There is no third path of compromise: either you are with the Lord in love or you follow your own will. This was the reflection offered by Pope Francis during his homily at Casa Santa Marta this morning.
According to Vatican Radio, the Pope spoke on today’s readings which recalled those who harden their hearts to the voice of God.
The Holy Father said that it seems as if God cries at the unfaithfulness of his people. The hearts of those who choose their own will instead of God’s, he noted, harden.
“We do our own will, but going on this path in life we follow a path of hardening: the heart hardens, it petrifies,” he said. “And the Word of the Lord does not enter. And the people depart. Even our personal history can become like this. And today, in this Lenten day, we can ask ourselves: ‘Do I listen to the voice of the Lord, or do I do what I want, what I like?”
Today’s Gospel from St. Luke recalled Jesus’ response to those who rebuked Him after he freed a man possessed by the devil.
“Some of them said, ‘By the power of Beelzebul, the prince of demons, he drives out demons.’ Others, to test him, asked him for a sign from heaven,” the Gospel states.
The Jesuit Pope said that their argument is typical of those who are “legalistic”, who “believe that life is regulated by the laws they create.”
“Even this happened in the history of the Church!” the Pope exclaimed. “Think about poor Joan of Arc: today she is saint! Poor woman: these doctors burned her alive, because they said she was a heretic, accused of heresy…But they were doctors, those that surely knew doctrine, these Pharisees: far from the love of God.”
“In the History of God with his people, the Lord would send them, to tell them that He love his people, the Prophets. In the Church, the Lord sends the saints. It is the saints who bring forward the life of the Church: they are the saints. Not the powerful, the hypocrites. No. The Saints!”
The Holy Father also commented on Jesus’ words to those who criticized Him: Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.”
“Jesus says: ‘Who is not with me, is against me.’ But is there a way of compromise, a bit of this and a bit of that? No. Either you are on the path of love, or on the path of hypocrisy,” he said.
Concluding his homily, Pope Francis called on the faithful to ask themselves which path they find themselves on. However, he warned that there is not third path of compromise. “Either you are a saint or you go another way,” he concluded.
