Pope: serve God as His children, eschewing power and disloyalty

There are many obstacles to freely serving the Lord. "One is the desire for power," but "Jesus taught us that the one who commands must become as one who serves. Or, if one wants to be first he must be the servant of all". The other obstacle present "even in the Church's life", is "treachery". This happens "when somebody wants to serve the Lord, but also serves other things that are not the Lord." "The Lord has told us that no servant can have two masters."

Vatican City (AsiaNews) - To serve God as His children, eschewing power and disloyalty said Pope Francis at Mass this morning in Santa Marta, taking the cue from today's Gospel (Luke 17.7 to 10) that "We are useless servants." An affirmation that every true disciple must repeat to himself.

But what are the obstacles that prevent us from serving the Lord, to serve him with freedom? There are so many, "one is the desire for power." "How often have we seen, perhaps, in our house: I'm in charge! And how many times, without saying so, do we make others feel that 'I'm in charge', no? And even show it, no? The desire for power ... And Jesus taught us that the one who commands must become like one who serves. Or, if one wants to be first, he must be the servant of all. Jesus changes the values ​​of social life, of the world. And this desire for power is not the way to become a servant of the Lord, in fact: it is an obstacle, one of these obstacles we prayed to the Lord to remove from us".

The other obstacle present "even in the Church's life", is "treachery". This happens "when somebody wants to serve the Lord, but also serves other things that are not the Lord." "The Lord has told us that no servant can have two masters. Or we serve God or we serve money. Jesus told us as much. And this is an obstacle: disloyalty. Which is not the same as being a sinner. We are all sinners, and we repent of this. But it is unfair to be playing a double game, right? Playing right and left, playing God and even playing in the world, no? And this is an obstacle. Those who want power and what is unfair, can hardly serve, cannot become a free servant of the Lord".

These obstacles, the desire for power, disloyalty, said Francis, "take away peace and leads to that restlessness of heart to be at peace, always looking forward." And this "leads us to live in that tension of worldly vanities, living to appear." How many people "only lives to be on display, to appear, so they can say: 'Ah, it is good that ...', for fame. Worldly fame. " And so "you can not serve the Lord."

This is why "we ask the Lord to remove the obstacles so that we may have an inner serenity, both in body and spirit", so we can "freely accomplish His service".

"God's service for free: we are children, not slaves. And serving God in peace, with serenity, when He Himself has removed the obstacles that take away peace and serenity, is to serve him with freedom. And when we serve the Lord in freedom, we feel that deeper peace, right?, the voice of the Lord: 'Oh, come, come, come, good and faithful servant'. And we all want to serve the Lord with goodness and truth, but we need His grace, we can not do it alone. And this is why we must always ask for this grace, for Him to remove these obstacles, for Him to give us this serenity, this peace of heart to serve freely, not as slaves but as children. "

"Freedom in service". Even when our service is free, we have to repeat that "we are useless servants" aware that we can do nothing alone. "Only we have to ask and make room so that He can do this in us, and He will turn us into free servants, into His children, not slaves."

"May the Lord help us to open our hearts and let the Holy Spirit work, to deliver us from these obstacles, especially the desire for power that hurts so much, and disloyalty, the double" to "do you want to serve God and the world ".

Pope Francis concluded: "And so may He give us this serenity, this peace to be able to serve as child free in the end, with so much love, so we can say to Him: 'Father, thank you, but you know: I am a useless servant'.

• Vatican
• Pope Francis
• Mass
• Santa Marta