"To Bear Humiliations with Joy and Patience"

The proof that shows whether one is a Christian lies in “the capacity to bear humiliations with joy and patience.” It was this aspect of the Faith that Pope Francis emphasized in the homily of the Mass celebrated this Friday morning

in the chapel of the Saint Martha House at the Vatican. Once again the Pope warned against “the temptation of spiritual well-being,” which prevents us from loving God with our whole being. Yes—“but only up to a certain point.”

The danger of lukewarmness, of a faith made of calculations and held-back steps, always lies in wait for us. And Pope Francis leaves no room for excuses. The starting point of his reflection this morning was the Gospel according to Luke, in the passage where Jesus first asks his disciples what people say about him, and then what they themselves say, until Peter’s answer: “The Christ of God.” The Pope observes that “this question is also addressed to us,” and he at once sets out a series of answers through which filters the essence of a faith that is only half mature. “Who am I for you? The master of this house, a good prophet, a good teacher, someone who does good to your heart?”—though “all this is true.” I am “someone who accompanies you along the way, who helps you to go forward, to be a little good?” Yes, that is true, but it does not stop there.

“It is the Holy Spirit who touched Peter’s heart to tell him who Jesus is. That he is the Christ, the Son of the living God, is a mystery, is it not? Who can explain it to us… But he told us. And if each one of us, in our prayer, gazing at the tabernacle, says to the Lord: ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God,’ first of all, he cannot say it of himself; the Holy Spirit must tell it to him. And secondly, be prepared, for he will answer you: It is true.”

At Peter’s answer, Jesus asks him to reveal it to no one, and then he foretells his Passion, his death, and his resurrection. It is here that Pope Francis recalls the reaction of the head of the Apostles, described in the Gospel according to Saint Matthew, who declares: “This will never happen to you.” “Peter,” the Pope comments, “is frightened and scandalized”—neither more nor less than so many Christians who say, “This will never happen to you! I follow you this far.” Pope Francis spurs us on, saying that this is a way of “following Jesus so as to know him only up to a certain point.”

A Christian of well-being, or a Christian who takes the road of Jesus?

“This is the temptation of spiritual well-being. We have everything: we have the Church, we have Jesus Christ, the Sacraments, the Virgin, everything, a fine work for the Kingdom of God; we are good, all of us. We must at least think so, for if we think the contrary it is a sin! But it is not enough. With spiritual well-being, only up to a certain point. Like that young man who was rich: he wanted to go with Jesus, but only up to a certain point. He lacks the last anointing of the Christian, to be truly Christian: the anointing of the cross, the anointing of humiliation. He humbled himself even unto death, the death of everything. It is there that we can verify our Christian loyalty: am I a Christian of culture and of well-being? Am I a Christian who accompanies the Lord all the way to the Cross? The sign is the capacity to bear humiliations.”

Yet the scandal of the Cross continues to hold back many Christians. All—Pope Francis notes—want to rise again, but “it is not everyone” who intends to do so by way of the Cross. And, on the contrary, they lament the wrongs and affronts they suffer, thus behaving in the opposite way to what Jesus did and to what he asks us to imitate.

“The test of whether a Christian is a true Christian is his capacity to bear humiliations with joy and patience; and since this is something displeasing… there are many Christians who, looking at the Lord, ask for humiliations in order to be able to resemble him. This is the choice: either a Christian of well-being, or a Christian close to Jesus, who takes the road of Jesus.”

Source: News.va