The Christian life is concrete, affirmed Pope Francis in essence, during the Mass he celebrated December 6, 2018, in the chapel of Casa Santa Marta in the Vatican.
In his homily, reported by “Vatican News,” he reflected on the different oppositions stressed in today’s Readings, notably between “saying and doing.” “To say is a way of believing, but very superficial, half-way: I say I’m a Christian but I don’t act like a Christian. To say it simply, it’s a bit like making oneself up as a Christian: only to say it is to make oneself up, to say without doing.”
On the contrary, “Jesus’ proposal is concrete, always concrete. When someone approaches <you> and asks for advice, it’s always for concrete things. The works of mercy are concrete.”
Another opposition: rock and sand. Sand is “a consequence of saying,” it leads to a life “without foundations.” The Lord is the rock, “He is the force. However, very often one who trusts in the Lord doesn’t seem to have success; he is hidden . . . but he is solid. He doesn’t have hope in words, in vanity, in pride, in the ephemeral powers of life,” but in the Lord, stressed the Pontiff.
“The concrete aspect of the Christina life makes us advance and build on that rock which is God, which is Jesus, on the divinity’s solidity — not on appearances or vanity, pride, recommendations . . . no, on the truth.”
Third opposition: the vain and the humble. And the Holy Father quoted the Magnificat: ”The Lord raises the humble, who are in the concreteness of the every day, and brings down the arrogant, those who build their life on vanity, pride . . . they don’t last.
By way of conclusion, Pope Francis invited to an examination of conscience. “Am I a Christian that says or does?” “Do I build my life on the rock of God or on the sand of worldliness, of vanity?” “Am I humble . . . without pride, to serve the Lord?”
