The Pope has urged priests to move away from “derogatory judgments about those who do not believe” and has pointed out that in an increasingly secularized society the risk is “losing enthusiasm” and locking oneself “in complaint” making “the magnitude of the problems” on the immensity of God.
In previous days, the Pope had preferred not to deliver his speeches, but this Thursday he read the homily without any difficulty. During the Chrism Mass he celebrated in St. Peter’s Basilica, before nearly 1,800 priests who will renew their promises this Thursday, Francis assured: “Of us, his Pastors, the Lord does not ask us for derogatory judgments about those who do not believe, but love and tears for those who are far away.
In his homily he proposed to the priests a reflection on compunction which is “a puncture in the heart” and “a beneficial sting that burns inside and heals, because the heart, when it sees its own evil and recognizes itself as a sinner, becomes opens, welcomes the action of the Holy Spirit” which causes “tears of repentance to flow” and which he has differentiated from “the feeling of guilt” or “the scruple that paralyzes”.
The Pontiff pointed out that priests today live in “difficult situations” but has asked them that “when they come into contact with a heart” they do not stop at “determination in controversy, but perseverance in mercy.” “How much we need to free ourselves from resistance and recriminations, from selfishness and ambition, from rigorism and dissatisfaction, to commend ourselves and intercede before God, finding in Him a peace that saves from any storm!” he said.
Francis has also pointed out that in the spiritual life “he who does not cry regresses, growing older inside, while he who achieves a simpler and more intimate prayer, made of adoration and emotion before God, matures.” “He becomes less attached to himself and more and more to Christ, and he becomes poor in spirit. In this way he feels closer to the poor, the beloved of God,” already reflected.
Furthermore, Francis has offered two pieces of advice to priests: “not to look at life and the call from a perspective of effectiveness and immediacy, linked only to today and its urgencies and expectations, but rather in the whole of the past and the future” and ” “rediscover the need to dedicate ourselves to a prayer that is not one of commitment and functional, but free, serene and prolonged”.
Similarly, he has pointed out that it is not about “feeling sorry” for oneself when one is “disillusioned” or “worried” about “frustrated expectations” or “due to the lack of understanding on the part of others, perhaps brothers.” of community or superiors”.
For this reason, he has made it clear that having tears of compunction is “to seriously repent of having saddened God with sin; it is to acknowledge being always in debt and never being creditors.” For the Pope, who has defined compunction as “the antidote to sclerosis of the heart” this “requires effort but restores peace.”
“The heart without repentance or tears becomes rigid. First it becomes entrenched in its routines, then it is intolerant of problems and people are indifferent to it, then it becomes cold and almost impassive, as if wrapped in an unbreakable shell, and finally it becomes “a heart of stone. But, as a drop excavates the stone, so tears slowly excavate hardened hearts. In this way we witness the miracle of sadness that leads to sweetness,” he concluded.
