In his homily at Casa Santa Marta this morning, Pope Francis called on Christians to pray in this Holy Week for the grace to accept difficult moments.
According to Vatican Radio, the Holy Father reflected on today’s first reading from the Book of Numbers in which God punished the people of Israel for their complaining by sending fiery serpents that bit and poisoned them.
Drawing comparison from the reading to daily life, the Pope said that many times, even Christians have this tendency to rebel against God or try to seek salvation on their own terms. Calling them, “‘Yes, but…’ Christians”, the Pope said that they do not open their hearts to God’s salvation, but rather place conditions.
“‘Yes, but this!’ ‘Yes, yes, yes, I want to be saved but through this path.’ Thus the heart becomes poisoned,” the Pope said.
However, the 78 year old Pontiff noted, Christ took upon Himself this poison that enters the heart when He was crucified on the cross.
“This tepidness of the soul, this being half-way Christians, ‘Yes, but…’ Christians…This enthusiasm at the beginning of the way of the Lord and then becoming discontent, can only be healed by looking at the Cross, looking at God who takes our sins: my sin is there.”
Saying that many “die in the desert of their sadness” and murmuring, the Pope called on Christians to contemplate on Christ Crucified and ask for the grace to accept the difficult moments in life.
“To accept the divine style of salvation, to accept even this ‘light’ food of which the Hebrew people complained about, to accept thins…To accept the path through which the Lord takes me forward. May this Holy Week, which begins on Sunday, help us to escape from this temptation to become ‘Yes, but…Christians'”, Pope Francis concluded.
