Vatican City, 8 November 2015 (VIS) –
Before this Sunday's Angelus the Pope commented on the day's Gospel
reading, divided into two parts: the first on how not to be a
follower of Christ and the second, conversely, on the model of an
ideal Christian. “In the first part, Jesus criticises the scribes,
teachers of the law, for three defects in their lifestyle: pride,
greed and hypocrisy”. Under their solemn appearances “they are
hiding falsehood and injustice. … There is a risk that these
attitudes exist even in our day. For example when prayer is separated
from justice, because we cannot worship God and cause harm to the
poor. Or when one claims to love God, and instead offers God one’s
vainglory, to one’s own advantage”.
The second part describes the scene in
the Temple of Jerusalem, precisely in the place where people threw
coins as offerings. “There are many rich people who pay a lot of
money, and there is a poor woman – a widow – contributing just
two mites, two small coins. … The rich gave with great show what
for them was superfluous, while the widow, with discretion and
humility, gave – Jesus says – “all she had to live”; for this
– Jesus says – she gave the most of all”.
Today, continued the Holy Father,
“Jesus also tells us that the measurement is not quantity but
fullness. There is a difference. ... It is possible to have a lot of
money but to be empty. There is no fullness in a heart like this”.
He concluded by encouraging all those
present to think during this week of the difference between quantity
and fullness. “It is not a question of the wallet, but of the
heart. Faced with the needs of others, we are called to deprive
ourselves of essential things, not only the superfluous; we are
called to give the necessary time, not only the surplus that is left
over; we are called to give immediately and unconditionally some of
our talent, not only after using it for our own purposes or for those
of our group”.
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