In his Mass at Casa Santa Marta, Pope Francis focused on one theme: love. He stated that in order to love as Jesus did, one must turn away from selfishness and focus on serving others.
POPE FRANCIS
'Let us pray to the Lord so that our walk in love never ever becomes for us an abstract love. May our love be concrete with works of mercy whereby we touch the Flesh of Christ, the Incarnate Christ. It is for this reason that Deacon Lawrence said, â??The poor are the treasure of the Church!â?? Why? Because they are the suffering flesh of Christ!â?
Pope Francis affirmed that love is concrete, because God showed His love by becoming a concrete person, a person with flesh and blood.
EXCERPTS OF PAPAL HOMILY
(Source: Vatican Radio)
'A love that does not recognize that Jesus came in the Flesh is not the love that God is asking of us. This is a worldly love, a philosophical love, an abstract love, a love that has flagged, a â??softâ?? or weak love. No! The criterion of Christian love is the Incarnation of the Word. Whoever says that Christian love is something else is the antichrist! Who does not recognize that the Word became Flesh. This is our truth: God sent his Son, who became flesh and who lived like us. To love as Jesus loved (us), to love as Jesus taught us, to love by following the example of Jesus; to love, journeying along the path of Jesus. It is the path of Jesus that gives life.â?
'Going beyond is a mystery: coming out from the Mystery of the Incarnation of the Word, of the Mystery of the Church. Because the Church is the community around the presence of Christ and it goes beyond this. That is a really strong word, isnâ??t it? â?¦.proagon, whoever walks beyond. And itâ??s from this that all the ideologies spring: the ideologies on love, the ideologies on the Church, the ideologies that strip the Flesh of Christ from the Church. These ideologies strip away the Flesh of the Church! â??Yes, Iâ??m a Catholic, yes Iâ??m a Christian, I love the whole world with a universal loveâ??â?¦ But this is so ethereal. Love is always interior, concrete and does not go beyond the doctrine of the Incarnation of the Word.â?
'Let us pray to the Lord so that our walk in love never ever becomes for us an abstract love. May our love be concrete with works of mercy whereby we touch the Flesh of Christ, the Incarnate Christ. It is for this reason that the deacon Lawrence said â??The poor are the treasure of the Church!â?? Why? Because they are the suffering flesh of Christ! Let us ask for this grace to not go beyond and not enter into this process, that possibly seduces so many people, of intellectualizing and ideologizing this love, stripping away the Flesh of the Church, stripping away Christian love. And letâ??s not arrive at the sad spectacle of a God without Christ, of a Christ without the Church and a Church without its people.â?
