Francis week by week (2) •
This week’s “as if spoken to us” message is taken from the homily during the morning Mass at Santa Marta on 21 January 2016 (full sermon here).
This week, we read and listen to the message given to the participants at the Mass by the “parish priest of Rome” (as Osservatore Romano has chosen to call these Masses filled with practical and simple messages), as if it were spoken to us as a federal and international movement of men and women, lay and consecrated people from different cultures, generations, mentalities, languages, life currents, projects no matter how big or small, a movement living in and with parishes, dioceses, other movements, with countless sources and creative tensions or jealous and envy. To a movement where personal attachments are as important as they are vulnerable; to a Movement with the gift and a mission to create an organism of attachments based on solidarity and covenant in a world that is divided by power struggles and influence.
“Envy kills. It does not tolerate others having something that I do not have. And it always suffers, because the heart of an envious or jealous person suffers. It is a suffering heart!
But how many times in our communities – and we don’t have to look too far to see this – are people killed, through jealousy, with the tongue? Someone is envious of this, of the other, and they begin to gossip – and gossip kills.
I too, thinking and reflecting on this passage, invite myself – and everyone – to see if, in my heart, there is any jealousy, any envy, which always leads to death and doesn’t make me happy; because this sickness always leads us to regard the good others possess as if it were against us. And this is an ugly sin. It is the beginning of many, many crimes. Let us ask the Lord to give us the grace not to open the heart to jealousy, not to open the heart to envy, because these things always lead to death.”
Let us reflect on this message, based on what we know about Fr. Kentenich.
What is Francis saying to me, to us as a Movement, branch, project?
What do I say in response?
What answer do I give Francis, in covenant solidary?
We invite you to share your thoughts because we believe that God speaks to us through Francis.
We invite you to enter into dialogue with Francis, a dialogue that creates encounter, a culture of encounter, which is a covenant culture.
We invite you and open this space to enter into dialogue, by leaving your responses in the comment section below and by responding to others who have commented.
Original: Spanish. Translation: Sarah-Leah Pimentel, Cape Town, South Africa
