A Christian life is "a courageous life" attached to the anchor of
hope. The opposite is a lazy Christianity, in which the faithful are
"parked" like "in the fridge."
This was Pope Francis’s reflections on
the daily readings at Mass today in Santa Marta.
Commenting on the reading from the Letter to the Hebrews, the Pope
spoke of having the courage to go forward, ought to be our attitude
toward life, like the attitude of those who train for victory in the
arena. But the Letter also speaks of the laziness that is the opposite
of courage.
“Living in the fridge,” the Pope summarized, “so that
everything stays the same”:
“Lazy Christians, Christians who do not have the will to go forward,
Christians who don’t fight to make things change, new things, the things
that would do good for everyone, if these things would change. They are
lazy, “parked” Christians: they have found in the Church a good place
to park. And when I say Christians, I’m talking about laity, priests,
bishops… Everyone. But there are parked Christians! For them the Church
is a parking place that protects life, and they go forward with all the
insurance possible. But these stationary Christians, they make me think
of something the grandparents told us as children: beware of still
water, that which doesn’t flow, it is the first to go bad.”
What makes Christians courageous is hope, while the “lazy Christians”
don’t have hope, they are in retirement, the Pope said. It is beautiful
to go into retirement after many years of work, but, he warned,
“spending your whole life in retirement is ugly!” Hope, on the other
hand, is the anchor that we cling to in order to keep fighting, even in
difficult moments:
“This is today’s message: hope, that hope that doesn’t disappoint,
that goes beyond. And he [the Author of the Letter to the Hebrews] says:
a hope that ‘is a sure and firm anchor for our life.’ Hope is the
anchor: We threw it, and we are clinging to the cord, but there, but
going there. This is our hope. There’s no thinking: ‘Yes, but, there is
heaven, ah, how beautiful, I’m staying…’ No. Hope is struggling, holding
onto the rope, in order to arrive there. In the struggle of everyday,
hope is a virtue of horizons, not of closure! Perhaps it is the virtue
that is least understood, but it is the strongest. Hope: living in hope,
living on hope, always looking forward with courage. ‘Yes, Father –
anyone of you might say to me – but there are ugly moments, where
everything seems dark, what should I do?’ Hold onto the rope, and
endure.”
“Life does not come to any of us wrapped up like a gift,” Pope
Francis noted; rather, we need courage to go forward and to endure.
Courageous Christians might make mistakes, “but we all make mistakes,”
the Pope said. “Those who go forward make mistakes, while those who are
stationary seem to not make mistakes.” And when “you can’t walk because
everything is dark, everything is closed,” you need to endure, to
persevere.
Finally, Pope Francis invited us to ask ourselves if we are closed
Christians, or Christians of the horizons; and if in ugly moments we are
capable of enduring, with the knowledge that hope does not disappoint –
“Because I know,” he said, “that God does not disappoint”:
“Let us ask ourselves the question: How am I? How is my life of
faith? Is it a life of horizons, of hope, of courage, of going forward;
or a lukewarm life that doesn’t even know to endure ugly moments? And
that the Lord might give us the grace, as we have requested in the
Collect [Opening Prayer], to overcome our selfishness, because parked
Christians, stationary Christians, are selfish. They look only at
themselves, they don’t raise their heads to look at Him. May the Lord
give us this grace.”