Pope: the journey towards holiness needs freedom to “keep looking at the light"

"So often, we think of holiness as an extraordinary thing, as having very high visions or prayers ... or some think that being holy means having a holy image-like face... No! Being holy is another thing. It is to walk on [the path] that the Lord tells us to".

Vatican City (AsiaNews) - To go to holiness, "we must be free", we must have the freedom "to keep looking at the light", not to be distracted by worldly schemes, which rob us of  freedom, said Pope Francis at Mass this morning at Casa Santa Marta.

The Pope was inspired by the passage from the First Reading (1Pt 1,10-16) in which Peter invites us to "walk towards holiness", that is, towards that grace that is meeting, walking towards hope, being in tension towards the encounter with Jesus Christ.

"And - the Pope said - the call to holiness, which is the normal call, is the call to live as a Christian, that is to live as a Christian is the same as saying 'to live as a saint'. So often, we think of holiness as an extraordinary thing, as having very high visions or prayers ... or some think that being holy means having a holy image-like face... No! Being holy is another thing. It is to walk on [the path] that the Lord tells us to. And what is it, walking on holiness? As Peter says it: 'Put all your hope in that grace which will be given to you when Jesus Christ is revealed' ".

It's like when you walk towards the light: you can’t really see the road well because the light dazzles. "But we are not wrong because we see the light and we know the way". On the other hand, when you walk with the light behind you, you can clearly see the road: in reality, however, there is a shadow in front of us, not light. To walk towards holiness, then, we need to "be free and feel free".

The Pope, however, warns that there are many things that enslave. This is why Peter exhorted us not to conform to the desires "of a time when you were ignorant". Even Paul in the First Letter to the Romans says: "Do not conform", which means "do not enter into the schemes". "This is the correct translation of these counsels - do not enter into the schemes of the world, do not enter into the schemes, the worldly way of thinking, the way of thinking and judging that the world offers you, because this takes away your freedom. And to journey towards holiness, we must be free: the freedom to walk looking at the light, to move forward. And when we return, as it says here, to the way of life we ​​had before meeting Jesus Christ or when we return to the schemes of this world, we lose our freedom ".

Thus, in the book of Exodus we see how many times the people of God did not want to look forward to salvation, but to go back. They complained and "imagined the good life they had in Egypt" where they ate onions and meat .. "In times of difficulty - commented Francis - the people turn back", "they lose freedom": it is true that they ate good things but "in a canteen of slavery". "In moments of trial, we are always tempted to look back, to look at the worldly schemes, to the schemes we had before starting out on the path of salvation: without freedom. And without freedom one cannot be saints. Freedom is the condition for being able to walk looking into the light ahead. Do not enter into the schemes of worldliness: walk forward, look at the light that is the promise, in hope; this is that promise of the people of God in the desert: when they looked forward they were fine; when they were nostalgic because they could not eat the good things they were given there, they were wrong  because they had forgotten that they had no freedom there."

The Lord said "You will be holy because I am holy". Francis concluded calling on people to ask for the grace to understand what path of holiness is: "a road of freedom but a tension of hope towards an encounter with Jesus". And to also understand what it means to journey towards the "worldly schemes that we all had, before the encounter with Jesus".

• Vatican
• Pope
• Francis
• holiness
• hope