Lent is a time for a little less hypocrisy, pope says

818 0
Pope Francis celebrates Mass March 8, 2019, in the chapel of his Vatican residence, the Domus Sanctae Marthae. (CNS photo/Vatican Media).

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Lent is a time to ask for God’s grace to chip away at hypocrisy, which is seen in the natural human attempt to appear “worthier than we are,” Pope Francis said.

“I must appear to be what I am, and that is our work in Lent,” the pope said March 8 during his early morning Mass in the chapel of the Domus Sanctae Marthae.

Pope Francis’ homily focused on the day’s first reading from the beginning of Isaiah 58. In the passage, the Lord scolds his people for boasting about their fasting while they take advantage of others and quarrel endlessly.

The reading says that what the Lord wants instead is for the people to free the oppressed, feed the hungry, house the homeless and cloth the naked.

The corporal works of mercy are the kind of fasting God wants most, he said. “When you share your bread with someone who is hungry, invite into your home someone who doesn’t have one or is a migrant, when you look for clothing for someone who is without — when you focus on that, you are truly fasting.”

Lent, the pope said, is a time to practice humility and try to bring the reality of one’s life closer to what he or she pretends to be.

Too often, he said, people feel they are righteous because they belong to some association that does good or because they go to Mass every Sunday and are not like “those poor things who don’t understand anything.”

“They focus only on appearances and never recognize they are sinners, and if you tell them, ‘But you’re a sinner, too,’ (they respond), ‘Yes, we all are’ and relativize everything,” the pope said. “They also try to look like a face on a holy card — all appearance. But when there is this difference between reality and appearance, the Lord uses the adjective ‘hypocrite.'”

During the Synod of Bishops on young people in October, he said, “perhaps the thing the young adults insisted on most was the hypocrisy of many Christians, beginning with us — ‘the religious professionals.’ Young people are struck by this. You might say, ‘but they have their defects, too,’ and it’s true. But on this, they are right.”

Related Post

People are seen with their belongings in the street after they left their homes Jan. 25 because of a wildfires near Vichuquen, Chile. Pope Francis sent his condolences to the victims and survivors of one of the worst wildfires in Chile's history.(CNS photo/Cristobal Hernandez, Reuters)

Pope prays for victims of deadly wildfires in Chile

Posted by - February 3, 2017 0
By Junno Arocho Esteves, Catholic News Service VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Francis sent his condolences to the victims and…
Father Steve Clovis, vice president of administration and director of human formation at Mount Angel Seminary in St. Benedict, Ore., stops by to scratch Dagwood, who was off duty Oct. 1, 2019. Tony Del Castillo, a second-year theology student for the Diocese of Orange, Calif., and his guide dog "inspire us and humble us," said Father Clovis. (CNS photo/Katie Scott, Catholic Sentinel)

Blind seminarian in Oregon ‘sees’ beyond external trappings

Posted by - November 9, 2019 0
ST. BENEDICT, Ore. (CNS) — Although Tony Del Castillo cannot see, a friend’s question years ago helped him perceive people…
An usher uses a collection basket during Ash Wednesday Mass at St. Patrick's Pro-Cathedral in Newark, N.J., March 1, 2017. Together with "the often bitter medicine of the truth," the church, as mother and teacher, offers people "the soothing remedy of prayer, almsgiving and fasting," Pope Francis said in his message for Lent, which begins Feb. 14 for Latin-rite Catholics. (CNS photo/Gregory A. Shemitz)

Lent is time to become aware of false prophets, cold hearts, pope says

Posted by - February 11, 2018 0
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Catholics should use the season of Lent to look for signs and symptoms of being under…