BY DEBORAH CASTELLANO LUBOV
The line between good and evil runs through each of our hearts….
Pope Francis reminded faithful of this in St. Peter’s Square during his Sunday, July 23, 2017, Angelus address at noon as he reflected on yesterday’s Gospel.
While admitting that “good and evil cannot be identified with defined territories or certain human groups,” Francis stressed the necessity of understanding that in each person’s heart, there is that border between good and evil.
“In this world,” the Pope highlighted, “good and evil are so intertwined that it is impossible to separate them and to extinguish all evil.”
Therefore, the Holy Father explained, the only thing to do really is: “the difficult exercise of discernment between good and evil.”
The Pope called on all baptized to “distance themselves from evil and its seductions,” while highlighting “we are all sinners,” and “we always need to be forgiven of our sins.”
Evil often tries to convince us to not recognize our sins, Pope Francis said, as he gave an example of how instead we are to open up, without fear of that which is “dirty” or “unclean.”
“Patience means preferring a Church that is leaven in the dough, Who does not fear soiling Her hands, washing the clothes of Her children,” he said, “rather than a Church of ‘pure ones,’ that pretends to judge before ‘the time’ who is and who is not, in the Kingdom of God.”
Before praying the midday prayer and appealing for peace in Jerusalem in the wake of recent escalated violence, Pope Francis prayed: “May the Virgin Mary help us to pick up in the reality that surrounds us not only the filth and evil but also the good and beautiful; to unmask Satan’s work but especially to trust in God’s action that makes history fruitful.”
As usual, Pope Francis concluded, telling those present to have a good Sunday and good lunch.
