During his homily at Casa Santa Marta, the Pope recalled that the path of Jesus is one of service and he lamented that within the Church this is often forgotten in exchange for other objectives such as money, power and vanity.
POPE FRANCIS
'Along the path where Jesus shows us to journey, the guiding principle is service. The greatest is the person who serves most, who serves others most, not the person who boasts, who seeks power, moneyâ?¦ vanity, pride. No, these people are not the greatest. This is what happened here with the apostles, even with the mother of John and James, itâ??s an event that happens every day in the Church, in every community.'
The disciples, Pope Francis recalled, began to ask who was the greatest among them, who had the power. It's a story that always repeats itself.
EXTRACTS OF THE POPE'S HOMILY
(Source: Vatican Radio)
'Along the path where Jesus shows us to journey, the guiding principle is service. The greatest is the person who serves most, who serves others most, not the person who boasts, who seeks power, moneyâ?¦vanity, pride. No, these people are not the greatest. This is what happened here with the apostles, even with the mother of John and James, itâ??s an event that happens every day in the Church, in every community. â??But which of us is the greatest? Whoâ??s in charge?â?? Ambitions: there is always this desire to be a social climber, to have power, in every community, parish or institution.â?
'Vanity and powerâ?¦and how and when I have this worldly desire to seek power, not to serve but to be served and spare no efforts to get there: gossiping, speaking ill of othersâ?¦Envy and jealousy create this path and they both destroy. And we all know this. This occurs in every institution of the Church: parishes, colleges, other institutions, even in the diocesesâ?¦everywhere. Thereâ??s this desire for worldliness and this is all about wealth, vanity and pride.â?
'All of us are tempted by these things, we are tempted to destroy the other person in order to climb higher. This is a worldly temptation but one that divides and destroys the Church. It is not the spirit of Jesus. Itâ??s wonderful, we can imagine the scene: Jesus who says these words and his disciples who say â??no, better to not question (Him) too much, letâ??s go ahead,â?? his disciples who prefer to argue among themselves over who will be the greatest. Weâ??d do well to think about the many times that we have seen this in the Church and about the many times that we ourselves have done this and ask our Lord to show us the way, to understand that love of this world, namely worldliness, is an enemy of God.â?
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