“Christians’ incoherence is one of the easiest weapons the devil has” to alienate the People of God from the Lord,” warned Pope Francis, during the morning Mass of November 13, 2017, in the chapel of Santa Marta in the Vatican.
In his homily, reported by Vatican Radio in Italian, the Holy Father commented on the Gospel of the day (Luke 17:1-6), where Jesus states: “Temptations to sin are sure to come, but woe to him by whom they come!…Take heed to yourselves!”
Jesus means by this: “to be on guard not to scandalize,” explained the Pontiff. “Scandal is evil because scandal wounds; it wounds the vulnerability of the People of God and it wounds the weakness of the People of God. And very often, these wounds are felt throughout one’s life.”
Even worse than wounds, “scandal can kill: kill hope…kill families, kill many hearts…“, he added.
The Pope denounced “incoherence” as a source of scandal. “How many Christians, by their example, alienate people, by their incoherence…Christians’ incoherence is one of the devil’s easiest weapons to weaken the People of God and to alienate the People of God from the Lord. To say something and to do another.”
The Pontiff also mentioned the scandals that come from Pastors. “Jesus says to us that one can’t serve two masters, God and money, and when a Pastor is attached to money, he scandalizes. Each Pastor must ask himself: how friendly am I with money? Or again, the Pastor that seeks to be promoted, is led by vanity to work his way up, instead of being gentle, humble, because gentleness and humility foster closeness with the people. Or the Pastor who feels himself master and orders everyone, who is proud.”
Concluding, the Holy Father invited to an examination of conscience with these questions: “How coherent is my life? Is it coherent with the Gospel, coherent with the Lord? Do I scandalize or not and, if so, how? And thus, we can respond to the Lord and get a bit closer to Him.”
