In his daily homily at Casa Santa Marta, Pope Francis reflected on the people of God from the Book of Numbers. After escaping slavery in Egypt they begin to complain to God. He said just like them, some Christians are afraid of hope and prefer failure.
POPE FRANCIS
“Let us remember this phrase only, 'The people did not bear the journey.' Christians cannot bear the journey. Christians do not bear hope. Christians do not endure healing. Christians do not bear consolation. We are more attached to dissatisfaction, fatigue, failure.”
The pope stressed that complaining and dissatisfaction allows the devil to do his work. He invited Christians to ask God to free them “from this disease.”
EXTRACTS FROM POPE'S HOMILY (Source Vatican News)
“Why have you brought us from Egypt to die in this desert?”
“The spirit of tiredness takes away our hope, tiredness is selective: it always causes us to see the negative in the moment we are living, and forget the good things we have received”.
“When we feel desolated and cannot bear the journey, we seek refuge either in idols or in complaint... (…) This spirit of fatigue leads us Christians to be dissatisfied (…) and everything goes wrong… Jesus himself taught us this when he said we are like children playing games when we are overcome by this spirit of dissatisfaction.”
“afraid of consolation”, “afraid of hope”, “afraid of the Lord’s caress”
“The people of God could not bear the journey. We Christians often can't bear the journey. We prefer failure, that is to say desolation.”
