During his homily at Casa Santa Marta, Pope Francis invited Christians to not close their hearts. He reminded them that the greatest message of salvation is God's compassion for humanity.<\/p>\n
POPE FRANCIS<\/strong> He asked Christians to open their hearts and not close them off with ideologies. He said \u201cJesus is the slap to every hardness of heart.\u201d<\/p>\n EXTRACTS FROM POPE'S HOMILY<\/strong> In this episode, the pope pointed to the difference between a \u201chardened heart,\u201d like that of the disciples and a \u201ccompassionate heart,\u201d like that of the Lord. Compassion is what the Lord wants in us, the pope said, adding, \u201cMercy I want, not sacrifice.\u201d The pope said a heart without compassion is an idolatrous heart.<\/p>\n Speaking about the four ideological groups of Jesus\u2019 time \u2013 the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the Essenes and the Zealots \u2013 the pope said they had hardened their hearts to carry out a project that was not God's, as there was no place for compassion.<\/p>\n However, against this hardheartedness, the pope said, the \u201cmedicine\u201d is memory. This is why, the pope said, in today\u2019s Gospel and in many other Scripture passages, there echoes the need for the salvific power of memory, a \u201cgrace\u201d to be asked for because it \u201ckeeps the heart open and faithful.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cWhen the heart hardens,\u201d the pope said, \u201cone forgets\u201d the grace of salvation and of gratuitousness. A hardened heart leads to quarrels, to wars, to selfishness and the destruction of the brother and sister because there is no compassion. <\/p>\n The pope said the greatest message of salvation is that God has had compassion on us. \u201cJesus is the compassion of the Father,\u201d he said. \u201cJesus is the slap to every hardness of heart.\u201d Pope Francis thus underscored the need for asking for the grace of having a heart that is not hardened and full of ideologies, but \u201copen and compassionate\u201d in the face of what is happening in the world. <\/p>\n It is on this, he said, that we will be judged at the Last Judgment, and not by our \u201cideas\u201d or our \u201cideologies.\u201d \u201cI was hungry, you gave me to eat; I was in prison, you came to visit me; I was suffering and you consoled me,\u201d the pope said is what is written in the Gospel and \u201cthis is compassion, this is not hardness of heart.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cLet us remember and let it be the Lord who gives us a righteous and sincere heart where the Lord dwells.\u201d \u201cThe Lord cannot enter hardened and ideological hearts. He enters hearts that are like His heart: open and compassionate,\u201d the pope said.<\/em><\/p>\n \nDaniel D\u00edaz Vizzi February 18, 2020. He said a hardened heart leads to conflict, war, selfishness and destruction because there is no compassion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":47008,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[195],"tags":[],"acf":{"video":"https:\/\/youtu.be\/La7fEr1nbng","video_descarga":"http:\/\/attuale.romereports.com\/news\/bstamarta1802eng.mp4","international_url":"http:\/\/attuale.romereports.com\/news\/bstamarta1802int.mp4","type":"bn","newsletter":"si"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47007"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47007"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47007\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47008"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nWhen hearts harden, one forgets. One forgets the grace of salvation. One forgets gratuitousness. A hardened heart leads to quarrels, wars, selfishness. It leads to the destruction of one's neighbor, because there is no compassion.<\/em><\/p>\n
\n(Source: Vatican News)<\/p>\n
\nTranslation: Claudia Torres<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"