The inconsistent Christian gives scandal

The inconsistent Christian is a source of scandal, and scandal kills: these were the strong words spoken by Pope Francis on Thursday morning during the Mass he celebrated at Saint Martha. The Pope’s homily focused on the sacrament of confirmation. The person who receives this sacrament, the Pope stated, “declares his will to be a Christian. To be a Christian means to bear witness to Jesus Christ”;

he is a person who “thinks as a Christian, feels as a Christian, and acts as a Christian. This is the consistency of a Christian’s life.” Someone, the Pope added, may well declare that he has faith, “but if he lacks one of these things, he is not a Christian”; “something is missing in him, there is an inconsistency.” And Christians “who live most of the time, and most often, in inconsistency do a great deal of harm”:

“We heard the apostle Saint James, what he says to certain inconsistent people who boasted of being Christians but exploited their workers. He says: ‘Behold, the wages of the laborers who harvested your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out; and the protests of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty.’ The Lord is strong. If someone hears this, he might think: ‘But these are the words of a communist!’ No, no, it was the apostle James who said it! It is the Word of the Lord. And so here is the inconsistency. When there is Christian inconsistency, and one lives out that inconsistency, one becomes a source of scandal. And Christians who are not consistent are a source of scandal.”

Scandal kills

“Jesus, the Pope continued, speaks very strongly indeed against scandal: ‘Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, one of these brothers or sisters who have faith, it would be better for him to have a millstone hung around his neck and to be thrown into the sea.’ An inconsistent Christian does a great deal of harm.” “Scandal kills.” “How often, Pope Francis added, we have heard: ‘But Father, I believe in God, not in the Church, because you Christians say one thing and do another.’” And again: “I believe in God, but not in you.” “It is because of inconsistency”:

“Imagine you find yourself before an atheist who tells you he does not believe in God; you can read him a whole library where it is said that God exists, and even prove that God exists, but he will not find faith. Yet if before this atheist you bear witness through the consistency of your Christian life, something will begin to stir in his heart. It will be your witness that provokes in him that restlessness upon which the Holy Spirit works. It is a grace that all of us, the whole Church, must ask for: ‘Lord, may we be consistent.’”

Praying to be consistent with one’s faith

And so, the Pope concluded, we must pray, “because to live in Christian consistency, prayer is needed, since Christian consistency is a gift of God and we must ask for it”: “Lord, may I be consistent! Lord, may I never be a source of scandal, may I be a person who thinks as a Christian, feels as a Christian, acts as a Christian.” And when we fall through our weakness, let us ask for forgiveness:

“We are all sinners, all of us, but we all have the capacity to ask for forgiveness. And the Lord never tires of forgiving! To have the humility to ask forgiveness: ‘Lord, I have not been consistent. Forgive me.’ To go forward in life with Christian consistency, bearing witness as one who believes in Jesus Christ must bear witness, who is aware that he is a sinner but who has the courage to ask forgiveness when he errs and who has a terrible fear of giving scandal. May the Lord grant us this grace!”

Source: News.va