VATICAN CITY — The day after he was elected, Pope Francis emphasized that every believer — including bishops, cardinals and popes — must proclaim Jesus crucified to be true Christians.
“We can build so many things, but if we don’t confess Jesus Christ, then something is wrong. We will become a pitiful NGO [non-governmental organization], but not the Church, spouse of Christ,” Pope Francis said in his March 14 homily.
“He who doesn’t pray to God prays to the devil,” the Pope added in an apparent quote.
Pope Francis made his remarks at the Mass to close the conclave on Thursday evening in the Sistine Chapel, with all of the cardinal electors present.
He asserted that the common theme to all three of the day’s Scripture readings “is movement: the first reading, the movement of walking; the second reading, the movement of building; and the third, the Gospel, is in confession. To walk, to build, to confess."
“But, it’s not such an easy thing,” he noted.
“In walking, in building, in confession, sometimes there are shocks; there are movements, moments that are not proper to our journey. They are movements that drag us backwards.”
Pope Francis then turned his thoughts to the Gospel reading from Matthew in which Peter confesses Jesus is the Christ.
“This is the same Peter who confesses to Christ, who says, ‘You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God. I will follow you, but let’s not speak of crosses! This has nothing to do with it. I will follow you with other possibilities, without the cross,’” he said, characterizing Peter’s reaction.
“And, if we walk without the cross, how much do we build without the cross? And, when we confess Christ without the cross, then we are not disciples of the Lord.”
The Pope then applied his words to himself and his brother cardinals, saying, “We might be bishops, priests, cardinals and popes, but we are not disciples of the Lord” if we leave the cross behind.
“I would like all of us, after these days of grace, to have the courage, precisely the courage, to walk in the presence of the Lord, with the cross of the Lord, to edify the Church in the blood of the Lord poured out on the cross and to confess the only glory, that of Christ crucified. And, in this way, the Church will move forward,” he said as he finished his homily.
Upcoming Events
Pope Francis’ next event will be a congratulatory meeting with all of the cardinals, both those who are retired and those who are still active, at 11am Friday, March 15, in the Vatican’s Clementine Hall.
On Saturday morning, he will hold an audience with journalists and media personnel in the Paul VI hall, as his predecessors did.
Pope Francis will pray the Angelus and make remarks from the window of his apartment at noon on Sunday.
He will be installed as Pope at a Mass on March 19 at 9:30am in St. Peter’s Square.
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“He who doesn’t pray to God prays to the devil.” Pope Francis was quoting Léon Bloy, a French intellectual who converted to the Catholic faith from agnosticism and a fierce hatred of the Church.
Wonder what the phony preachers are going to think when they hear this..the CROSS. These churches with their prosperity gospel and not a word on “Pick Up Your Cross DAILY”.. Keep Preaching POPE FRANCIS
Amen. The only answer to all the problems, ours, and the world’s is Jesus Christ. Without Him everything will go through the same life-death cycle. Only things done in Him will be forever.
Another AWESOME Pope! Thank you Holy Spirit!
Indeed Our God Almighty in heaven has sent this man to us at such a perfect time,to set us all ON FIRE! Then we will get moving full speed ahead, just as Pope Francis has asked us all to do.
My husband crossed over to Heaven Nov. 6, 2012. He loved the Lord very much but was so upset with people on this good earth. I can remember him saying so many times that the Pope should do something because he could stop this moral decay. I am so sure that Phil is in heaven because we were praying the Chaplet of Divine Mercy all the time and especially at the hour of his crossing over. Phil left us at 3:51 am….........The hour of Mercy and Jesus promised us through St. Faustina we must pray the Chaplet at the hour of our death and God’s Mercy wins every time.
Look who God sent to us…...Pope Francis DeColores
My prayers are with the Pope that he might help us all to listen more to the Spirit of God within us; to love unconditionally and try to understand each other and to cast aside all those beliefs and practices that prevent us from doing this fully.
I hope that when he said ‘He who doesn’t pray to God,prays to the devil” wasn’t implying that we abandon praying to Our Holy Mother and the Saints,whom prays to God on our behalf.Many of those whom have fallen away from the church and only prays to God and none other,are still Catholics after all.
Unless there is the cross of Christ in our lives, there is no salvation.
My hope is that he recognises that many people feel that the word God has too much baggage attached to it and he does not think then that those who try to connect with the Great Awareness, Allah, The Foundation of our Being or whatever else they may call the Divine Being, are not praying to the one we have called God.
“He who doesn’t pray to God prays to the devil,” the Pope added in an apparent quote.
I hope he does not imagine that this applies to those who find the word “God” carries too much baggage and that with todays understanding of creation they prefer to find other ways to speak of the Divine Being.
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