«What’s going on inside us? What inspires you that? … What leads you to do that? «: Questions that every Christian must ask, said Pope Francis at the Mass he celebrated at Casa Santa Marta on October 25, 2019.
In his homily reported by Vatican News , the pope meditated on the «inner struggle» between «the desire to do good» and the fact of not being able «to put it into practice»: a real «war of all the days «, a» law for all «.
«It’s a struggle between good and bad,» he explained; but not an abstract good or an abstract evil: between the good that the Holy Spirit inspires us to do and the evil that the evil spirit inspires us to do … It is the struggle of all. If anyone among us said: «But I do not feel that, I am a blessed, I live quiet, in peace …», I would say: «You are not a blessed: you are anesthetized, who does not understand not what happens.»
In this daily struggle, «to the end», there are «extraordinary moments of struggle» but also «ordinary, everyday moments».
«So often we Christians,» the Pope observed, «are busy in many things, including good ones … we only look at what interests us; the rest, we do not look at it … Sometimes, with the soul we all, we know what happens in the neighborhood, what happens to the neighbors, but not what happens in us.»
The struggle, he said, «is always between grace and sin, between the Lord who wants to save us and get us out of this temptation and the evil spirit that defeats us». The pope wished the Christian to ask himself if his decisions come «from the Lord» or are dictated by his «selfishness», by «the devil», so as not to be «a person of the street who goes and comes without to see what’s going on. «
«It’s important to know what’s going on in us,» he said. It is important to live a little indoors, and not to let our soul become a road where everyone goes. «
It is, therefore, a question of asking yourself the right questions: «But what is happening in us? What inspires you? What is your spiritual tendency in this? What leads you to do that? The pope recommended an examination of conscience of «two-three minutes before finishing the day»: «What happened to me today? Oh, yes, I had a little hate there, and I spoke badly here; I did this work of charity … Who helped you to do these things, the bad ones as well as the good ones? «
