Pope Francis called on Christians to be in service of others instead of waiting to be served.
Christians are called to live the faith by going out to serve others instead of living a sheltered, comfortable life, thinking only of themselves. Pope Francis said in a homily yesterday.
“When the church is lukewarm, closed up inside itself, even many times a wheeler-dealer,” then that church is no longer one that “ministers, or serves, but rather one that uses others,” he said at the Mass in the chapel of his residence.
The Pope’ sermon which focused on the day’s Gospel reading of Jesus’ Parable of the Unjust Steward, came the day after the release of two books by Italian journalists detailing financial mismanagement within the Vatican.
In the parable, the corrupt manager squandered his master’s goods and smartly made some sweetheart deals for himself with his master’s debtors before he got kicked out of his job, according to the Gospel of St Luke. The master, who is also corrupt, praised the disgraced servant “for acting wisely” and being so shrewd.
“These types even exist in the church, (people) who, instead of serving and looking out for others, perhaps, thereby building foundations, they, the climbers; the ones attached to the money, use the church. And how many priests and bishops we have seen like this. It’s sad to say it, isn’t it?” the Pope said.
Instead, Jesus in the Gospel calls on the people “to serve; to be at the service of, not to come to a halt, always to go further, forgetting about themselves,” he said.
However, it’s so easy to be tempted to take advantage of the comforts that come with status and to start living “comfortably without honesty, like those Pharisees Jesus talked about, who stroll in the squares, making sure they are seen,” the Pope continues.
Also, he said, the day’s first reading of St Paul’s Letter to the Romans shows what a disciple of Jesus is meant to do; a minister of Christ who performs the priestly services of the Gospel so that the people may be “acceptable and sanctified by the Holy Spirit.”
St Paul could boost of what Christ accomplished through him, after having answered the call to serve by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Pope Francis said, “He never stopped in order to gain advantage of a position, an authority, or to be served. He was a minister, a servant.”
He asked that people pray for the grace St. Paul received, to find honor in always going out of their way to help others and making sacrifices and as well rejecting many comforts.
