Pope Francis greets the faithful at the May 8 General Audience (Credit: CNA / Stephen Driscoll)
Posted on 09/07/2013 3:49:35 PM PDT by NYer
.- In his daily homily on Saturday, Pope Francis reflected on the question of authentic Christianity and rejected the practice of focusing more on devotions than on Christ himself.
Jesus is “the center” of faith, said the Pope. “A commandment is valid if it comes from Jesus: I do this because the Lord wants me to do this. But if I am a Christian without Christ, I do this and I don’t know why I have to do it,” he said to the congregation at the Vatican’s Casa Santa Marta on September 7.
Like the Pharisees, he said, there are some people who “make so many commandments the center of their religiosity.”
Others who have a false sense of religiosity “only seek devotions” or “things that are a little uncommon, a little special, that go back to private revelations,” noted Pope Francis.
“If your devotions bring you to Christ, that works. But if you remain there, something’s wrong,” he explained.
“If Jesus is not at the center, there will be many other things,” so that people become “Christians without Christ.”
Remembering that Jesus is the center of faith “regenerates us, grounds us.”
Pope Francis further explained the mark of a true “Christian with Christ.”
“The rule is simple: only that which brings you to Jesus is valid, and only that is valid that comes from Jesus. Jesus is the center, the Lord, as He Himself says.”
Christians can avoid false religiosity by adoring Jesus as “the Lord, the only Lord.”
“If you aren’t able to adore Jesus, you’re missing something,” warned Pope Francis.
The sign of a true “Christian with Christ” is one who does “that which comes from Jesus” and that which leads to Jesus.
Such adoration bears true fruit in the life of a Christian, encouraged the Pope.
He said that Jesus also gives “the grace of loving Him so much, of following Him, of going along the path that He has shown us.”
A “Christian with Christ” has the courage to proclaim Jesus as Lord.
Pope Francis exhorted Catholics not to focus on false piety, but rather evangelize and “take the Gospel!”
There's a fix for this.
Any you bashers want to help this person out?
And who dreamed up THIS new rule??
Forget it. I was brought up Presbyterian. Been there done that. I will not answer any posts. Those who try will be wasting bandwidth.
I will not speak for others. My position is that ANY world leader should be afforded protection from the whack a doodle fringe groups and individuals that take it upon themselves to create chaos.
I don't agree with our current pResident on anything, but I don't want to see him assassinated, and I sure as heck don't want to see any harm come to his children.
That is Christian compassion, and that is what is not being demonstrated by 5 of the protestants on this thread.
Hmmmm...that's very interesting and I know where you're coming from.
Let me start off by saying I don't believe we can live by the law. We are saved by grace-not by the law.
Now that that is out of the way, I believe every commandment or law in scripture is given for our benefit. It's not that we're expected to follow them as much as they're designed for our welfare by our loving Father. Thus the command, 'You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.' was really a command for our benefit. Almost like, "Don't stick your hand in the fire or you'll get burn." What do we do? We stick our hand into the fire.
We give this warning of what will happen to a young child. Thus when it happens, and we know it will, we are grieved. The law is exactly like this. It is for our benefit. We simply don't want to follow it-at least for the most part. When we do try to apply God's general principles, we will live happy lives. We see this in the Ten Commandments and most of society is built around these principles (at least up until a few years ago.)
Modern day Christians really live the way they want to live and then justify their experiences based upon the scriptures. Thus, if someone doesn't want to eat pork, they'll go back to some scripture and pull out the dietary laws all the while ignoring what God states in Acts. If someone wants to justify their homosexual lifestyle, they'll state that Paul was a bigot and the Old Testament no longer pertains to us. They'll quote some church father and say, "Well, he believed this..." And how many bible believing Christians today ignore what scripture states about divorce? Little white lies are OK since they are used with good intentions. And how many passages of scriptures are quoted only to see them ignored by people saying, "Well that's a mystery but it says over here...."?
People treat the word of God very cavalier. If they truly thought this was God actually talking to them they would probably sit up a bit straighter and pay closer attention.
There’s a difference between a Protestant taking advantage of scripture for their own gain, and the Catholic Church codifying into magisterial law as inspired teaching the same.
Excellent post metmom! The one thing I think we need to add to that is an explanation of what the “church” in that sense means. Especially with Catholics. The word in Greek used there for “church” really means assembly. It’s the local assembly of believers. Not some central governing authority like the RCC.
Peace is very much with me!
What formal training have you had in New Testament Greek?
Thanks for clairifying that quoting scripture bashes catholics.
I knew it, but I didn’t know catholics did too.
If you doubt me prove me wrong.
She's doing God's work...Cause God knows you guys will show up every day to read it...It's called planting the seed, and watering the plants...
Please, I was just about to eat.....
Excuse me while I go toss my cookies......
If you do not wish to see Religion Forum posts, do NOT use the “everything” option on the Free Republic browse option list. Instead, browse by “News/Activism.” When you log back in, the browse will reset to “everything” - so be sure to set it back to “News/Activism.”
FOTFLOL!!!!!
It was a simple question. What level of formal training do you have?
Heck, I’ll answer. Sure he does just like Ahmadinejad, Obama, Morsi, Putin or any other world leader. Come to think of it though. None of those use a glass showcase vehicle so they can be worshiped. Hmmm. Maybe it’s not like any other world leader. More like a “another” Christ maybe.
Sheesh, we’ve got a Catholic FReeper freeping while in labor and *I’m* getting raked over the coals for not having a life?
I gave a simple solution to the answer to your question. Prove me wrong.
Sure.
Stay off the RF or don't click on non-Catholic Caucus threads.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.