the Pope recalled. "We all saw it:"
"He could not speak, the great athlete of God. This is how the great warrior of
God ended his life, destroyed by disease, humiliated like Jesus. This is the
path of sanctity of the great. And it is path of our sanctity. If we do not
allow our hearts to be converted to this street of Jesus - bearing the cross
every day, the ordinary cross, the simple cross - and allowing Jesus to
increase; if we do not take this path, we will not be saints. But if we take
this path, all of us will bear witness to Jesus Christ, who loves us so much. And
we bear witness that, although we are sinners, the Church is holy. She is the spouse
of Jesus."
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01/05/2020 17:00
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