Vatican City, Nov 19, 2017 / 05:52 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis on Sunday cautioned against having a “mistaken” idea of God as harsh and punishing, saying this fear will end up paralyzing us and preventing us from doing good, rather than spreading his love and mercy.
“Fear always immobilizes and often leads us to make bad choices,” the Pope said Nov. 19. “Fear discourages us from taking the initiative, and encourages us to seek refuge in safe and guaranteed solutions, and so we end up doing nothing good.”
To go forward and grow on the path of life, he said, “we must not be afraid, but we have to trust.”
Pope Francis spoke to pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square during his Sunday Angelus address on the first-ever World Day for the Poor, which he implemented at the end of the Jubilee of Mercy.
In his speech, the Pope turned to the day’s Gospel reading from Matthew, which recounts the parable of the talents. In the passage, a master goes on a long trip and entrusts three servants with different talents, but when he returns, only two have gained profit from it, while the third buried his out of fear.
This parable “makes us understand how important it is to have a true idea of God,” Francis said, noting that the third servant didn’t really trust his master, but but feared him, and this fear prevented him from acting.
We shouldn’t think that God is “an evil, harsh and severe master who wants to punish us,” the Pope said, explaining that if we have this “mistaken image of God, then our lives cannot be fruitful, because we will live in fear and this will not lead us to anything constructive.”
Fear, he said, paralyzes us and so is self-destructive. So when faced with the unfaithful servant in this parable, each of us is called to reflect on what our idea of God really is.
Turning to the Old Testament, Francis noted how in Exodus God is described as “merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.”
Even in the New Testament, Jesus always demonstrated that God is not “a severe and intolerant master,” but a father full of “love and tenderness, a father full of goodness,” Francis said, and because of this, “we can and must have immense trust in him.”
Jesus, he said, shows us his generosity in various ways, through his words, actions, and his welcome towards all, especially toward sinners and the poor and vulnerable. But also with his admonishments, “which show his interest in us so that we do not waste our lives uselessly.”
This, the Pope said, is a sign of the great esteem God has for us, and having this knowledge ought to help us to take responsibility for our every action.
Concluding, Pope Francis said parable invites us to have “a personal responsibility and fidelity which become capable of continually placing ourselves on new roads, without burying the talent, which is are the gifts that God has entrusted to us and of which he will ask us to account for.”
After leading pilgrims in the Angelus prayer, the Pope made a series of appeals, the first of which was for the World Day for the Poor. He prayed that the poor and disadvantaged would be “the center of our communities” not just on special occasions, but always, “because they are the heart of the Gospel, in them we encounter Jesus who speaks to us and challenges us through their sufferings and their needs.”
He also drew attention to beatification of Fr. Solanus Casey yesterday in Detroit, saying the friar was “a humble and faithful disciple of Christ, who distinguished himself with an untiring service to the poor.”
“May his witness help priests, religious and laity to live with joy the link between the announcement of the Gospel and the love for the poor.”
Francis also offered special prayers for those living “a painful poverty” due to war and conflict, and renewed his appeal to the international community “to commit every possible effort in favor of peace, especially in the Middle East.”
He prayed especially for Lebanon, particularly for the country’s stability, “so that it may continue to be a message of respect and sharing for every religion and for the entire world.”
A final appeal he made was for the crew of an Argentine military submarine, who have been missing for several days without a trace.
After concluding the Angelus, Pope Francis made his way to the Vatican’s Paul VI Hall, where he had lunch with some 1,500 poor and needy in town for the World Day of the Poor.
Before the meal, Francis said a blessing for the food and for everyone there, asking the Lord “to bless us, to bless the meal, to bless those who prepared it, to bless all of us, our hearts, our families, our desires and our lives, that he give us health and strength. Amen.”
He also offered a blessing for all those eating in other soup kitchens throughout Rome. “Rome is full of these today,” he said, and asked for “a greeting and an applause” for the thousands of others participating in the event.
<blockquote class=”twitter-tweet” data-lang=”en”><p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”><a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/PopeFrancis?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#PopeFrancis</a> says blessing before eating lunch, prays for the cooks, the guests, their families & charity organizations in <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/Rome?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#Rome</a>: asks that they receive "health & strength" <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/WorldDayofthePoor?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#WorldDayofthePoor</a> <a href=”https://t.co/jRrW0dN3xc”>pic.twitter.com/jRrW0dN3xc</a></p>— Elise Harris (@eharris_it) <a href=”https://twitter.com/eharris_it/status/932212710749691905?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>November 19, 2017</a></blockquote>
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“Peter’s Pence is the Holy See’s annual collection to finance the pope’s charitable works and other priorities, including the Roman Curia.”
The quote, sans rhyme, implies reason for an intellect remaining open.
One notes a cause for thanks and praise due the Vatican: It expects a 2022 deficit of only 37 US million. A mere pittance.
As a note on the convoluted tangle of worldly with clerical events, we might recall that the Peter’s Pence collection began as a funding source for the construction of St. Peter’s Cathedral in Rome (recently inhabited by Pachamama!). But, when conveyance of these funds from Germany to Rome was blocked by the emerging German nation-state, a more aggressive local sale of indulgences resulted, igniting the explosive ecclesial grievances of one Martin Luther.
And, today, we witness the continuing turmoil in Germany, far beyond anything even Luther imagined, where failure to pay the state’s church-tax (!) is branded as “apostasy” (!!) and is cause for automatic excommunication (!!!). No sacraments for disloyal peasants!
Meanwhile, what’s left of the Church in Germany (many intend a German Church awash in rising funds even as membership erodes year by year), there’s this post-Luther thingy called the German “synodal way”—which history will record as the drop of cyanide in the punchbowl called the global Synod on Synodality.
Moreover, the corrupted tin-cup marketing of indulgences in the 16th century by a priest named Tetzel pales in significance compared to the mass-media marketing corruption of a priest named James Martin, and his tribe of other enablers, and worse, now metastasized throughout all echelons of clericalism.
Since 2015, is the sorry slide in Peter’s Pence charitable collections due only to COVID lockdowns?
First priority of the clerical movers and shakers in charge is to keep the money flowing.
-Guerrero states regarding the decline in Peter’s Pence revenues,
“This should make us think about other methods of soliciting the help of the faithful and receiving donations.”
-Fr.Thomas Reese when he speaks of diocesan offices applying for grants during the Covid lockdown at https://www.ncronline.org/news/coronavirus/signs-times/yes-catholic-church-benefitted-federal-ppp-loans-good-them.
“The Catholic Church was simply very good at jumping through the bureaucratic hoops required to get a PPP loan. Diocesan finance offices proved to be very competent. Good for them.
Likewise, the hierarchy is “simply very good” at and proving “very competent” at wrecking architecture, ignoring liturgical protocol, facilitating sexual sins and endorsing sacrilege.
I thought first priority should be praying and making sacrifice for the sins of their flocks – concern for the salvation of souls.
Just wondering if it has ever occurred to Guerrero, Reese, Cupich, Marx, Bergolio, Dolan and their ilk, that the dear faithful are coming to realize that the care and salvation of souls is not even on the radar of the shepherds at large. In other words, the little ones on the peripheries are wising up, so we’ll have to look for revenues elsewhere and hold forth with the New Synodal Way.
I think decline in Peters Pence funds has not much to do with the lowly virus, as the little flocks have always been a generous lot and would have found other ways to contribute to the PP collection.
Today the Church should be conducting a root cause analysis; “The decrease in 2021 is in addition to the 23% decrease between 2015 and 2019 and the 18% decrease in 2020, the first year of the pandemic.”
Considering the absolute trainwreck that is the Francis Pontificate, with it’s nonstop doctrinal confusion, attacks on the laity, and scandals involving financial corruption and sexual abuse, not to mention the closure of Churches during the Lockdowns, my only surprise is it didn’t fall further than 15%.
Though government and ‘other’contributions no doubt more than made up for the decline