From the Website of Vatican
links: http://www.news.va/en/news/mass-at-santa-marta-nameless
Being worldly means losing your name and having the eyes of your soul
“tinted dark”, anaesthetized, until you no longer see the people around you.
This is the sin that Francis spoke about on Thursday, 5 March, during Mass at Santa
Marta.
“Today’s Lenten Liturgy
offers us two stories, two judgements and three names”, Francis began. The two
stories are those of the parable, narrated by Luke (16:19-31), of the rich man
and of the poor man named Lazarus. In particular, the Pope stated, the first
story is “that of the rich man, who was clothed in purple and the finest
linen”, who “took good care of himself”, and “feasted sumptuously every day”.
The text, Francis indicated, “doesn’t say he was bad”, but rather that he had
“a comfortable life, he gave himself a good life”. In fact, “the Gospel doesn’t
say that he overindulged”; instead his
was “a quiet life, with friends”. Who knows, perhaps “if he had parents, he
surely sent them things so they would have the necessities of life”. And maybe
“he was a religious man, in his way. Perhaps he recited a few prayers; and
surely two or three times a year he went to temple to make sacrifices and gave
large offerings to the priests”. And “they, with their clerical cowardliness,
thanked him and made him sit in the place of honour”. This was the social
lifestyle of the rich man presented by Luke.
Then there is “the
second story, that of Lazarus”, the poor mendicant who lay at the rich man’s
gate. How is it possible that this man didn’t realize that Lazarus was there,
below his house, poor and starving? The wounds that the Gospel speaks of, the
Pope said, are “a symbol of the many needs he had”. However, “when the rich man
left the house, perhaps the car he left in had windows tinted dark so he couldn’t
see out”. But “surely his soul, the eyes of his soul were tinted dark so he
couldn’t see”. And thus the rich man “saw only his life and didn’t realize what
was happening” to Lazarus.
In the final analysis,
Francis affirmed, “the rich man wasn’t bad, he was sick: afflicted with
worldliness”. And “worldliness transforms souls, makes them lose consciousness
of reality: they live in an artificial world”, which they create. Worldliness
“anaesthetizes the soul”, and “this is why that worldly man wasn’t able to see
reality”.
This is why, the Pope
explained, “the second story is clear”: there are “so many people who end their
lives in a difficult way” but “if I have a worldly heart, I will never
understand this”. After all, “with a worldly heart” is is impossible to
comprehend “the necessities and needs of others. With a worldly heart you can
go to Church, you can pray, you can do many things”. But what did Jesus pray
for at the Last Supper? “Please, Father, protect these disciples” so that “they
do not fall in the world, do not fall into worldliness”. And worldliness “is a
subtle sin, it’s more than a sin: it’s a sinful state of soul”.
“These are the two
stories” presented by the Liturgy, the Pontiff recapped. “The two
judgements”,
instead, are “a curse and a blessing”. The First Reading from Jeremiah
(17:5-10) reads: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh
his arm,
whose heart turns away from the Lord”. This, Francis stressed, is the
profile
of the “worldliness we saw” in the rich man. And how will this man end
up?
Scripture defines him as “‘a shrub in the desert: he shall not see any
good
come. He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness’ — his
soul is a desert — ‘in an uninhabited salt land’, where no one
can live”. And all of this “because, in truth, the worldly are alone
with their
selfishness”. Then in the text of Jeremiah there is also a blessing:
“Blessed
is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. He is like a
tree
planted by water”, while the other “was like a shrub in the desert”.
This,
then, is “the final judgement: nothing is more treacherous for a heart
and
difficult to heal: that man had a sick heart, so battered by this
worldly
lifestyle that it was very difficult to heal”.
After the two stories
and the two judgements, Francis also spoke about “the three names” offered in
the Gospel Reading: “they are that of the poor man, Lazarus, that of Abraham,
and that of Moses”. Another key to understanding is that the rich man “had no
name, because the worldly lose their name”, which is merely a feature “of the
well-off crowd who need nothing”. On the other hand are “Abraham, our father;
Lazarus, a man who struggles because he is good and poor and has so much pain;
and Moses, the man who gives us the law”. But “the worldly have no name. They
didn’t listen to Moses”, because they only need extraordinary manifestations.
In the Church, the
Pontiff continued, “everything is clear, Jesus spoke clearly: this is the way”.
But “at the end there is a word of consolation: when that unfortunate worldly
man, in torment, asks that Lazarus be sent with a bit of water to help him”,
Abraham, who is the figure of God the Father, responds: “Son, remember...”.
Thus “the worldly have lost their name” and “we too, should we have a worldly
heart, we have lost our name”. However, “we are not orphans. Until the very
end, until the final moment, there is the assurance that we have a Father who
awaits us. Let us trust in Him”. And the Father turns to us, calling us ‘son’
and ‘daughter’, even “in the midst of that worldliness: son”. And this means
that “we are not orphans”.
Vatican Website
http://w2.vatican.va/content/vatican/en.html
http://www.news.va/en
Article links:
http://www.news.va/en/news/mass-at-santa-marta-nameless
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