The same restlessness that God placed in each of our hearts brings us to search for him. This was the reflection given by Pope Francis during his homily this morning at Casa Santa Marta.
Today’s reading from the book of Genesis recalled the creation of Man, who was created in God’s image. According to Vatican Radio, the Holy Father reflected on the right path and the wrong path that man takes in the journey of searching for his origins.
«Those who never set out on this journey will never know the image of God, will never find the face of God,» he said.
«Sedentary Christians, lethargic Christians will not know the face of God: They do not know Him. They say: ‘God is like this…’, but those who are lethargic do not know Him; the lethargic. You need a certain restlessness to set out on this path, the same restlessness that God placed in each of our hearts and that brings us forward in search of Him”.
He also reflected on the Gospel from St. Mark, in which the Pharisees reprimand Jesus because his disciples ate with unclean hands. The Pharisees who were reprimanded as hypocrites by Christ, the Pope said, «content themselves with a caricature of God.»
«It is a fake ID,» he said. These lethargic people have silenced the restlessness of their heart, they depict God with commandments and forget God: ‘You, by neglecting the commandment of God, observe the tradition of men’, and in doing so they turn away from God, they do not journey towards God and when they are insecure, they invent or make up another commandment.»
Concluding his homily, Pope Francis said that today’s readings present two distinct paths in searching for God. «One tells us: ‘Set out on the path and you will discover your identity, because you are the image of God, you are made in the likeness of God. Get up and seek God,'» he said.
«And the other: ‘No, do not worry: fulfill all these commandments, and this is God. This is the face of God’. May the Lord give us all the grace of courage to always set out on the path, to seek the Lord’s face, the face that one day we will see, but which we must seek here on Earth.»
