In his homily at Casa Santa Marta, Pope Francis explained that God's mercy opens horizons while clerical rigidity only closes hearts and causes pain.
POPE FRANCIS
'How beautiful is the freedom, the magnanimity, the hope, of a man or woman from the Church. But, how bad and how much pain is caused by the rigidity of a woman or a man of the Church, the clerical rigidity that has no hope.â?
The Pope added that hope is a gift from God that allows Christians to make it past problems, difficulties, and even sins.
SUMMARY OF THE POPE'S HOMILY
(Source: Vatican Radio)
'Pope Francis said that those who possess this virtue of hope also have the freedom and the strength to see beyond the bad times whether they are to do with bad health or family problems.
And reflecting on the fact that in the Gospel the chief priests question Jesus and ask with which authority does he act, the Pope said: 'they have no horizons, they are men who are locked in their calculations, they are slaves to their rigidityâ?
'Human calculations 'â?? the Pope said â?? 'close hearts and shut out freedom', whilst 'hope gives us levity'.
Pope Francis remarked on the beauty of freedom, of the hope of men and women of the Church.
On the other hand, he denounced the rigidity of men and women of the Church: 'that clerical stiffness that contains no hopeâ?.
'In this Year of Mercy â?? the Pope said - there are these two paths: one of those who hope in Godâ??s mercy and know that God is the Father; and then there are those who take refuge in the slavery of rigidity and know nothing of God's mercyâ?.
Pope Francis concluded his homily by recalling an event which took place in Buenos Aires in 1992 during a Mass for the sick.
He said he had been confessing for many hours when he received a very old woman 'with eyes that were full of hope':
'I said: 'Grandma, are you coming to confession?' Because I was about to leave. â??Yesâ?? she answered and I said: â??you have not sinnedâ??. She said: 'Father: we have all sinned â?? But God forgives allâ??. â??How do you know?' I asked, and she said: 'Because if God did not forgive all, the world would not exist'.â?
So â?? Pope Francis said: 'before these two persons - the free one, the one with hope who brings God's mercy, and the closed, legalistic slave of his own rigidity, let us remember the words of the old lady and the lesson she gave me: God forgives all, He is just waiting for you to get close to Him.'
