This
was the theme of Pope Francis’ homily during his Thursday morning Mass
at the Domus Sanctae Marthae.
During his homily, the Pope warned
Christians against behaving as though the “key is in [their] pocket, and
the door closed.”
He reiterated that without prayer, one abandons the
faith and descends into ideology and moralism. “Woe to you, scholars of
the law! You have taken away the key of knowledge!” (Luke 11: 52)
Pope
Francis referred back to this passage from Thursday’s Gospel in his
homily, moving from Jesus’ warning.
He warned: “When we are on the
street and find ourselves in front of a closed Church,” he said, “we
feel that something is strange.” Sometimes, he said, “they give us
reasons” as to why they are closed: They give “excuses, justifications,
but the fact remains that the Church is closed and the people who pass
by cannot enter.” And, even worse, the Lord cannot be close to the
people.
Today, the Pope said, Jesus speaks to us about the “image of the
[lock]”; it is “the image of those Christians who have the key in their
hand, but take it away, without opening the door.”
Worse still, “they
keep the door closed” and “don’t allow anyone to enter.”
In so doing,
they themselves do not enter. The “lack of Christian witness does this,”
he said, and “when this Christian is a priest, a bishop or a Pope it is
worse.”
But, the Pope asks, how does it happen that a “Christian falls
into this attitude” of keeping the key to the Church in his pocket, with
the door closed?
“The faith passes, so to speak, through a distiller
and becomes ideology. And ideology does not beckon [people]. In
ideologies there is not Jesus: in his tenderness, his love, his
meekness. And ideologies are rigid, always. Of every sign: rigid. And
when a Christian becomes a disciple of the ideology, he has lost the
faith: he is no longer a disciple of Jesus, he is a disciple of this
attitude of thought… For this reason Jesus said to them: ‘You have taken
away the key of knowledge.’ The knowledge of Jesus is transformed into
an ideological and also moralistic knowledge, because these close the
door with many requirements.”
The Pope continued, Jesus told us: “You
burden the shoulders of people [with] many things; only one is
necessary.”
This, therefore, is the “spiritual, mental” thought process
of one who wants to keep the key in his pocket and the door closed:
“The
faith becomes ideology and ideology frightens, ideology chases away the
people, distances, distances the people and distances of the Church of
the people. But it is a serious illness, this of ideological Christians.
It is an illness, but it is not new, eh? Already the Apostle John, in
his first Letter, spoke of this. Christians who lose the faith and
prefer the ideologies. His attitude is: be rigid, moralistic, ethical,
but without kindness. This can be the question, no? But why is it that a
Christian can become like this? Just one thing: this Christian does not
pray. And if there is no prayer, you always close the door.”
“The
key that opens the door to the faith,” the Pope added, “is prayer.” The
Holy Father warned: “When a Christian does not pray, this happens. And
his witness is an arrogant witness.” He who does not pray is “arrogant,
is proud, is sure of himself. He is not humble. He seeks his own
advancement.”
Instead, he said, “when a Christian prays, he is not far
from the faith; he speaks with Jesus.”
And, the Pope said, “I say to
pray, I do not say to say prayers, because these teachers of the law
said many prayers” in order to be seen. Jesus, instead, says: “when you
pray, go into your room and pray to the Father in secret, heart to
heart.” The pope continued: “It is one thing to pray, and another thing
to say prayers.”
“These do not pray, abandoning the faith and
transforming it into moralistic, casuistic ideology, without Jesus. And
when a prophet or a good Christian reproaches them, they the same that
they did with Jesus: ‘When Jesus left, the scribes and Pharisees began
to act with hostility toward him’ – they are ideologically hostile –
‘and to interrogate him about many things,’ – they are insidious – ‘for
they were plotting to catch him at something he might say.’ They are not
transparent. Ah, poor things, they are people dishonoured by their
pride. We ask the Lord for Grace, first: never to stop praying to never
lose the faith; to remain humble, and so not to become closed, which
closes the way to the Lord.”