Posted on 01/24/2016 4:36:40 PM PST by Mrs. Don-o
Pope Francis centered his Angelus address this Sunday on what it means to evangelize the poor, and how this is the mission of the Church.
"Evangelize the poor: this is the mission of Jesus; this is also the mission of the Church, and of all the baptized in the Church," the Pope said Jan. 24 to the crowds in Saint Peter's Square. "To be a Christian and to be a missionary is the same thing."
"What does it mean to evangelize the poor? It means to be close to them, to serve them, to free them from oppression, and all this in the name and with the Spirit of Christ, because He is the Gospel of God, He is the mercy of God, and He is the liberation of God."
"It is He who has made Himself poor to enrich us with his poverty," the pontiff said.
Speaking from the Papal Palace to the crowds in Saint Peter's Square, Pope Francis centered his pre-Angelus reflection on the day's Gospel reading which recounts Jesus in the synagogue of Nazareth.
The pontiff noted how Luke's account first summarized Jesus' "work of evangelization" before his return to Nazareth.
The Pope noted how Jesus is unlike other teachers of the time. Rather than opening "a school for the study of the Law," he instead "goes around preaching and teaching everywhere."
He also noted how John the Baptist preached God's judgment, "whereas Jesus announced the forgiveness of the Father."
Pope Francis then recounted the scene in which Jesus enters the synagogue and reads a passage from the prophet Isaiah: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor." After a moment of silence, Jesus declares: "Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing."
Drawing attention to the need to evangelize the poor, the Pope said the proclamation of the Gospel, by word and life, "is the main purpose of the Christian community and all of its members."
"Jesus directs the Good News to everyone without exception, rather favoring those furthest away, the suffering, the sick, the discarded by society."
The pontiff went on to observe how in Jesus' time, the marginalized, prisoners, and oppressed were probably not "at the center of the community of faith."
"And we ask ourselves: Today, in our parish communities, associations, movements, are we faithful to God's plan? The evangelization of the poor, bringing them the good news: is this the priority?"
Pope Francis warned that such service to the poor goes beyond social work, not to mention political activity.
Rather, it entails "offering the strength of the Gospel of God, which converts hearts, heals wounds, transforms human and social relationships according to the logic of love. The poor, in fact, are the center of the Gospel."
Commenting on this particular text from today's Mass: (Luke 4:14-21):
[Jesus] stood up to read and was handed a scroll of the prophet Isaiah. He unrolled the scroll and found the passage where it was written:
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring glad tidings to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.
Rolling up the scroll, he handed it back to the attendant and sat down, and the eyes of all in the synagogue looked intently at him.
He said to them, "Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing."
Didn’t El Pope just proclaim atheists and members of all religions are headed to heaven? Wasn’t that within the past two weeks?
The rich and the middle class need a savior as well.
Why is the Pope singling out the poor to evangelize to? And why is not the Pope being more specific by saying to evangelize Jesus as Lord and Savior?
I would agree with that.
Evangelizing the poor is easy - some places it only takes a sack of rice to get a conversion.
Now, evangelizing the wealthy - that can be hard.
Of course, Francis’s definition of evangelism and mine appear to be significantly different. I’m not into liberation theology and the social gospel.
“Triumph, Lord, in my understanding by faith; in my will, by the accomplishment of my daily duties; but above all in my heart, by an ever-increasing love of you. I acknowledge you as my king, king of the universe, and beg you to exercise to the full your sovereign rights over me. I offer you my work, such as it is, that all men may accept your royalty, and that your kingdom of peace may embrace the whole world!â€
- end of the meditation for today in Fr. Matthias Goossens’ With The Church (1962).
My impression is that "the poor" are being singled out, because Pope Francis is commenting on today's Gospel from Luke, where Jesus (quoting Isaiah) defines His mission in words which single out the poor.
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring glad tidings to the poor.
I think he's pretty specific about Jesus as Lord and Savior:
"...and all this in the name and with the Spirit of Christ, because He is the Gospel of God, He is the mercy of God, and He is the liberation of God."
This means He is Lord and Savior, does it not? The choice of language exactly mirrors what Jesus said in this text from Luke/Isaiah which is the basis of Francis' remarks.
Of course the rich and the middle class need a savior as well. Here it's just the case of using the Biblical language from the text as it stands. Why did Isaiah -- and Jesus --- put it this way? That's worth thinking about, isn't it?
“Didn’t El Pope just proclaim atheists and members of all religions are headed to heaven?”
No. . . but people will misrepresent everything he says. What the pope said was that an atheist who obeys his conscience might be saved. This headline gets it right - “Pope Francis offers hope to faithless, says atheists can go to heaven”.
The headline is more accurate and less misleading than the article: http://www.oregonlive.com/today/index.ssf/2015/12/pope_francis_offers_hope_to_fa.html
Notice how they go back to a letter he wrote in 2013? Yeah:
https://www.truthorfiction.com/pope-francis-says-atheists-go-to-heaven/
Jesus didn’t engage in class warfare.
He did not send out his apostles to evangelize just the poor.
When the Roman centurian reached out to Jesus he did not say to him you’re wealthy I’m here to save the poor.
All need salvation.
He also noted how John the Baptist preached God’s judgment, “whereas Jesus announced the forgiveness of the Father.”
JOHN: Mat_3:2 “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
JESUS: Mat_4:17 From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
I do not doubt that we are supposed to evangelize the poor (in spirit), but I confess, that is not the meaning I understood from the Pope’s remarks. I thought he was speaking of the financially poor.
“What does it mean to evangelize the poor? It means to be close to them, to serve them, to free them from oppression,
Mea culpa. I based my comment on OP and I should have taken a look at the article.
I wonder what he says about atheists that are former Catholics. I have a friend who is in this position, and she seems very angry about religion to me. I’m not quite sure how to proceed exactly, but I do feel that Jesus has put her in my life (recently) and in my heart for a reason.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/3384126/posts
I think this is the thread I was referring to.
No, if I remember correctly, this week’s FrancisHeresy was that all Christians, of whatever denomination, are still Brothers and Sisters in Christ.
You should see what He said about "the rich."
You seem to have a point of agreement here:
FYA: "Pope Francis warned that such service to the poor goes beyond social work, not to mention political activity."
Beautiful. I hope you will get on my threads -— threads like this one -— and quote such good stuff very frequently!
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