During his Friday morning homily, Pope Francis warned that the Church is susceptible to greed just like any other institution. He said it must not submit to 'holy bribery.â?
POPE FRANCIS
ORIG. ITALIAN
'There is always a danger of corruption within the Church. This happens when the Church, instead of being devoted to faith in Our Lord, in the Prince of Peace, in joy, in salvation, becomes dominated by money and power.â?
The Pope warned that Christians should never seek comfort from more than one master. They can choose God, or they can choose power and wealth. But they cannot be ruled by all of them.
EXTRACTS FROM THE POPE'S HOMILY
(Source: Vatican Radio)
'The Gospel says the chief priests and scribes had changed things. They had dishonored and compromised the Temple. They had dishonored the Temple! The Temple was a symbol of the Church. The Church will always â?? always! â?? be subject to the temptation of worldliness and power. Jesus did not say â??No, do not do this inside. Go outside instead.â?? He said â??You have made it a den of thieves!â?? And when the Church enters into such a state of decline, the end is bad. Very bad indeed.â?
'There is always a danger of corruption within the Church. This happens when the Church, instead of being devoted to faith in Our Lord, in the Prince of Peace, in joy, in salvation, becomes dominated by money and power. This is exactly what happens here, in this Gospel reading. These priests, chief priests and scribes were driven by money, power and they ignored the Holy Spirit. And in order to be able to justify their actions, they poisoned the free spirit of the Lord with hypocrisy. In Matthew 23, Jesus speaks of their hypocrisy. These were people who had lost their sense of Godliness, and even the ability to rejoice, to praise God. They did not know how to worship the Lord because they were too distracted by money and power, and by a form of worldliness.â?
'â??Jesus did not chase the priests and scribes away from the Temple; he chased away those who were doing business there, the businessmen of the Temple. The chief priests and scribes were involved in their dealings: this is â??holy briberyâ??! The Gospel is very clear. It says 'The chief priests and scribes wanted to kill Jesus, along with the elders of the peopleâ??. The same thing happened under the rule of Judas Maccabeus. Why? Because â??they did not know what they were doing, since everyone hung on his every wordâ??. Jesusâ?? strength is to be found in his words, in his love. And where Jesus is, there is no room for worldliness. There is no room for corruption! This is a challenge for each and every one of us; this is the struggle the Church has to face every day. We must always heed Jesusâ?? words; we must never seek comfort from another master. Jesus told us that we cannot serve two masters. God or riches; God or power.â?
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