Pope Francis rejects false religiosity

Vatican City, Sep 7, 2013 / 10:01 am (CNA/EWTN News).- 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.”

“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.”

Pope Francis exhorted Catholics not to focus on false piety, but rather evangelize and “take the Gospel!”

I don’t expect you to defend Paul Crouch or his wife, or Jim Bakker or his dead ex-wife, like I don’t expect you to defend Jim Jones or David Koresh.

Then you should not have invoked him as an example of what we defend.

(But I’d expect you to defend the millionaire Graham Prot Papal Dynasty.)

Again, belongs in a different universe than i know of.

But they are yours, just like the Jehovah’s Witnesses in front of my train station are yours, and your arguments are with all of them and the 35,000 Prot sects, and not with the Catholic or Mormon Church.

That repeated argument by assertion is absurd, for as said, not only has evangelical faith historically manifested a common front against such as well as against extraScriptural traditions of Rome, but these operate like Rome, under the premise that their church or org is the supreme authority, thus requiring implicit assent. The JWs still basically operate as Rome once could and did with its extensive list of forbidden books.

As for 35,000 Prot sects, besides that number being a specious claim (which uses the term "Protestant" in such a loose manner so that its includes those who deny basic Prot distinctives), it ignores the fact that such substantial disagreement exists within Catholicism that it also essentially has its different denominations, while being less unified and more liberal in basic moral values and certain core truths than evangelicals. And what Rome does conveys what she really believes more than her official words.

I know, they cease to be yours like Harold Camping AFTER his predictions.

Again, what universe do you live in? Go search on FR and you can see just the opposite of support from the likes of those who also reprove Rome. The man is far more akin to a pope with his elitist claims . And his disciples are more like RCs in their defense of him and his esoteric understanding.

Graham Sr ceased to be yours for a spell after extolling freedom of religion in the Soviet Union.

Likewise, he is often subject to criticism by the same type of posters who oppose Rome. The more you write the more you evidence you want to reprove what you are not very familiar with.

And you can deny it all you want but “We don’t need no theology!” is from my subjective observation representative and typical. But what do I know?

Apparently very little. If you has cared to even give a cursory look at my FR home page and its link to my site you could have at least seen that i oppose JWs, Camping, etc. and faith without works, etc.

Side note: I have no reason to “defend” Putin. Last night I attempted to defend the forum against primitive fanaticism expressed through ignorant declarative statements and demands that you agree with them

But you seem to require they perhaps they agree with you that they are issuing ignorant declarative statements. Thus i would say a thread would be in order as to whether Putin has changed since his KGB days, etc. More debate rather than just rejection

hat excerpt from Wikipedia again: “When a person is called ‘infallible’, this can mean any of the following:..You insist on relating infallibility strictly to papal infallibility. I insist on broadening the application, just as the above definition suggests.

Of course it can mean different things, and what you insist on doing is ignoring the context in which i spoke in order to negate the distinction btwn the assertions of evangelical posters based on evidence versus claiming it is guaranteed and you are will be infallible whenever speaking in accordance with your infallibly defined formula.

Note that it was i who introduced the infallible aspect and distinctly referred to it as per Rome in post 485 and oneward. .."

And those long Biblical cut&paste excerpts that come so quickly in replies

They are inspired by the Lord quoting Scripture to the devil, (Mt. 4) not the traditions of the elders, while you have no problem with RC posting cut&paste excerpts of Rome or a bunch of links, or the same graphic that we have seen about 100 times this year. Not a peep of protest from you. So much for your mission of unbiased protest.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but Jesus never said anything about His followers having to read the New Testament. Oh, wait...

Typically Catholic, but yes wait, for if the Lord said to "search the Scriptures," (Jn. 5:39) and reproved ignorance of Scriptures (Mt. 22:29) and substantiated His mission thereby, (Lk. 24:27,44) and "Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures," (Luke 24:45) and if the NT was established to be Scripture after the manner the OT writings were, and (rejecting the red letter hermeneutic) noble souls examined the veracity of preaching thereby, (Acts 17:11) then we can be sure that the Lord calls souls to seek to read the New Testament just as much as the Old and more.

What’s my point? (Yeah, what’s my point? I have to remember.) My point is that these arguments over meaning not just phrases but single words, will last until doomsday, and that is something to accept and go on, instead of condemning fellow Christians to eternal damnation which has become a blood sport around here.

Actually, it is an entire church, the one you work to protect (you are), that has damned those who do not submit to the pope, unless they are ignorant. Even though this has seen and does see different interpretations as to who the ignorant are.

Everyone in Heaven is alive in Christ.

Matthew 17:3 Just then there appeared before them Moses and Elijah, talking with Jesus.

But...

Deut. 34:5 So Moses the servant of the LORD died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the LORD.

So, Moses died. But he was alive and present before Christ at the Transfiguration.

Book of Wisdom 3:1-12

1 The souls of the righteous are in the hand of God,
and no torment shall touch them.

2 They seemed, in the view of the foolish, to be dead;
and their passing away was thought an affliction

3 and their going forth from us, utter destruction.
But they are in peace.

4 For if to others, indeed, they seem punished,
yet is their hope full of immortality;

5 Chastised a little, they shall be greatly blessed,
because God tried them and found them worthy of himself.

6 As gold in the furnace, he proved them,
and as sacrificial offerings he took them to himself.

7 In the time of their judgment they shall shine
and dart about as sparks through stubble;

8 They shall judge nations and rule over peoples,
and the LORD shall be their King forever.

9 Those who trust in him shall understand truth,
and the faithful shall abide with him in love:

Because grace and mercy are with his holy ones,
and his care is with the elect.

10 But the wicked shall receive a punishment to match their thoughts, since they neglected righteousness and forsook the LORD.

11 For those who despise wisdom and instruction are doomed.
Vain is their hope, fruitless their labors, and worthless their works.

12 Their wives are foolish and their children wicked,
accursed their brood.

But you seem to require they perhaps they agree with you that they are issuing ignorant declarative statements.

We are going in circles. No one will admit to issuing ignorant declarative statements, just as on this forum, no one will admit to defining himself by the opposition to Rome. So I don't foolishly expect the issuers of these declarations to agree with me. That's again something for others to describe. As for a debate on how Putin has changed, there should be no debate, there should be facts. Last night, once a poster posted Putin's detailed factual resume (education and career), she was accused of being a "mole" (presumably of a Communist kind.)

35,000 comes from a recent post here, linked and documented. What's the real number 17,500? It doesn't matter, especially since you deny any connection between the fundamentalists (or evangelists) and the 35,000 "churches". So it's even worse than 35,000 interpretations of the Scripture, isn't it. It's now millions. Each one correct. And no, Jesus could not have ordered his disciples to read the New Testament, for obvious reasons, and your interpretation that he meant it is one of those millions of interpretations, one of which the Catholic Church's you violently disapprove and diss, while others like those of Jim Bakker (remember those two 'k's!) you claim to have nothing to do with and conveniently ignore in all the diatribes on this forum. But they are yours, all those 7th Day Adventists, more than Catholic Church's like you absurdly allege. Brothers in protest and disdain if not outright hatred of Rome.

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