About 1,500 people gathered in St. Peter's Basilica to attend the Pope's Mass for the feast of the Epiphany, to celebrate the visit of the three Magi kings to the infant Jesus.
In his homily, the Pope used the image of the Magi to explain how faith must be a continuous journey that does not get stuck in custom and formalities.
POPE FRANCIS
'Have we been stuck all too long, nestled inside a conventional, external and formal religiosity that no longer warms our hearts and changes our lives? Do our words and our liturgies ignite in people’s hearts a desire to move towards God, or are they a “dead language” that speaks only of itself and to itself?'
He went to express his disappointment in priests who lose their desire to seek Jesus.
POPE FRANCIS
'It is sad when a community of believers loses its desire and is content with “maintenance” rather than allowing itself to be startled by Jesus and by the explosive and unsettling joy of the Gospel. It is sad when a priest has closed the door of desire, sad to fall into clerical functionalism, very sad.'
The Pope also decried widespread consumerism, which he says prevents Christians from fully developing their faith and a desire for God.
POPE FRANCIS
'For it is our desires that enlarge our gaze and drive our lives forward, beyond the barriers of habit, beyond a life reduced by consumerism, beyond a drab and dreary faith, beyond the fear of getting involved and serving others and the common good.'
He then stopped to venerate a statue of the Virgin Mary before proceeding out of St. Peter's Basilica.
JM
